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DVD Best Boy/Best Man
It came out of nowhere to win the best documentary Oscar in 1980, and by now Best Boy should be acknowledged as one of the finest documentaries in film history. Filmmaker Ira Wohl took as his subject his own cousin, 52-year-old Philly, a retarded man who had lived his entire life with his parents. Seeing the physical decline of the parents, Wohl suggested they prepare Philly for living away from home for the first time in his life. This process becomes a beautiful and soul-stirring (and even hilarious) experience, as the people in Philly's life become indelible characters. Many fiction films try to manufacture a kind of movie "magic" out of fantasy, but Best Boy finds it in tiny steps forward, the delicacy of family, and the joy of singing (you may never hear "If I Were a Rich Man" the same way again). Through it all, the irrepressible Philly emerges as a rich man in his own terms.
Twenty years after making Best Boy, Ira Wohl looked in again on his cousin Philly, now over 70 but still as sunny and fond of dessert as ever. Living in a home with other developmentally disabled people, Philly appears even more capable and content in the world. Wohl gets the idea to prepare Philly for his bar mitzvah--a little late in life, but nonetheless an important experience. Best Man doesn't have the deep emotional pull provided by Philly's parents from the first movie, although his loyal sister becomes an important figure in this one. But it's a very nice update on a memorable corner of the world. --Robert Horton
"Best Boy" is an award-winning documentary about Philly Wohl, a mentally disabled man. It was filmed by his cousin Ira Wohl. The cousin says in a preface that Philly was 52 years old at the time of the film and had always lived with his parents, except for a brief, unhappy time in an institution. Ira began to wonder what would become of Philly when his elderly parents died. The film documents Ira's and Philly's older sister's and parents' attempts to get him placed in an adult day training center for the mentally diabled, then later into a residential facility. Just in time, as a matter of fact, because Philly's father died the next year and his mother several months afterward.
The second disc, "Best Man" shows Philly 20 years later. As Ira said when people asked him about his cousin, "everybody should have as happy and peaceful a life as Philly." His sister Frances has him to her house for brief visits, but mostly he lives in the residential treatment facility. The great event during this phase of Philly's life is his Bar Mitzvah.
There is one other documentary film about a similar situation, "Mayor of the West Side". It deals with an adult male who is mentally retarded and shows him at the stage where his parents are growing too old to look after him and are seeking a place for him to live when they pass away.
I give both these films five stars, for true human emotions, for unflinching glimpses into true life. These real people deal with real, difficult, heart-wrenching situations the best they can.
A quote from Philly's mother, Pearl, says it all..."If God wanted to punish somebody, He should only send him a retarded child. Ah...such a heartache!"
This is a must for your home film library.
Best Boy
I actually haven't seen the movie, but want to.
It looks like a very good movie to educate people on supporting individuals with developmental disabilities. It is more encouraging to read a review that puts the person first instead of the using language that puts the disability first like that written by Robert Horton. In acknowledgement of a person's differences being made public and the ability to moving beyond stigma, we really need to respect individual's for who they are and not what they have.
Best Boy
Best Boy draws you in from the start, as Philly is immensely sweet and likeable, but the films emotional effects are cumulative. Ultimately Phillys plucky spirit becomes an example of courage that all we "normal" people could only hope to follow. The documentary deservedly won 1979's Best Documentary Oscar. Dont miss this highly affecting piece.
A deceptively simple documentary, The First Year follows five teachers in California through the first year of their teaching careers. The teachers are a diverse lot, teaching different ages and classes at five different schools, but what remains consistent are the difficulties they face and the determination they bring to it. Though The First Year is partly a recruiting effort that hopes to persuade more people to pursue teaching, the movie doesn't avoid the problems teachers face, from bureaucratic stumbling blocks (one teacher can't get her own classroom; an ESL program faces being defunded) to the kids themselves, who can be as angry and frustrated as the teachers, often for reasons the teachers are helpless to change. At times, the passion and empathy these ... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Davis Guggenheim DVD Release Date: Released the 27 April 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The 1992 documentary It Was a Wonderful Life won several awards for its depiction of homeless women--the "hidden homeless" who don't sit on the streets and beg for change, but who live in motels and cars, often with children, while they desperately try to set their lives right. Several of the movie's subjects were left helpless from a bad divorce; one woman, a former singer, was abandoned by her affluent husband while pregnant with his sixth child. He now avoids paying child support, trusting in an over-loaded bureaucracy with limited power to enforce the law. It Was a Wonderful Life isn't the most artfully made documentary, but after listening to the revealing stories of these women--all struggling but determined to survive--you'll find yourself sizing up your... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Jodie Foster Director(s): Michèle Ohayon DVD Release Date: Released the 24 February 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
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The National Society of Film Critics awarded Nicolas Philibert's lovely To Be and to Have a 2003 Best Documentary prize for its pastoral grace and subtle power. Philibert spent a period filming the rhythms and activities within a one-room schoolhouse in France's rural Auvergne region, where a soft-spoken teacher of 35 years, Georges Lopez, instructs pre-middle school children of varying ages in everything from reading to the making of crepes. The tall, mesmerizing Lopez, nearing retirement, is both a formidable and loving presence in his classroom, and the bucolic remoteness of his school has a way of amplifying such ordinary student dramas as fights, lagging grades, and painful shyness. Philibert gets a lot of mileage out of the antics of a loveable kid named Jojo, the decaying... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Nicolas Philibert DVD Release Date: Released the 19 October 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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An epic in length and breadth, this documentary aims at nothing less than a full-scale portrait of the most dominant institution on the planet Earth in our lifetime--a phenomenon all the more remarkable, if not downright frightening, when you consider that the corporation as we know it has been around for only about 150 years. It used to be that corporations were, by definition, short-lived and finite in agenda. If a town needed a bridge built, a corporation was set up to finance and complete the project; when the bridge was an accomplished fact, the corporation ceased to be. Then came the 19th-century robber barons, and the courts were prevailed upon to define corporations not as get-the-job-done mechanisms but as persons under the 14th Amendment with full civil rights to life,... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Mark Achbar - Jennifer Abbott DVD Release Date: Released the 05 April 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This astonishingly intimate documentary follows five homeless children in Romania, where the collapse of communism has led to a life on the street for 20,000 children. From a 16-year-old girl who runs her gang with a mixture of brutality and compassion, to a small, intelligent, and remarkably articulate 12-year-old boy, these children seem at first feral and frightening--yet over the course of the movie their loneliness, desperation, and glimpses of hope will transform how you perceive them. Make no mistake: this is difficult watching. As Children Underground explores the meager state resources to support these children and follows some of the children back to their difficult families, the scope of the problem becomes larger and more irresolvable. But this documentary offers an... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Edet Belzberg DVD Release Date: Released the 25 February 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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