Full of heart, insight and one of the most endearing subjects of all time, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” is the doc to beat
From its instantly-embraceable trailer, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? looks like a standard biographical documentary. Featuring talking heads and vintage footage to tell the life of Fred Rogers, the legendary TV host whose love for children made him one of the most beloved figures in American history, the film has the look and feel of the sort of cut and paste documentary style most would expect it to have. Yet the way director Morgan Neville has presented the origin, inspiration, and vulnerability behind the film’s subject by shrouding them all until just the right moment, and allowing Rogers to remain almost a mystery until then, gives Won’t You Be My Neighbor? the unexpected feel of a narrative feature. While it may not be the most go-to of methods for a documentary, it proves the sole way of beautifully explaining this unique human being to the audiences who’ve loved him for decades.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? does a great service by showing just how innovative the quality of what Rogers created was. The long-running daytime program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood wasn’t just a fluffy distraction for kids, but rather a tool to help them exist in a world the was scary and new. The doc touches on how the show fearlessly tackled very grown-up elements which may not have been kid-friendly, but were certainly worth exploring. When RFK was assassinated, Rogers dedicated a week on the show specifically to death. Doubtless he knew that many children across the country were asking their parents the meaning of assassination and therefore took it upon himself to give them an answer. It was that sensitivity which he brought to other real world issues such as divorce and disability, making them palatable and understandable for his pint-sized viewers and their curious minds.
It’s when Neville’s doc takes a look at the man himself that the audience begins to see how beautiful of a person Fred Rogers truly was. In an age of growing cynicism, Mr. Rogers was the real deal: a man who believed in empathy and equality like no one else and who thought everyone was worth knowing and celebrating. As much as the doubters would like to believe the opposite, and for the few attempts on the film’s part to find some dirt on its subject, the golden reputation of the man is confirmed to be genuine. Yet at the same time, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? manages to tap into Rogers’ little-seen vulnerable side. We see him visibly battle nerves as he pleads with members of a skeptical congress not to cut PBS funding and watch his frustration as he tries to find the inspiration to deliver a message of hope following 9/11. It’s times like these which prove the most special as they impart a lesson worth remembering: that everyone, even Mr. Rogers, is human.
It’s more than 2/3 into Won’t You Be My Neighbor? before we get to learn who Fred Rogers really was, but once we do, it only adds to the magic and the goodness he couldn’t help but radiate. As family, friends, and collaborators, from Yo-Yo Ma to Rogers’ own sons and widow, reminisce about the man they knew, the lovable legend he became only grows stronger. Neville does spend a small bit of time exploring the criticisms leveled at Mister Rogers regarding his being responsible for a generation of men and women brimming over with self-entitlement. Yet such critics never got Mister Rogers. As a man who literally spent his life investing in the future of humanity, Rogers’ own theory wasn’t that everyone was automatically deserving of all the good in life, but that each individual was certainly worthy of it.
