# Has anyone seen Capturing the Friedmans, and how was it **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 23, 2005, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755 "2005-07-23T02:31:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755/1 "2005-07-23T02:31:27Z")
It is a documentary taken by a family after the father and son are accused of child molestation. Has anyone seen it. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755/2 "2005-07-23T02:45:21Z")
I thought it was excellent. Depressing as all hell, but well-made. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755/3 "2005-07-23T02:45:49Z")
I liked it, although it was perplexing. The movie left a lot of questions unanswered, so I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re the sort of person who likes all the loose ends tied up. On the other hand, it’s very good if you don’t mind ambiguity. It’s not only the questions about what happened that are puzzling. I found the attitude of the mother (Elaine) to be unlike anything I’ve ever encountered in a human being. ---
**Author:** ![Torgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755/4 "2005-07-23T02:53:31Z")
It’s probably one of the 10 best documentarys ever. Just when you think you know something about somebody in the film, another layer is peeled away and you say to yourself, “Oh dear.” ---
**Author:** ![Interrobang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/interrobang/32/17463_2.png) [@Interrobang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interrobang)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755/5 "2005-07-23T03:01:04Z")
I’ll add to the praise – _Capturing the Friedmans_ is certainly the best documentary I’ve seen in years, and easily makes my top ten list for the 2000s so far. One thing that makes it great is how frequently it pulls the rug out from under you. The director gives you some information, you process it, you start to form an opinion – and then he gives you more information that makes you reconsider everything you’d been thinking. Yet it doesn’t feel manipulative – it feels genuinely curious. It’s a great example of what can happen when you ask questions, even when you think the answers will be obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755/6 "2005-07-23T03:11:22Z")
I bought this on DVD the day it was released. Excellent film about a compelling subject. As many have noted, it does not answer many questions, it just presents information. I can highly recommend it as a purchase if you like documentaries. If not, I can highly recommend it as viewing material if you like mysteries or just truly engaging stories, and if you aren’t afraid to confront some of the more unpleasant aspects about our modern society. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755/7 "2005-07-23T03:23:01Z")
I agree it’s an excellent film, for all the reasons already mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![edwino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755/8 "2005-07-23T03:25:45Z")
It was great. I always wonder about the bias of the director and the true facts of investigations after watching these kinds of movies: whenever I watch a documentary or a based-on-true-life drama I am always fascinated to go back and read the history from a different source which usually shows how much was left out – like in _A Beautiful Mind_ how they left out all of the homosexual and anti-Semitic paranoid delusions the dude had. In this case, I believe Jarecki pretty closely addressed his biases and how he set out to make the film. I believe he did his best to show the other side of the story, especially in the DVD extra scenes. And in the end, it is utterly mindboggling watching the collective delusions unfold in the justice system, as documented in primary-source video footage from the Friedmans. ---
**Author:** ![LorieSmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a587f6/32.png) [@LorieSmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LorieSmurf)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755/9 "2005-07-23T05:13:22Z")
[Here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=265500&highlight=capturing+friedmans) is a previous thread about it. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755/10 "2005-07-23T05:28:15Z")
I had forgotten what it was about when I rented it, but then when I watched the trailer I wasn’t sure if I’d like the subject matter. I ended up really liking it. It’s not a movie about child molestation or a crime movie, it’s an excellent documentary about a family. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755/11 "2005-07-23T12:37:49Z")
The movie is fascinating, and to add to the perplexity of it all, you should listen to the _Fresh Air_ interviews with people involved in the story. Rather than clearing things up, they only had to the depth of the mystery. If [this link](http://search.npr.org/search97cgi/s97_cgi?Action=FilterSearch&filter=topic_filter.NEW.hts&ResultTemplate=allow_re_sort.hts&SortSpec=Date+Desc+Score+Desc&ResultMaxDocs=1000&QueryText=&CleanQuery=friedman+capturing&how_long_ago=all&collection=ALL02&x=31&y=15) works you can get to the ones I’ve heard from there. The Susan Orlean interviews are most revealing and thought-provoking. I’ll second everything that **Interrobang!?** said above and add that it’s a near perfect example of the problems we (as a species) have trying to make sense of our environment. The answer (for me) is to keep asking the questions and don’t stop to say to yourself, “Now I have the answer!” I wonder how much of this line of thinking the filmmaker had in mind when putting the film togather… ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755/12 "2005-07-23T12:40:18Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > The movie is fascinating, and to add to the perplexity of it all, you should listen to the _Fresh Air_ interviews with people involved in the story. Rather than clearing things up, they only had to the depth of the mystery… Make that: “ **add** to the depth” ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755/13 "2005-07-23T17:06:01Z")
My wife and I rented this movie, probably about this time last year. I must not have read the back of the DVD thoroughly enough, or maybe it was intentionally ambiguous, but I didn’t really know what the movie was about going in. The description said something about the FBI bursting into this peaceful suburbian house out of nowhere to arrest a father/son duo of criminals. I thought, _Cool! They’re bank robbers!_ We sat down with some food to watch it, and I remember by the time I was about halfway done with my plate I was strapped into my seat as if it were the captain’s chair on the space-shuttle with this expression on my face: :eek:. I never did finish that plate of food. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755/14 "2005-07-23T19:54:59Z")
> [@Jeff Lichtman](#): > > The movie left a lot of questions unanswered, so I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re the sort of person who likes all the loose ends tied up. On the other hand, it’s very good if you don’t mind ambiguity. As I mentioned in the other thread, linked by **LorieSmurf** , I thought this was a particular strength of the film. We can never really know what actually happened, and those who think they do are fooling themselves out of an irrational, emotional need to have An Answer. Quite a remarkable piece of documentary filmmaking. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755/15 "2005-07-24T04:41:50Z")
Jesus Christ, those people got railroaded. The ‘star witness’ in the documentary and in the bonus footage is obviously a pathological liar who craves attention. There is no way in hell that any intelligent person would do any of the stuff he keeps saying was done (leapfrogging, the orange juice incident, mass rapes, etc). Goddamn. That guy really needs to be held accountable for that crap, he helped screw people’s lives up because he has mental problems. Sadly I doubt the law will do anything to him though. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eada6e/32.png) [@Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755/16 "2005-07-24T05:01:12Z")
It was a good movie. **Wesley Clark** brings up a good point, since I believe some people developed a completely different representation of the documentary. Again, the information is presented, it’s up to you to make a decision. There are people out there who believe that they did everything they were accused of, and people out there who believe they did absoloutely nothing wrong. Ever. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755/17 "2005-07-24T05:08:30Z")
My impression, which I think I’ve posted on before, was that the dad was really a pedophile and had very possibly molested his own kids or others, but that the allegations regarding the computer class in the basement were completely spurious and trumped. They framed a real pedophile for fictional crimes. It’s hard to feel too sorry for the dad, but it was pretty revolting that they also railroaded his son, who was almost certainly innocent. Even if you think it’s _possible_ that something happened in that basement, there’s no way anyone can seriously deny there was enough reasonable doubt to drive a bus through. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755/18 "2005-07-24T05:41:38Z")
> [@Wesley Clark](#): > > Jesus Christ, those people got railroaded. The ‘star witness’ in the documentary and in the bonus footage is obviously a pathological liar who craves attention. There is no way in hell that any intelligent person would do any of the stuff he keeps saying was done (leapfrogging, the orange juice incident, mass rapes, etc). > > Goddamn. That guy really needs to be held accountable for that crap, he helped screw people’s lives up because he has mental problems. Sadly I doubt the law will do anything to him though. I agree about the “witness”. He seemed so messed up that it would be easy to believe that he had been molested by _someone_ at _some point_ but I have very little doubt that every word that came out of his mouth on that film was a damned lie. On the other hand, I don’t believe that he was supposed to be any kind of “star witness” that upheld the credibility of the film (the director and most other people should very easily be able see that this guy is bats-in-the-belfry) and I also don’t believe that just because he was lying that the Friedmans were necessarily “railroaded”. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755/19 "2005-07-24T11:50:45Z")
> [@Jeff Lichtman](#): > > It’s not only the questions about what happened that are puzzling. I found the attitude of the mother (Elaine) to be unlike anything I’ve ever encountered in a human being. I don’t know. I found her actions entirely consistent with a person who knew her husbands “failings” (to put it nicely), spent years dreading that this day would come, and now that it has, wants to put it behind her as soon as possible. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755/20 "2005-07-24T15:23:51Z")
> [@Go You Big Red Fire Engine](#): > > There are people out there who believe that they did everything they were accused of, and people out there who believe they did absoloutely nothing wrong. Ever. The dad was a pedophile, I’ll admit that. But I’m certain at least 90% of what was talked about was made up. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-seen-capturing-the-friedmans-and-how-was-it/313755.md?page=2)