Just, Melvin: Just Evil

As a child of sexual abuse and many unsuccessful kidnap attempts and attacks by friends, strangers and live in people whom my mom befriended through church when their family was down on their luck; I am sad and sickened by the character Just Melvin. I resent the fact a state nursing home is caring for him when he should be charged and imprisoned especially since he is not sorry and denies everything in the face of overwhelming proof offered up by the completely destroyed spirit ghosts formerly his children,grandchildren whomever he got to he defiled at his will and it is sick. There seems to be a exemption by prosecutors for molesters who get sick and old like oh that is punishment enough but the victims see no justice and it makes them feel worthless and only other men offer pity for them. WHY! They are just old molesters who probably are a threat where ever they live because that sickness of robbing another of their privacy, control over their innocence, own body,never, hear me clearly never dies until they are stopped by castration, prison. or death. Feel sorry for him, never! Look at the poor wrecked remains of people who are cripples, drunks,depressed,suicidal shells of human beings all because of him? The children's laughter is sad, I hate myself, nervous energy so they do not cry; for the ignorant responders who commented, "get over it, suck it up" and all the other heartless, ring-ding quips only molesters or people who have never been molested nor had anyone they love molested would say. The emotional scar stays unhealed forever! The inability to really trust anyone because when the abuse occurs you cannot figure out what is so bad about yourself the abuser picks you to do such vile things to? Why me you ask? I must be bad you tell yourself and the shame and feeling dirty, soiled, unclean spiritually never goes away. So if you need someone to feel sorry for pray for death of the molester of the children so they can finally be at peace knowing he has paid God! Add up all the money they have spent on infections, sleeping pills, downers to forget the pain and humiliation and helplessness as tiny babies with grown man laying on them crushing them, ripping up their insides and abusing them, stripping all dignity from them with a body part being used as a weapon over and over. Terrorizing them and sending them to school stinking, dirty, damaged mentally, spiritually, avoided by other children afraid of them.

Documentaries don't get anymore gritty and raw than Just Melvin, Just Evil. This is a text book example of the ripple effect that abuse, molestation and incest have on multiple generations in one family. Difficult to watch and at the same time I could not stop watching. These family members are courageous and strong and I commend them for their brutal, gut- wrenching honesty. Excellent documentary!

What could have been an extremely powerful film is lessened by the egotistical bent of the filmmaker. There's no doubt that director James Ronald Whitney (here also credited with music, screenplay, and editing, not to mention his frequent on screen appearances) has a disturbing story to tell, but his constant cries for attention become overwhelming. Besides appearing on screen facing the camera, he's the offscreen interviewer who confronts his brutish grandfather and is seen in copious Starsearch footage taken from his days as an amateur hoofer. Add in the footage of his mother relating his IQ score, and it all becomes a bit much, which is a shame. His family deserves better.

The documentary as a genre, when utilized to it's fullest, is in some ways the most powerful film medium. It has the ability to be unquestionably (and uncomfortably) voyeuristic. You aren't watching a mere creation or representation; you're watching reality. In the case of Just, Melvin, it is a reality magnified through perception, as James Roland Whitney turns the camera on himself and his family, examining the role that the sexually abusive and murderous Grandpa Melvin has had on all of their lives.

In Just, Melvin, you aren't watching a documentary as film anthropology. This isn't an outsider looking in. This is an insider looking in, exposing open and bleeding wounds in a detailed and often grotesque close-up.

In explicit detail, Whitney and his family describe exactly what it is like living with Melvin Just. I use the present tense because even though Melvin may not be physically in the lives of the Just family, they must still confront and deal with the abuse--a suffering that continues to linger in their lives.

Whitney reveals child abuse to be a misnomer. Child abuse is an occurrence with many adult consequences. It is not a fear or remembrance that fades with aging or the coming of daylight, like a childhood nightmare long forgotten. Instead, Melvin appears as a character that must be continually dealt with, something that each of the family members do in their own way, and something Whitney does in a very unsettling on-camera confrontation with the man himself.

Just, Melvin is a hard film to watch. Exposing family problems--especially from the inside--is something often looked upon by our tabloid culture as taboo, if not out-right manipulation. Indeed, many may be tempted to make talk show comparisons given the nature of the film, it's I-have-a-horrible-secret revelations, and the living conditions of many of those involved. Such comparisons, however, make the incidents spoken of in the film--quite freely and with no apparent prodding on the part of Whitney--no less real.

While the camera ventures into the dark closet of the Just family, it does not remain entirely in the shadow of evil. The horrible happenings are fused with the humor and life of the family, at times giving the film an air of the surreal. True--it's hard to laugh, but sometimes it's hard not to.

Ultimately, Just, Melvin is not only an involving human story; it's an exploration of documentary and it's many facets. It's film, it's reality, it's confession, it's catharsis. There's a lot of pain and, oddly enough, humour. It's documentary fully utilized, a process made to watch, a means of telling to achieve not only healing, but awareness and, finally, justice.

I have a lot to say about this film, much is personal.

But I just wanted to voice one thing here mostly.

To start, the movie is incredibly well put together, its editing, pacing and structure of told events builds a heavy image. The usage of old photos, the chosen locations, the entire tone, its like a step back into certain parts of childhood, some I miss, some best forgotten, and what this film does BEST is convey the aesthetics of rural/trailer life around being a victim of sexual violence. Everyone opens up and tells the heaviest of details, some gruesome, some actually heart warming (most will not find it that way, I know this) and the result of the feeling of an open soar, 60's and 70's households that are unchanged in the 90's, filled with secrets and fading family photos of groups of people who hate each other now, bitter nostalgia and loss, it runs the course.

All this to say...I wish the director focused on someone other than himself.

Certain moments you can read between the lines enough to know its a personal project that is using the lives of those around to flesh out the director's goals. OK, that may be harsh, but he gets selfish with it anyway.

There are several people, like the two gay sisters, or the aunts, or the intersex kid, or frankly ANY of the children really, who would be better focused on, hell why not all of them??

The director talks about his time in dance competitions, talks about how smart he is, plays piano while the camera zooms into his face really close and wiggles around so you know he is a troubled person who has things to get off him back, the way that you can see his sisters at times losing patience with him, the part where he rounds up his family and makes them visit Melvin (which was obviously him hoping that everyone would flip on Melvin and yell at him, which I was at least hoping for too, but anyone who been there knows, no matter how much you hate someone who did that to you, sometimes its hard to get to a place where you can express it in front of them) hell, he even at one point starts to force his Mom into confessing her sins of not being more proactive in stopping Melvin, despite the fact that she was a victim too, and was essentially powerless overall.

All this to say, I feel like I was told about something heavy that I really wanted to know more about, and I was told the story I didn't connect to.

I feel the pain coming out of this film and I am not here for the sake of shaming a victim of childhood sexual assault, but as real as this film makes the past feel sometimes, I still wish it went into the lives of all the girls, and I wish I could have heard more about how the kids related to each other, hearing things like their meetings with each other to plan how to kill Melvin, and the friction that came between everyone as they grew was so important I feel but was flooded over in exchange for accumulating as much on screen evidence against Melvin. Now I don't think anyone else in the family would have been able to make this, mostly due to the limitations of access they have both due to their class status and due to the things the abuse did to them (I hate the mother for acting like those sisters being rowdy and drunk and gay was them being 'broken') and the director tries to be distant in the weirdest times, vs the ones he gets personal during.

Its important people like Melvin die. Not a fan of prison. Since most people in prisons are actually not evil, child rapists tend to get killed fast, but because of this, prisons tend to give special protection to anyone tried, plus in his advanced age, he'd probably be treated with care, since he'd be legally allowed medical help. Basically It'd be no skin off his horrific back since unless he is taken out, he doesn't seem to get out much anyway, maybe the concept of being in prison would upset him but he needed to suffer. Eye for an eye, cheek turning is for petty arguments.

I need to say I loved the family, I wish I could have seen a much longer cut, I loved hearing about the children and how they felt about life, what they loved, hated. I was crying when they were defiling Melvin's grave, both from sadness of how they were denied the justice they deserved, and from the sad joy of seeing them take what power back that they could. I also enjoyed seeing Melvin get freaked out and make the most laughably empty threats as he is told a list of his sins.

I enjoyed the movie overall (despite my major gripes about its chosen focus and how personal the director made it when it should have been shared a bit more) it hits me in many places very close to my heart, and I would recommend this film to anyone who is wondering if they should watch it. Its nothing I'd Introduce to someone, unless I had to.