He
was an ordained Presbyterian minister with a degree in music composition. Fred
Rogers was an unlikely television star, but he became a beloved icon for
generations of Americans. The mere mention of his name might prompt nostalgic
reverie for many viewers, but in retrospect, it is quite remarkable how
compatible his teachings were with the current mindfulness movement. Mister
Rogers emerges as a figure both very much of and ahead of his time in Morgan
Neville’s fond portrait Won’t You Be My
Neighbor? (trailer
here),
which opens this Friday in New York.
The
sweaters, the tennis shoes, the puppets, the piano, and the troubled children
he consoled are all here. After a few years of supposedly adult life, Mister Rogers
seems almost impossibly soft-spoken in the vintage clips Neville liberally
incorporates into the film. Yet, it is the same Fred Rogers we also hear testifying
before Congress, joking with his crew behind-the-scenes, and in his occasional
specials for adults. Indeed, Neville and Rogers’ family and surviving
colleagues quickly establish that he was truly the real deal.
Neville,
who rediscovered Rogers through his work documenting Yo-Yo Ma (a frequent guest
on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood) in The Music of Strangers, managed to score
rare interviews with his widow and two grown sons, as well as several regular
cast-members, including David Newell (Mr. McFeely of “Speedy Delivery” fame), “Officer”
François Clemmons, and “Handyman” Joe Negri.
Alas,
Neville does not establish the latter’s credentials as one of Pittsburgh top
jazz guitarists, nor does he discuss Johnny Costa’s longtime role scoring the
show, which is frustrating for jazz fans, but his film is not intended as a
definitive history of Rogers or his treasured show. Still, Mister Rogers’
musical hipness deserves its due (here’s a clip of the great tenor saxophonist
Eric Kloss making a guest appearance).
Regardless,
Neville is more concerned with Rogers’ ideas and message—and that’s fair
enough. Throughout the film, we hear Mister Rogers explicitly encourage children
to appreciate moments of silence and to engage in reflection. Fred Rogers was
Presbyterian and Thich Nhat Hanh is a Zen Buddhist, but you can certainly here a
kinship between them in these classic excerpts (here and here). There are
plenty of such moments in the film as well, like when Rogers invited young
viewers to silently observe the passing of an entire minute (in real-time
air-time). Honestly, PBS and the Fred Rogers Company could sell hundreds of
thousands of units and reach millions of adults if they released a Mister Rogers’ Mindfulness compilation
DVD. Why spend money on dubious seminars when you can turn to one of the most
trusted names from your youth?
Even
if you prefer life loud and unexamined, Won’t
You Be My Neighbor will rekindle old affection and inspire new respect for
the children’s programming pioneer. Clearly, Neville was inspired by his
subject, especially when he deftly employs Rogers’ own listening and
interviewing techniques to elevate his talking head segments into beautifully poignant
moments. It just shows we can all still learn a thing or two from Mister Rogers.
Enthusiastically recommended, Won’t You
Be My Neighbor opens this Friday (6/8) in New York, at the Angelika Film
Center.
