![]() ![]() The image that lingers is a shot of Rogers hunched and cold in a tall field, a lone figure fighting the wind. At Sundance, a standing ovation at the end seemed more for Rogers himself than the film. The documentary’s refusal to scrutinize his legacy, and the man, means it’s best gobbled up as comfort food for an uncertain era. The kids and parents he reached are now parents and grandparents and politicians who don’t unanimously agree on anything, especially how to spread kindness. How dare he tell children they were all special? Sniped one, “This evil, evil man has ruined a generation of kids.” Rogers wasn’t alive to see it, but “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” is haunted by the question that despite his decades of work, he didn’t change the culture. A Fox News segment blamed him for millennial entitlement. A true hero wouldn’t make a kid throw punches and jump off roofs. And he hated superheroes, which he found so phonily inspirational he brought his show back from hiatus solely to battle the influence of Christopher Reeves. He wore pink and lavender and he told everyone - even other grown men - that he loved them. Rogers didn’t act like a normal man - especially not the macho ideal that trains boys to bury their emotions so deep inside they rot. (As a punchline, Rogers’ middle name was “McFeely.”) Yet, of all Neville’s interview subjects, only cellist Yo-Yo Ma dares blurt that once, when Rogers leaned in three inches from his face and smiled, “It scared the living daylights out of me.” Decades ago, a newscaster could cheerfully call him “an ordained minister with an abiding interest in children” - words that now ring an alarm. But Rogers might have a harder time being himself. Today, Clemmons might have an easier time being out. ![]() A kids TV star spotted at gay bars would be pushing acceptance too far, despite Rogers’ tenet that everyone should be loved for exactly who they are. However, Clemmons notes that Rogers asked him to stay closeted. That year, as segregationists hounded black families out of public swimming parks, he invited his onscreen neighborhood cop, played by a gay African-American named Francois Clemmons, to share his kiddie pool. House of Representatives unanimously voted to honor “his dedication to spreading kindness through example.” He was a lifelong Republican, even though he became nationally famous in 1969 when he convinced the Nixon administration not to kill PBS by humming a song about anger to a senate subcommittee. When Rogers died of cancer in 2003, the U.S. He hated being laughed at, a foundational mindset that if presented earlier on, might have tied in to his rejection of “funny hats or jumping through a hoop.” When he became a slender, serious adult, he insisted that his weight never went above 143 (a number, he notes, is also code for “I love you”). In a third-act reveal, we learn that Rogers’ classmates used to call him “Fat Freddy,” thus triggering him to despise all forms of cruelty and teasing. It’s as deliberate as a hypnotist, and as soft as a shy child. He assured his TV producers that their ratings wouldn’t suffer if he slowly peeled an apple, or set an egg timer and sat quietly to show kids the length of a minute. Rogers had an unshakable sense that he was always right. They had the right to understand why their parents were sad, and as proof, Neville cuts to footage of grieving Americans watching RFK’s coffin pass by on a train, each holding a child who needed to know why he or she was there. ![]() The day after Robert Kennedy was murdered, he defined the word “assassination.” Kids were hearing it anyway in frantic tones. No, their noses won’t fall off in the shower. No, they weren’t going to get sucked down a drain. Yet, Neville’s fantastic archival footage reveals the man through his work - or at least, it reveals his philosophies, if not the childhood memories that gave Rogers the ability to understand a 4-year-old’s brain, almost as if he still carried his in his cardigan pocket. ![]()
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