Review : CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS

Daniel M Kimmel from Worcester Telegram & Gazette quoted that :

"Capturing the Friedmans is an unforgettable film that will have you talking long afterwards."

And its true cause i can't get my mind off it, thus i have to express it here. Lets start with the moment i met this film. So, i browsed a page in Rotten Tomatoes web site and i found a link to a list of the 12 Most Dysfunctional Movies Families. Number one is the list is The Friedmans. The fact that this movie was nominated for Best Documentary Feature in Academy Awards, just adding the curious and interest point for me to watch it myself.

After i found it on Novamov (i'll provided the link later on) and thank God cause download line is faster last night, so it only take about 1 to 2 hours, i watched it and from the moment i put my laptop on my stomach and lie down on my bed, i was never ever moved and i watch it right from the start to end, without pausing it. It was really interesting to see three different kind of view from three different party. The first one is the one who believed that it was not true, second is the one who is confused and forced to believed that it was true and the last party is the one that manipulate the situation and believed it to be true.

Okay, let me tell you the synopsis of this 3rd Best Documentaries For The Past 20 Years, it was about a very happy family in the start and as they kids growing up, so does the problems. Arnold Friedman, the man of the family, is a respectable teacher who teach 8 to 12 year old kids a computer and piano lesson in his house. His wife, Elaine Friedman, is the normal and loyal wife and mother to three sons. The eldest son is Jesse, followed by Seth and David. But inside the normal life of the family, there was a 'bomb' which about to break the entire family, really to the south of the trainwreck. The bomb is the fact that Arnold is a pedophile and he always subscribe a child pornography magazine from the Netherlands until the late 1980's when the police have a warrant to search for child pornography items in the house where the bomb just explode and everything since that was a lot of hell. I'm not going to tell you the rest of the stories cause you have to watch it yourself and understand it better.

The point is that Arnold do confessed he is a pedophile and have abused about two kids but the police said that he was abused and sodomy the entire kid which he gave a computer lesson to. Worst of all, Jesse (18yo by that time) was convinced to be involved in that disgusted acts. What is more sad is that you can see from the archive footage (shoot by the Friedmans rawly) that the Friedmans is innocent, although at some point you believed the police. Through the end of the documentary, you start to see the truth (which is still denied by the police till this day).

This movie is based on true story, for your information which make it more interesting. The movie is all about the Friedmans try to against the court and police but at the end, it just not a happy ending. Elaine and Arnold was divorced. Jesse and Arnold was put into jail where Arnold suicides. Elaine don't have a good relationship with her sons anymore. It was a very dysfunctional family. A very sad fact, indeed.

I gave it 10 out of 10. Probably the best documentary i've seen so far in my life. I wish the Friedmans the best. People sometimes is not fair but we all can make it as the point to be more stronger each day or inspired others. Do check it out, totally worth it.

From left : Arnold, David, Jesse, Seth and Elaine. It was a happy moment which is stuck in the picture only. RIP Arnold.

Here is the full documentary. Credits to madchase. (Ignore the sexy and stoopid ad)

p/s : Arnold & Jesse was captured during the Thanksgiving's Eve and coincidentally it was just a few days ago was Thanksgiving. Wow, almost two decade since that and i still talk about it. By the way, both of them was a computer nerd and i'm taking Diploma in Computer Science. lol..