Great job demonizing the greatest man in Happy Valley history. The man who drove hundreds of young men to greatness in their lives both in and out of football. And the man who inspired and led an entire, extended community.All for his tangential part in a horrific, ongoing, ubiquitous evil that is one small corner of the larger, national NAMBLA abuse of young boys by gay men and the progressive establishment that not only enables them but promotes them.Doubt me? Where is the condemnation of the judge who ripped a nine-year-old boy, Matt, from his biological family and presented him to the pedophile Sandusky? Despite the mother's plea not to, including the allegation that Sandusky played mind games with the boy and that he did inappropriate things to him? Why didn't that judge "do more"? Why didn't that judge investigate the mother's accusations? And why, despite the accusations, did the judge award this boy to this man? Why no inquiry, no documentary about the judge? Why no mention of the judge's culpability in this evil during this documentary? Why no inquiry into the role of NAMBLA and the progressives who promote it? No investigation into those who cowed a judge into ordering the Boy Scouts to put gay men into the pup tents of prepubescent boys? And when THOSE lawsuits ensue, will anyone investigate the role of that judge who precipitated the predation, or the progressives who remonstrated for it? Of course not. They'll blame the Boy Scouts for what was forced on them by the progressive establishment. They'll blame the institution that transformed millions of boys into responsible, moral young men for over a century. They'll not rest until they win that scalp for their belt. Mark my words.Always the institution that was forced by the progressives to accede to the NAMBLA agenda. The Catholic Church to allow gay priests. The Boy Scouts to allow gay Scout leaders. Society--including Penn State--to give the benefit of the doubt to the gay man in their midst. Can you imagine if Joe Paterno had come running, yelling "Pedophile! Pedophile!" when first given the ambiguous accusation that "something" "might have happened" in the shower between Sandusky and a young boy? Paterno would have been brought down by the same progressives in the media and culture who claim he didn't "do enough" (especially ESPN and the NCAA and the others in the progressive establishment), as a homophobic bigot without any proof. A Neanderthal who hates gays. Better to keep it "in house" and let the administration vet the charges.But the progressives want The Moral Man's scalp. And they don't rest until they get it. And in doing so, ignore the real culprits.

I remember all the national headlines from a few years ago concerning Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky's arrest on child sex abuse charges, and of course whether or not legendary beloved head coach Joe Paterno did enough to stop it- and how much he knew or didn't know about the whole thing. This documentary observes the year after Sandusky's arrest in the surrounding community known as "Happy Valley". This is a community that for decades had been a place of pride on Paterno's winning streak, his commitment to the school/team, and his record number of players who actually graduated with degrees. The film contains dozens of interviews with those who knew both coaches, some who were actually molested by Sandusky (including his own adopted son), as well as folks in the community debating about Paterno's actions/inactions involving the abuse. It's just heart-wrenching at times. The scene involving Paterno's statue, as tourists attempt to get photos next to it while this guy holds a sign up (making some not-so-good remarks about the coach) I think is one of the most powerful scenes I've ever seen filmed for a documentary. There was also a lot of debate about whether the NCAA 's punishment of the school was fair. I have some issues with that myself- like should the students have been penalized for it? The school was forbidden from playing in games for FOUR years! WTF?? That's pretty much these athletes' entire college career-?? Well, anyway, this film is one of the best docs I've seen in some time. Definitely worth checking out sometime for sports and non-sports fans alike...

"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.

The film does not consider the sources of info. A major player in the film is Matt Sandusky. He is portrayed as almost a hero in the film, without mention of his multiple convictions for assaulting his wife, her protection from abuse orders, his mentions of lying to police for years, as well as none of his brothers and sisters, who shared his room in Sandusky's house. The narrative of the film was decided before it was filmed, and that's not what a documentary should be. The Penn State fan was literally a fanatic, and didn't seem to represent the student population well. This is more of a conceived story than a factual documentary.