Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father poster & wallpaper

David Bagby, Dr. Andrew Bagby, Kathleen Bagby

On Nov. 5, 2001, Dr. Andrew Bagby was murdered in a parking lot in western Pennsylvania; the prime suspect, his ex-girlfriend Dr. Shirley Turner, promptly fled the United States for St. John's, Canada...( read more  read more... ), where she announced that she was pregnant with Andrew's child. She named the little boy Zachary. Filmmaker Kurt Kuenne, Andrew's oldest friend, began making a film for little Zachary as a way for him to get to know the father he'd never meet. But, when Shirley Turner was released on bail in Canada and was given custody of Zachary while awaiting extradition to the United States, the film's focus shifted to Zachary's grandparents, David and Kathleen Bagby, and their desperate efforts to win custody of the boy from the woman they knew had murdered their son. What happened next, no one could have foreseen.

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96% liked it

780 ratings

Critics

94% liked it

48 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 33 min.

Directed by: Kurt Kuenne

Release Date: October 31, 2008

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DVD Release Date: February 24, 2009

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Flixster Reviews (409)

  • her69eyes
    January 17, 2009
    her69eyes
    "Dear Zachary" is a documentary that is impossible to not care about. It deals with situations that are so preposterous, so enragening, and so frightening that it's bound to leave most viewers screaming at the screen along with the father of a murdered son. Because the viewer sym...( read more)pathizes with the family on screen so much, it's difficult to look at the craftsmanship of the film. Myself, although moved and outraged by the story, was immensely disappointed by the production. One must commend director and editor Kurt Kuenne on the amount of footage he amassed in completing this production, but it's done at the expense of our brains. He edits this, albeit impressively, so relentlessly that it doesn't engage us mentally in any way. He draws connections to previous moments in the film for us, and at times tells us what to feel with out-of-place effects. While "Dear Zachary" is as authentic as a film i've seen in quite some time, I found that it was overdone to the point where it would've undermined lesser material. And while I don't want to underplay the amount of emotions one goes through in this film, it's a more fascinating story than a well-crafted documentary.

    Andrew Bagby was a man with an infectious attitude - looking like Jack Black with his rounded cheerful face, he touched the lives of almost everyone he had encountered. Throughout the story, Bagby's long time friend and director of the film, Kurt Kuenne, interviews everyone he possibly could about Andrew: all of whom rave about what a wonderful man he was. There was one woman, however, portrayed as the devil personified, that was responsible for taking his wonderful life away from his friends and family. This was Dr. Shirley Turner, a woman 12 years his elder, who had several children from previous marriages. His family never approved of her as she acted incredibly inappropriately around him. Even in their disapproval, however, they couldn't imagine the horrors that lay before them.

    Bagby, realizing that Turner was a nutcase, broke up with Turner and sent her on a plane back home to Newfoundland. The next morning, she arrived back at his door. Later that day, Bagby would be found dead - shot several times in a parking lot. The proof to support this was absolutely substantial, and Shirley Turner fled to Canada. Complications arose, however, when it was revealed that Turner was pregnant with Bagby's son, and the imprisonment was postponed. Bagby's loving parents, David and Kathleen, would persistently follow the case through postponed court case after postponed court case in order to find justice for their son and gain custody of their grandchild. However, when Shirley was bailed out of prison by her psychiatrist, David and Kathleen would be forced to share custody of their son with their own son's killer. Kuenne set out to make this film for the child, Zachary, to tell him about the father he never knew - however, the horrifying story takes another tragic turn and the documentary goes in a whole new direction.

    This is perhaps the most frustrating film i've ever watched. Never has a case seemed so obvious - put the psycho in jail, give Zachary to Andrew's parents. Certain characters along the way, including a judge who decides Shirley is no longer a threat as she killed the one person she was going to kill, will have you screaming at your television set. You completely empathize with the family and want more than anything to fight the battle along with them. It's tough enough to imagine going through such a horrible tragedy, but the injustice that followed is simply embarrassing.

    Kuenne's editing, however, I felt was very grating. For example: there's a scene at the reveal of a tragedy where the screen turns red and screams are heard in the background. The film is telling us to be angry, as if we needed confirmation. Also, at several moments, we will "flashback" to a line spoken earlier in the film. Can't we draw these connections for ourselves? It's edited at a relentless pace and doesn't allow the viewer to simply feel and react. While this film is certainly powerful due to it's subject matter, it risks undermining it's case with unnecessarily flashy editing.

    "Dear Zachary" is a poor production of a fascinating story. I enjoyed the range of footage, but the way in which it was put together irritated me to no end. The passion by the parents, however, is so inspirational that you can't give the film a thumbs down. Regardless of how you feel about the film aesthetically, there's nothing more encouraging than seeing real heroes on screen, never losing passion in the most horrifying of circumstances.
  • wbgoose13
    March 24, 2008
    wbgoose13
    A powerful doc about tragedy piled upon injustice, and the compassion that surpasses it all.
  • Peandpi
    May 6, 2009
    Peandpi
    Dear Zachary is a documentary I never want to watch again but reccomend that everybody has to see. The subject is so powerful and appauling that everybody has to watch it. The feeling after it is a hatrid for the legal system and a warmth for the kindness of the human heart, its ...( read more)a tough film to watch and had me in breakdowns at times but it needs to be seen. Stunning.
  • mattsigur1
    April 11, 2009
    mattsigur1
    A powerful, powerful film. This documentary started out as a letter to a child who's father was supposedly killed, but then stuff happens.
    At first, I thought this thing was amateurish, but the power of all of it. Jesus, if you don't get the chills, you're as cold as a Hawthorne...( read more) villain.
    Do yourself a favor and rent this fucking film. It's a story of untold power and what happens when the government can't protect a family from unknown evil.
  • jjsingh2
    March 13, 2009
    jjsingh2
    Absolutely heartbreaking, emotionally exhausting, and as gripping as any mainstream thriller. It celebrates a life, hints at the melancholy that all of us know, and ends in a murder. And that is only the beginning of this story, which is an absolutely fascinating documentary th...( read more)at transcends the definition of the genre. If it's a little too cloying at times, a little too fawning over its subject, a little too messy in its style, it has a right to be. It will leave you emotionally exhausted, possibly angry, and very certainly moved.
  • frogfairie
    September 19, 2009
    frogfairie
    This film ends up taking some crazy twists and will have you all over the emotional spectrum. The craziest part is that it actually happened.
  • littlehope13
    August 10, 2009
    littlehope13
    One of Those stories that make you grow up....
    Sincere, Touchy, Personal....
  • scattergood07
    July 5, 2009
    scattergood07
    A heart breakingly brilliant documentary, which will leave you in a heap of sweat and tears.
  • juliac1214
    May 15, 2009
    juliac1214
    This was one of the greatest movies I have ever seen. It touched every emotion and illustrated the true character of a man and the situation he was in. After watching it I felt like I had known Andrew for a lifetime. His friend is a genius and Andrew would be proud.
  • daghka
    April 22, 2009
    daghka
    A powerful film with such emotional intensity, but very poor in production, diverts the details a lot or skives it, especially the end, which is so generic that it spoils what amazing potential this film had. The entire starting was so brilliant, I honestly felt jealous of the gu...( read more)y, the Bagby male, he led such a beautiful life and the film succeeded beyond anything to show that and touched me so much, but what a pity at the end, both for the lives lost and the film. I was very curious about the killer though, what led her to this. Her story should be told too, as I think that her side was much distorted and seemed unbelievable when the friends start telling it. He must've saw something in her, what was it?

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Critic Reviews

November 9, 2008
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

A manipulative, tearjerking thriller that, functioning as a sustained, anguished primal scream, is as emotionally devastating as any film, fiction or non-, released this year. full review

November 3, 2008
David Edelstein, New York Magazine

Dear Zachary earns its right to engage us on a primal level, but it comes on the heels of so many films that don't, movies that...prey on modern fears and inflate third-rate material to the plane of t... full review

View more Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments

  • dhuber03
    October 27, 2008
    dhuber03
    I found this film on someone's blog for top 20 movie Posters! Pretty cool list...
    http://coffeeandcelluloid.com/2008/10/26/20-amazing-movie-posters/
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