Operazione Varsity Blues: scandalo al college

This is an example of a new type of documentary, in which actors act out what supposedly happened in real life. I confess I don't like that approach to documentary making at all.

But there are other things to dislike here as well. There's a lot of supposing. There's a lot of drone shots of the various college campuses in question. (I went to two of them, so it was fun to see them from "up above.") In short, there's just a lot of filler.

The basic story, however, is fascinating: people with a lot of money are willing to buy their children entrance into elite institutions. Not to get them a better education - if the kids don't make the effort, they won't get a good education even at the best of schools. But rather, to get them prestige. The same sort of prestige you evidently get by driving a Mercedes, or wearing Gucci, or ....

What this movie never considers, but should have, is the "follow up": the number of wealthy parents who finance their children's cheating once they get into college. (Paying flunkies with Ph. D.s to write papers for them, etc.) Because remember: it's not enough to get into these places. Students do actually have to perform academically to stay there. So that takes more cheating, which requires more money.

I would have cut about half of this movie, and used the time to cover the follow-up: how wealthy parents keep their kids in these schools. Because remember what the guy who runs this scam says over and over through this movie: he has been operating this scam for 20+ years. So the students he helped to get into these schools must also, in many cases, have had paid help to stay there and graduate.

Several of the speeches by talking heads near the end of the movie are stupid. One says that you can get a good education at most any of the nation's 3000 colleges and universities. That's not true of all of them, but probably true of many of them. But the parents featured here don't give a damn about whether their kids get an education, so that's not an issue for them. The parents are buying the prestige/bragging rights of attendance at these elite schools. And no, most of the nation's 3000 colleges and universities will not provide that.

Whether anyone should care about that prestige is another issue, of course.

Sure, we all must have thought about how wealthier families get their children into university, especially those that are not so intellectual. This documentary just proves its point, that a set of different rules applies to the wealthier. And it is embarrassing that education has fallen to such state. The existence of side doors or back doors should not even be allowed in the first place. Although what Singer did was wrong, but the bigger picture here is the educational system. Singer is making a fortune from this 'loophole' and it was the system that is allowing the existence of the 'loophole'. It seems the take home message here is do your best and be rich, life is way easier when you are rich, money is the king. Real sad.

"Back doors", "side doors", and endless loopholes - this documentary shows how the world is just an infinite playground for the wealthy. One of the unique elements to this doc is the recreation of conversations which were achieved through wiretapping. These conversations are... disgusting, to say the least. This format really allows you to see just how culpable and guilty these people are. The fact they're on tape admitting to knowingly doing wrong is sickening.

The sentences at the end are, of course, a joke. Without enforcement, this signals there will be a continuation of such practices in the future. But that's how it is in America. A high profile bust with lots of glitz and cameras, followed by an anemic jail sentence. Something's clearly broken here.

Overall, excellent documentary. I'm not usually a big fan of dramatic reenactments in this format - but it worked very well this time.

For those that might need a real knock into reality, the rich really have it good. Mobility, comfort, and most importantly...power. I laugh when low wage sycophants speak about how tough it is for rich people and that their problems are no different than the lower class schlub like me. No. No. No. When my car ultimately breaks down, that is going to be a stress in my life. When they have a car that breaks down, they can saunter over to the BMW dealer and get a new one, no problem. And most importantly, they can easily downsize their home living situation if they wanted to. My landlord doesn't care whether I can afford the 100 dollar hike in my rent I am consistently getting each year, provided they don't decide to just sell the house under me and really leave me up a creek. What I am saying is, rich people do not have the same problems I would have.

In turn, this is the moral of this story. Mikey Moneybags wants his average kid to go to a prestigious university but doesn't want to spend Dr. Dre money and spend upwards of 30 million at the problem. So he went to Rick Singer, who had figured out a perfect system that worked just like a huge donation but for pennies on the dollar. It was elaborate and requires a lot of people willing to risk their credibility and livelihoods on the promises of some good side scratch. Singer knew how to exploit pressure points, and man he was good at it.

The nice thing about the documentary, which was expertly played by Matthew Modine, was how Singer would assure his co-conspirators results. He never had a shred of doubt until the FBI met him at a hotel and basically gave him an ultimatum to comply or crumble. We all know how cowardly "entrepreneurs" will quickly fold to save themself.

Much of the aftermath was something I was well aware of, but like with any result...the punishment didn't fit the crime. People got off with light sentences and small fines, which is nothing for these people. A guy stealing a television gets more time. And this is where I wish the documentary had not pulled punches. Justice was not served. These people will get to move on, for they might have to sell a car or two or downgrade from a two million dollar home to a one million dollar home. Worst of all, their own greed kept deserving people from actually making it to college, some of them possibly not privileged. The documentary also skipped the biggest point...the American public was also subsidizing these schemes.

Yup, they conveniently forgot to mention that the "donations" they made were going to a 501c and technically they could write it off. They could probably even write off the main payments to Singer as well. So they were gaming the system and gettin taxpayer money to help with the sting of the price tag. Way to go for forgetting that detail documentary makers. Like I said, I could try to steal a few televisions from Walmart and could get a worse sentence. Let's not even talk about the fact the universities suffered no consequences, for I am sure they loved the fact so many rich people are cheating to get into their school.

Why do I keep watching these? It feels like justice is never served in these situations.

This documentary sheds light on the system of getting into a top notch college and reveals how flawed and fraudulent the system actually is. The shocking reality is, it is actually not any different with other systems in our society. For example, in politics, large corporations donate millions of dollars to their representatives to buy influences and outcomes. So for me, the subject of this documentary isn't that shocking at all and all the players involved are just folks who used the flawed system in their advantage.