Roush Review: ‘Paterno’ Drops the Ball
Fallen heroes are the stuff of great drama, but director Barry Levinson fumbles in Paterno, his latest HBO docudrama collaboration with star Al Pacino (You Don’t Know Jack, Phil Spector), who’s found another role that’s a perfect curmudgeonly fit.
There’s no faulting Pacino’s methodical impersonation of the legendary Penn State football coach. At 84, Joe Paterno spends most of the movie stewing in irritable confusion as a sex-abuse scandal erupts involving his former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, indicted on multiple counts of child molestation. Sandusky remains a background figure throughout: barely seen, never heard, a monster in the wings whose relationship to the coach and the university brass is never adequately explored.
Questions of moral responsibility dog Paterno, who’d rather focus on the next game than read the charges, which exasperates his family (including Kathy Baker as his loyal wife and Greg Grunberg as one of his sons) while the media hover in their usual circus, obsessing on what Joe knew and when and why he didn’t take his suspicions to the authorities. Paterno mostly takes place in the week leading up to his 2011 firing, which sparked a campus riot led by “Joe Pa” acolytes. It’s bookended by triumph (his record 409th win) and tragedy (his subsequent cancer diagnosis), an overly tidy arc for such a messy story.
Perhaps a man who has to ask “What is sodomy?” is to be pitied, but the pathos of a ruined reputation pales next to the horrors of Sandusky’s crimes. And though it’s possible that a dramatist like Arthur Miller could have fashioned a memorable tragedy from this material, I found myself agreeing with the man who complains to future Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Sara Gamin (a very good Riley Keough) during the aftermath: “Why the heck is anyone talking about Joe Paterno?”
Paterno, Saturday, April 7, 8/7c, HBO
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Sandusky was a monster and nothing can appropriately punish him for his crimes. Having established that, the vitriol against Paterno was never appropriate. This film at least seemed to take a balanced view unlike just about anything else in this sad saga.
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The reason "anyone is talking about Joe Paterno" is that he is regarded as nothing less than a god in PA. I've lived here for many years, have never been a football fan and have never understood the cult surrounding college football anywhere including Penn State. I was absolutely disgusted by the focus on Paterno rather than Sandusky's victims, but the fact that college kids rioted on campus after JoePa's statue was taken down speaks volumes about their mindset. I didn't see this movie, but since I read the Harrisburg Patriot, which Sara Gamin worked for when she helped break the story, I had a front row seat to the whole show. Since Paterno had been a Penn State coach for about 50 years, literally spanning generations of alumni families, to say he was an institution is putting it mildly and one never dared say a word against him since his followers viewed that as heresy. I had never been aware how extensive this worship of football went beyond the big money involved, so I found it shameful that anyone at Penn State would try to cover up Sandusky's crimes just to protect their "brand" and their head coach. But the reactions from the college administration, board members, alumni and virtually every letter to the editor I read rallying around Paterno and the Nittany Lions showed what their priorities were. I found it sickening that Mike McQueary, the only one who reported what he saw, was not only castigated but received death threats for doing the right thing. Most people didn't care about justice, they just wanted Paterno's statue put back and his precious wins reinstated. It was a sad commentary on these football fans who clearly think a damn game is more important than protecting children.
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