Shenandoah

The film opens up to the sound of fire engines and the squeals of children that evokes a kind of ominous feeling that foretells the direction of the film. We witness a parade of people celebrating the coming holiday season in this very small and outdated coal mining town in west Pennsylvania. This documentary is surprisingly filmed in 2012 even though one gets the feeling of being transported back to 1995. This community of people comes from a long line of very proud Polish and Irish immigrants. The hypocrisy of the film is that they are very opposed to the current movement of Hispanic immigrants into their small town, Shenandoah. Their racial views come into the spot light when the film centers in on an incident that had happened in the town. The director depicts the crime scene like a horror film leaving you on suspense. The dark images of the murder scene where a group of boys from the local football team beat a man of Mexican descent to death send chills through the audience. The viewer gets an inside look to the thoughts of one of the convicted murderers, Brian Scully who speaks as a naïve young boy. Throughout the movie you are conflicted with your feelings toward him as he seems to be a product of his environment held under pressure during the moments of the crime. Though he feels remorse for his actions, one is still unsure of how much he has learned. The film proceeds to show how this crime has affected the convicted, the families involved, and the town as a whole. The audience learns of the family of Luis Ramirez and the obstacles they have dealt with while living in America. The films juxtaposes Mr. Ramirez's home town in Mexico to Shenandoah to show the audience how similar the two towns are despite their cultural differences. One of the most compelling parts of the documentary are the scenes from a local protest, where community member's ferociously yell their opposing views on immigration and other racial ethnicities that seem to have "taken over" their town. The constant intolerance from the people of Shenandoah makes the audience understand how racial discrimination is still an issue in the United States. The director seems to have a reason for every style choice and organizational decision involved with the production of the film that makes the experience cohesive and interesting. Overall I feel this film does a great job of creating a compelling and objective view point for the viewer to create their own opinions.

Shenandoah follows the aftermath of a gruesome hate crime that happened on the homonym town.

Had this not been a true story, it would sound like a cheap script movie: declining Appalachian town, start high-school football players who provide the only entertainment, bitter people unable to cope with new economic realities, suspicion of outsiders, bigoted locals, corrupt local police...

However, this is not fiction, but the grim reality surrounding the murder of a Mexican immigrant. The basic facts are presented on first two minutes. Then, the documentary alternate interviews with the victim's family, one of the accused students, and people in town as they prepare for the trial.

This documentary does a good job of trying to look at the crime from different angles without providing validation for the excuses of the perpetrators. Permeating the narratives and the very few on-camera questions is the question of how the ex-ante dehumanization of the victim somehow makes the crime more palatable to the local community. Nonetheless, instead of stating this fact repeatedly, the directors cleverly let the prejudice and the other processes that go on people's mind transpire to the viewer.

Scully. It's all about Scully. The young football player turned stage actor is the pivotal character in this compelling documentary. Scully represents the hope of redemption in the racism that plagues our society.

We're all products. This is never more evident in the film than in the scene where people of region rally with t-shirts declaring "I order my food in English." The ignorance is astounding, worthy of outrage, tempered only by this unassailable fact: it is learned behavior.

Racist parents rear racist children. Ignorant parents rear ignorant children. These people are a product of their society, of deep, systemic issues in the United States, including an amnesiac's perspective on our origins. We all came from somewhere.

To stake some dubious claim, to gather and chant "USA! USA!" ... to be unaware of one's position in this pointless culture of football, of overweight people sneering at anyone whose heritage is not Irish or German...it's just sad.

And that's why Scully is so important. Scully shows us how each individual has a much greater power than the blinding ignorance of group-think. Scully starts thinking for himself, putting himself in the shoes of the victim. He starts to feel something where he was just "empty" before.

That's called compassion, Scully. And it's more powerful than a million people chanting "USA!" in those ridiculous t-shirts. Good for you.

Very important subject...yet could have easily been a 30 minute documentary. It would go on and on about things that had NOTHING to do with the main subject. Someone please edit this, and it would easily get 10 stars from me, but instead it gets 5 stars for wasting over an hour of my time.