Here is the second draft of my second paper. It is nowhere near complete, because I am not happy with the thesis and conclusion. There probably are some grammatical and spelling errors. I also still have to do some research but here it is:
Capturing the Friedmans is a movie directed by Andrew Jarecki, about a family that undergoes turmoil when a child porn magazine is sent to their house from the Netherlands. The police search the house and uncover many more child porn magazines along with a list of children that took a computer class in the Friedmans’ home. The list of children leads the police to investigate and, they determine that Arnold and Jesse Friedman sexually abused the children. Jarecki seems to take a sympathetic view towards the Friedman’s family.
The Friedman family consists of five people, Elaine, Arnold, David, Seth, and Jesse. Elaine is the mother of David, Seth, and Jesse and the wife of Arnold. Arnold is the father of David, Seth, and Jesse and the husband of Elaine. Arnold is an award winning school teacher and the main focus of the first half of the documentary. David is the oldest of the Friedman children. He is one of the best clowns in New York City. David, along with Elaine tends to be the focus of most interviews in the film. He seems to be in control of the camera in most of the home video shown. Seth is the middle child, and makes few appearances in this film, which are only in a few clips of home video. Jesse is the youngest of the three Friedman children. He is the main focus of the second half of the film.
Numerous times throughout the film, Jarecki would have an interviewee provide evidence against the Friedman’s and the camera would show their entire bodies making them looks small and weak. He would then show someone very powerfully refuting the previous interviewee evidence. One instance of this happens about 15 -30 minutes into the film, a female cop states that children had alleged that Jesse was a bully and was a major aggressor. In the next scene Jarecki showed Jesse’s best friend in a more flattering light, discussing how Jesse was not capable of these actions and as far as he knew they had not occurred. Also three “victims” were interviewed by the filmmaker. One is an alleged victim, whose face is blacked out, so identity is not known. Another is the father of a victim whose face is also blacked out. The father interestingly stated that initially he did not think his child was abused, but was later convinced of this by investigators. The third “victim” actually is not a victim at all. He is a former computer student that has no knowledge of any wrong doing by Jesse or Arnold. He was in the same class as the children that had said they suffered abuse. The first two “victims” were both blacked out which kind of gave them an impersonal feel, while the third “victim” is clearly visible and firmly states that these are not only untrue accusations but absurd accusations.
A majority of the interviews were done with David and Elaine. David seemed to be in denial of the fact his father and brother is capable of such heinous crimes. David seemed very upset with his mother blaming her for the reason his father went to jail, because she had told him to accept a plea agreement to protect Jesse Elaine is not quite sure if Arnold and Jesse are guilty. She seems very confused that this could happen. Other notable interviewees were Arnold’s brother Howard and Jesse. Arnold’s brother Howard is not shown much in the film but he does reveal a lot of important information involving Arnold’s personality. One piece of information that is revealed during Howard’s interviews is that they had a sister who died when Arnold was very young. Another piece of relevant information Jarecki includes surrounding Howard is the Arnold one time anally raped his 8 year old brother Howard when he Arnold was 13. Howard had no recollection of these events. In the epilogue it is discovered by the viewer that Howard is gay. Since Howard is gay it is a possibility that Arnold has repressed gay feelings, that would his explain obsession with young boys. Howard being gay may also stem from his repression of his brother raping him. Throughout the film Jesse is interviewed so you can only see his face and his orange collar, so you think he is in jail. It is discovered in the epilogue that Jesse served time in jail but is now released. The middle son Seth is never interviewed in the film, which the epilogue said he did not want to be interviewed for the film.
In the home video’s Elaine is portrayed as a confused that still stands by her husband even though she is not sure what has happened. She is constantly harassed by David in the home videos and Arnold is constantly protecting her. David is also shown begging his father to deny these accusations. Towards the beginning of the film David is shown filming a video diary and he just breaks down, and starts screaming “fuck the cops!” at the camera. Arnold seems to try to avoid being on camera at all times, especially during confrontations. Jesse denies that he committed these crimes to the family. Jesse provides, what I think is the sickest piece of home video in the entire film. After Jesse has pled guilty to these crimes and is outside the courthouse waiting for his sentencing he is seen dancing around, with no remorse. He is about to be sentence for these terrible crimes and he seem indifferent over the whole thing. Seth is in family videos, which portray him as angry, because he is only shown yelling and swearing at his family members.
In the epilogue Jarecki ties together all the loose ends of the film. Elaine has now remarried, because Arnold killed himself earlier in the film so Jesse could have his life insurance policy. David is a top clown in New York. It is revealed Howard is gay. The epilogue then shows Jesse greeting his mother after being release from prison. Finally it reveals the question I have been begging during the entire film: Where is Seth? It turns out he did not want to be in the film. I think the director had a personal vendetta against Seth since he would not appear in the film. He did this by showing home video of Seth, only when Seth was angry.
In conclusion I think the director thought the Friedmans were innocent or he at least sympathized with them. He did this in numerous ways which includes showing a lot of evidence in the Friedmans favor while showing very little against them.