DVD Review: Happy Valley

Happy Valley opens with a shot of a quiet, pretty countryside. Soon several cars enter and folks begin setting up tents, and we see that they’re arriving for a football game. There is then footage of Penn State’s head coach Joe Paterno talking about how college football is something special, and he is speaking really of the fans, and as a fan. Then interestingly those opening shots are duplicated, but this time it’s news trucks and journalists arriving and setting up, for the case against assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

Most of us know about the Penn State scandal involving Jerry Sandusky, but this excellent and completely engaging documentary is not really about child abuse, and it’s not really about football. It is more about the community and how it reacts, both in support and opposition to those who worked with Sandusky, and whether they should have done more to stop what happened. It’s about hero worship, and how we treat those heroes who we feel have betrayed us in some way. It takes a hard look at the seemingly simply solutions implemented to a much more complex problem.

Jerry Sandusky was found guilty on forty-five charges of child molestation, and was sentenced to thirty years in prison. No one seems to contest that. But his conviction in some ways is just the beginning of the story. The larger issue is whether head coach Joe Paterno and others within the Penn State organization knew, or should have known, what was happening, and should have done more. In an area where football is the center of the community, Paterno and Sandusky were like royalty, and that certainly colors and affects the way in which the community reacts.

Jay Paterno, Joe Paterno’s son, talks about how the media portrayed the entire community as being complicit. He says: “The truth is this is not a Penn State issue. It’s not a Joe Paterno issue. This is a Jerry Sandusky issue.” Obviously, others felt differently about it. It seems to me that the official reaction against the Penn State football program (removing all Paterno’s wins from the record books, not allowing the team to play in any bowls for four years, etc.) is absolutely nutty, because of course football isn’t the problem. Why punish the players and fans of a college football team? Rewriting history does not change anything that happened, and also does nothing to prevent any future abuse.

The film does provide background on the careers of both Joe Paterno and Jerry Sandusky, and does get into the charges against Sandusky, so if you’re unfamiliar with the case, you’ll soon be up to speed. The film also includes many interviews, with Paterno’s family members, with his biographer, with a professor at Penn State, and with a student/football fan who makes some valid points. But perhaps the most interesting and the most compelling interview is that with Matt Sandusky, Jerry Sandusky’s adopted son. The story of how Jerry Sandusky adopted him, and how the court ordered Matt away from his biological mother is incredible. But what’s even more interesting is how his story fits into the stories of the others who were abused by Sandusky, and also how Sandusky really did a lot to help the kids. Matt says: “Ninety percent of the time when you were around Jerry Sandusky for me was enjoyable, was things that you would want. But, you know, there was another part also that destroys you.”

Special Features

The DVD includes a PRX radio interview with director Amir Bar-Lev. This twenty-one minute interview was conducted by Andrea Chase, and is audio only. There is a lot of interesting information in this interview. Amir Bar-Lev talks a bit about the film’s music, and the inclusion of an Old & In The Way song at the close of the film, and how his next film is about the Grateful Dead (I can’t wait to see that one).

The DVD also includes the film’s trailer.

Happy Valley was directed by Amir Bar-Lev, who also directed My Kid Could Paint That. It was released on DVD on April 7, 2015 through Music Box Films.