Happy Valley

An excellent documentary about how a college and it's football sycophants had to eventually grow up. What happened to Sandusky and Paterno was exactly what should've happened.

The only sad part is that Paterno died not really seeing his true fall from favor. Those that commit evil and those who do nothing to stop it are equally at fault.

Football is mindless nonsense. Perhaps in the end the students of Penn State finally actually learned something.

Bravo.

Disclaimer: I have always had an appreciation for the Penn State football program. My mother was a Penn State fan (not an alumnus though), and she would always say that Joe Paterno represented class, while almost in the same breath denounce the legendary coach of my favorite college team, Barry Switzer as being anything but. Even though I am a loyal Sooners fan (though not an alumnus of OU, simply having been born in Oklahoma), I could appreciate what JoePa and Penn State stood for.

I couldn't help but think of that as I watched this documentary. In his lifetime Joe Paterno went from being a mere man into being a mythical one. It was one legend right after another, and I don't believe it matters who you are, if left unchecked, a person can buy into their own hype. I believe that happened with Joe Paterno, and it has left an impression on a program, a university, and a community struggling to make sense of it all. The whole truth may never fully be known.

From watching this I got the sense that Joe Paterno genuinely wanted to do the right thing. Having however the myth of "St. Joe", I believe he hindered himself from doing more because he couldn't believe a monster had gotten so close to him, and he couldn't live with what that would do to his perception. His son seemed to confirm as much as he stated both his parents were very well read, but naive about many other things surrounding them. Joe was too wrapped up in his own myth.

This documentary goes to great lengths to show how others have bought into the myth as well, and their support is as blind for him as it is deep. On the one hand they'll acknowledge what was done to the kids Jerry Sandusky was supposed to be helping was terrible. Just as quickly though they will try to absolve Paterno of any wrongdoing, saying he reported what he knew. In other words, the bare minimum. For a man that had built a reputation of going above and beyond the bare minimum, this seems to me, unacceptable. Yet they don't see it.

However, the lasting impression I got from watching this, and honestly I believe this was the point of the documentary, was that there is no prototypical child abuser, and that it is possible to dupe many into thinking one thing about you when something else may be the reality. That's a sobering thought for anyone.

The line that sums up this documentary for me though is quote "You should never build statues for guys who are still alive." True character is revealed when nobody else is looking. We may think we know someone, even if only by reputation. That reputation however may be little more than a house of cards ready to fall. In the end, regardless of what Joe Paterno knew or didn't know, what he reported or didn't report, the carefully crafted myth has come crashing down.

Jerry Sandusky's unspeakable acts sent shockwaves in the Penn State campus. Jerry Sandusky is no longer part of society, and that is a very good thing, because his disgusting acts preyed upon young children is as horrific as it gets. Amir Bar-Lev's documentary "Happy Valley" focuses on how the Sandusky crimes impacted the Penn State campus and its "happy valley" society. Sandusky was a former Penn State football assistant coach who opened up a camp for disadvantaged children. Penn State society thought the world of Jerry, which included his boss the infamous Joe Paterno. Then when Sandusky's child molestation charges came into the limelight- a whirlwind of controversy, divisiveness, and shame soon followed to the campus and its city. Paterno was in the middle of the controversy as he was a central figure blamed for not reporting when he was aware of Sandusky's acts. By no means "Happy Valley" is an easy watch, but an important watch no doubt on how one man's despicable acts could have profound impact on first the victims, but also on an entire society; Bar-Lev excels in bringing that to the forefront. "Happy Valley" will in no means make you happy, but it is recommended for its societal focus at how one man's crime impacts an entire community & university. **** Good

A well done documentary about how people react when the people and things they believe in turn out to be an illusion. Being from the 'liberal west coast', I've never understood how football could possibly reach the level of reverence it enjoys elsewhere. But here it is in all its glory... supported by hoards who seem more concerned with sportsball than anything else in their lives -- including justice for abused kids. Well okay, maybe they care for the kids as long as the football games don't stop and no one attacks their coach. For without football, we are nothing.

In all fairness, the documentary did include representatives from the non-reverent point of view. But it's witnessing the reactions of people who have so much invested in a sport that has achieved cult status, as well as the mechanics of group think, that make this an interesting doc. A good study in the sort of self-righteous mentality that starts wars. But who am I judge? I'm a west coast liberal. I'd rather do almost anything else than watch football.

"St. Joe": What Penn State, College Station, and the world called Joe Paterno before the Jerry Sandusky indictment.

No one ever called my town, Columbus, "Happy Valley," but when Ohio State defeats Michigan, it's a happy valley indeed. That euphoria over a football program as successful as Penn State under head coach Joe Paterno with its spell cast so widely is the engine that drives a community to miss the signs of crime such as assistant coach Jerry Sandusky's abuse of young boys.

Amir Bar-Lev's documentary, Happy Valley, covers the historical bases of Sandusky's conviction on multiple counts and Paterno's eventual firing (and death a few months later) for not doing more to bring justice for the abused boys. Even Sandusky's adopted son, Matt, who is the most talking head in the doc, waits until boys have testified against Sandusky to confess he lied—he was abused.

That confession is at the heart of this slowly competent documentary, for it encapsulates the ambivalence of a community so mesmerized by football and its cast of characters that it takes a while to acknowledge some of the actors have feet of clay. Sandusky is easy—he was seen in the showers with boys—but Paterno, the beatified coach (the statue on campus is now gone, as if he were Hussein or Stalin), challenges their understanding of a morality that extends beyond just legally telling a superior about an incident, as Paterno did.

Bar-Lev's is as even-handed as could be: the media is held up to harsh light with its aggressive, predatory pursuit of the sensational; the NCAA is never fair enough; and the University, from president on down, can't get it just right.

And so it goes—this well done doc, despite the sometimes vacant talking heads, shows few participants not caught up in the hoopla. It sure makes me think Ohio State's Jim Tressel dust up was just a skirmish in an enduring battle for the hearts and souls of students and the communities where they live.