Moving on. You’d have to be living under a rock not to know that A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood stars
Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers but you may not know it’s based on the real-life
friendship that grew between a journalist for Esquire Magazine, Tom Junod, and
the beloved TV star of children’s programing. Junod was a cynical guy who
usually exposed the underbelly of the topics he wrote about but this time, his
article inspired this heart-warming film. At Rogerebert.com they said when
Junod was assigned to interview and write about Mister Rogers, he rolls his eyes
at the “too-easy job” and his wife asked him not to "ruin her
childhood" with his usual hard-hitting article.
A pluggedin.com review says, “In the movie, Fred’s wife,
Joanne, tells Lloyd Vogel (the character based on Tom Junod) that Fred isn’t
who he is by accident. He works at it. Fred’s intentionality, his kindness, his
goodness are products of not just who Fred is, but of who he wants to be—who he
thinks he needs to be for the children who watch and trust him.” And over the
course of getting to know Mister Rogers Tom/Lloyd comes to see that he is exactly
the same off camera as he is on camera. Through his association with Rogers,
the journalist also learns the importance of forgiveness, and he has a lot of
long-held dark resentments in his life to forgive.
In one of the reviews I read---I lost track in which one, I
read so many---it said “this movie makes you want to be a better person.” I’m getting
tired of hearing the phrase and variations of, “you make me want to be a better
man.” After all, it’s been 22 years since Jack Nicholson first delivered that
line in As Good As it Gets, but in
this case I totally agree with the sentiment that this movie makes you want to
be a kinder person and more thoughtful about the words we use. You’ll laugh, you'll spill a tear or two and you'll get a deeper, more complex story than you will probably be expecting. I guarantee you'll go home feeling your time and money were well spent.
But nothing is ever black and white or a-political in our modern world, is it. When the trailers started appearing on TV for the movie's release Andrew Klavan, host of the right-wing website The Daily Wire claimed Fred Rogers was responsible for creating a generation filled with metro-sexual men. “If you really want to have a beautiful day in the neighborhood” he said, “call John Wayne and tell him to bring his guns.” Klavan went so far as to claim that Jesus was more like John Wayne than Mister Rogers. I doubt that but you can’t argue with Crazy.
But nothing is ever black and white or a-political in our modern world, is it. When the trailers started appearing on TV for the movie's release Andrew Klavan, host of the right-wing website The Daily Wire claimed Fred Rogers was responsible for creating a generation filled with metro-sexual men. “If you really want to have a beautiful day in the neighborhood” he said, “call John Wayne and tell him to bring his guns.” Klavan went so far as to claim that Jesus was more like John Wayne than Mister Rogers. I doubt that but you can’t argue with Crazy.
In the same time frame another man, a college professor, originally said
Mister Rogers was responsible for creating a generation of young people who feel
entitled. Fox News picked up that quote and pushed the smear to the point that
the professor finally contacted FOX essentially to retract his ‘entitled statement’
writing, “The reference to Mister Rogers was just a metaphor. I have no
professional qualifications to evaluate the real problems or propose solutions.
Mister Rogers was a great American. I watched him with my children and wouldn’t
hesitate to do so again if I had young children.” I first ran across the
push-back about Mister Rogers on a political website where I
occasionally go to debate and I couldn’t believe anyone would find a way to
tear down a man like Fred Rogers. But then I remembered these are the same
people who tear down environmentalists who fight to keep our water and air safe
for human consummation and who believe windmills cause cancer. Like I said, you
can’t argue with Crazy.
To recap: The movie has a powerful message of acceptance and
forgiveness and my wish for us all of is that Mister Rogers’ message of
kindness will guide us all through the holidays. As for me, as you can see from
my not-so-veiled barbs at right-wingers I made in this post I should
probably go see the movie again because that’s a message that clearly hadn’t
fully taken root in my persona. But more importantly, as BL and I left the theater we both said we want to see A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood again. It's just that engaging. ©
Official Movie Trailer
Tom Junod was asked to write 400 words about Fred Rogers. He wrote 10,000. Esquire Article
