January 17, 2009
"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.
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