Shenandoah (2012) User Reviews

A very good, if underrated, documentary about small town twisted ways

[eurograd · 8/10 · 7 February 2015]

Shenandoah follows the aftermath of a gruesome hate crime that happened on the homonym town.

Had this not been a true story, it would sound like a cheap script movie: declining Appalachian town, start high-school football players who provide the only entertainment, bitter people unable to cope with new economic realities, suspicion of outsiders, bigoted locals, corrupt local police...

However, this is not fiction, but the grim reality surrounding the murder of a Mexican immigrant. The basic facts are presented on first two minutes. Then, the documentary alternate interviews with the victim's family, one of the accused students, and people in town as they prepare for the trial.

This documentary does a good job of trying to look at the crime from different angles without providing validation for the excuses of the perpetrators. Permeating the narratives and the very few on-camera questions is the question of how the ex-ante dehumanization of the victim somehow makes the crime more palatable to the local community. Nonetheless, instead of stating this fact repeatedly, the directors cleverly let the prejudice and the other processes that go on people's mind transpire to the viewer.

Shenandoah Review

[elcasserino · 8/10 · 12 March 2015]

The film opens up to the sound of fire engines and the squeals of children that evokes a kind of ominous feeling that foretells the direction of the film. We witness a parade of people celebrating the coming holiday season in this very small and outdated coal mining town in west Pennsylvania. This documentary is surprisingly filmed in 2012 even though one gets the feeling of being transported back to 1995. This community of people comes from a long line of very proud Polish and Irish immigrants. The hypocrisy of the film is that they are very opposed to the current movement of Hispanic immigrants into their small town, Shenandoah. Their racial views come into the spot light when the film centers in on an incident that had happened in the town. The director depicts the crime scene like a horror film leaving you on suspense. The dark images of the murder scene where a group of boys from the local football team beat a man of Mexican descent to death send chills through the audience. The viewer gets an inside look to the thoughts of one of the convicted murderers, Brian Scully who speaks as a naïve young boy. Throughout the movie you are conflicted with your feelings toward him as he seems to be a product of his environment held under pressure during the moments of the crime. Though he feels remorse for his actions, one is still unsure of how much he has learned. The film proceeds to show how this crime has affected the convicted, the families involved, and the town as a whole. The audience learns of the family of Luis Ramirez and the obstacles they have dealt with while living in America. The films juxtaposes Mr. Ramirez's home town in Mexico to Shenandoah to show the audience how similar the two towns are despite their cultural differences. One of the most compelling parts of the documentary are the scenes from a local protest, where community member's ferociously yell their opposing views on immigration and other racial ethnicities that seem to have "taken over" their town. The constant intolerance from the people of Shenandoah makes the audience understand how racial discrimination is still an issue in the United States. The director seems to have a reason for every style choice and organizational decision involved with the production of the film that makes the experience cohesive and interesting. Overall I feel this film does a great job of creating a compelling and objective view point for the viewer to create their own opinions.

Racism is Learned Behavior

[timmyhollywood · 8/10 · 23 December 2014]

Scully. It's all about Scully. The young football player turned stage actor is the pivotal character in this compelling documentary. Scully represents the hope of redemption in the racism that plagues our society.

We're all products. This is never more evident in the film than in the scene where people of region rally with t-shirts declaring "I order my food in English." The ignorance is astounding, worthy of outrage, tempered only by this unassailable fact: it is learned behavior.

Racist parents rear racist children. Ignorant parents rear ignorant children. These people are a product of their society, of deep, systemic issues in the United States, including an amnesiac's perspective on our origins. We all came from somewhere.

To stake some dubious claim, to gather and chant "USA! USA!" ... to be unaware of one's position in this pointless culture of football, of overweight people sneering at anyone whose heritage is not Irish or German...it's just sad.

And that's why Scully is so important. Scully shows us how each individual has a much greater power than the blinding ignorance of group-think. Scully starts thinking for himself, putting himself in the shoes of the victim. He starts to feel something where he was just "empty" before.

That's called compassion, Scully. And it's more powerful than a million people chanting "USA!" in those ridiculous t-shirts. Good for you.

Compelling Documentary on a small town racist attack

[t-dooley-69-386916 · 9/10 · 28 June 2014]

This amazing and rewarding documentary is one that will not fail to move you. It tells the story of the brutal, racially motivated killing of Mexican Luis Suarez. The assailants were all members of the High Scholl football team and had been drinking. They chased him down and kicked him to death.

In this small close knit town all the locals know each other and so the police colluded to ensure there was a cover up. What director David Turnley has done here is allow both sides to have their say – that is those that were willing to appear on camera. This is non judgmental and allows the viewer to make up their own minds. It is a very moving and gripping story and raises issues of racism, truth, honour and justice. I watch a few documentaries bit am no way near a fan, but if they were all of a calibre such as this then I would quite quickly become an addict – absolutely recommended.

All along the Watchtower

[tieman64 · 21 November 2014]

A documentary by David Turnley, "Shenandoah" observes as a gang of Pennsylvanian youths, all members of a High School football team, assault and kill Luis Suarez, a Mexican teenager.

Issues of race are immediately delved into. Shenandoah is a small town, closely knit, and low wages and hard times have left locals seething with anger. Immigrants, illegal or otherwise, are seen as a threat. More than a threat, immigrants are deemed "not human". "I didn't think of him as a person," one of the killers admits.

Turnley then takes us to the football field. Here, young men are indoctrinated, hypermasculinized, dubious notions of manhood, power, aggression, gender, sexuality, race and nationhood instilled. To be a "man", one must win, one must dominate, one must crush. Crush what? Anything deemed feminine, deemed Other, deemed different, deemed weak. But whilst the mastering of violence as a necessary test of masculinity (and eventually patriotism) once led to young men being shipped abroad to kill the Other – foreigners deemed subhuman and soft – now the Other is in one's own backyard. The killing happens here, on home soil.

Studies have shown that young men who are members of certain school sports teams are twice as likely to abuse their dating partners. The term "hyper-masculine identity disorder" is itself increasingly entering gender identity disorder indices. The purported symptoms of this "disorder" are an overly inflated sense of entitlement, a propensity for violent outbursts (physical, sexual or verbal), homophobia, bigotry, the belief that all things "feminine" are inferior, emotional detachedness, feelings of inadequacy, a disregard for others, hyper-nationalism, obsessions with physical strength and a propensity toward risky behaviour and/or extreme competitiveness.

It's thus fitting that one of the film's subplots contrasts the testosterone of the football field with the more placid arenas of school theatre halls. Here, one of the killers sings, hops, skips and acts on stage. Before the murder, he'd probably have been mocked for indulging in such a hobby.

As the perpetrators were local football stars, Luis Suarez's murder – more a symbolic gang rape – was quickly covered up by local police officers. They deliberately botched the investigation, but activists and several upstanding townsfolk ensured that the crime wasn't suppressed. Climaxing powerfully with Bruce Springsteen's "Lift Me Up", "Shenandoah" ends with some semblance of justice, and the hope that further progress will one day be made.

8/10 – See the haunting documentary, "Murder on a Sunday Morning".

lots of unexplored background

[khmilleralt · 8/10 · 11 July 2016]

well done documentary that, for the most part, just lets the camera roll while people reveal themselves. you know it's a good film when you immediately start researching it after watching. i read many reviews and commentaries after watching the film as i had many questions that were not explored by the filmmakers. some were merely missing scene- setters like giving a clear name and picture of each person from the start as i was confused at times as to who was who. some people were identified, but others not so well. (i find the misidentification of the victim's last name by some reviewers lamenting how he had been dehumanized to be ironic given that the assailants themselves didn't know his name for sure). other omissions, i think, were subtle clues as to the filmmaker's attitude. the victim himself was somewhat dehumanized by the director's decision to give almost no background about him other than that he came to the US for economic reasons and had a family, here and in Mexico. it appears he was (but it is very hard to confirm this - i don't know) in violation of immigration law. the filmmaker's official website does actually mention "undocumented" once, but this is not obvious. i understand why that fact was purposely left out as this film is about racism and senseless behavior, not public policy. however, even the film itself eventually specifically asks why people act/feel the way they do - just because? learned from environment? taught that way by their parents/community? etc...? public policy has a lot to do with shaping our worldview. in real life, the "story" is not made up carte blanche in a vacuum, unmoored by any past circumstances.

i am not trying to offend anyone and am not "blaming the victim", but rather - i think this is a missed opportunity to try to explain what is an aspect of why there is such a strong current of resentment towards immigrants, especially Hispanics, in the US: the flagrant violation of US law combined with the (seeming) failure to want to be an "American" (whatever that means). the speaking of the predominant language of a country (that would be English in the US - i know - my "i"s are not capitalized, nor are the beginnings of sentences - i'm spoiled by iOS) is a sign of efforts to assimilate. the reviewers excoriating the "USA! USA!" rally i guess just don't get this. if one wanted to successfully live for years in Mexico one had better learn Spanish real quick. we are given no indication how the victim lived his life, other than he had a girlfriend. we have no idea how he fit into the community that is being revealed to us. there is little attempt by the filmmakers to explore how pervasive "Hispanic" culture and language actually are in Shenandoah, or how "assimilated" recent immigrants are. there is no mention of any problems with integration of African-Americans or any other minority group. we are left with an avoidable tragedy of a clique of drunken teenage boys beating up a seemingly random Hispanic man badly enough that he dies and the conclusion that the police really didn't care and possibly purposefully undermined an attempt at getting to the truth of what happened. the film seemed to be an indictment of the whole town without showing us the 'whole' town.

i remain confused about the final sentences and "justice" meted out. there is not really a satisfying "wrap-up" given, even if it were to just be a scrolling summary with the end-credits. very little of the actual trial was presented.

part of the subtitle is "... the American Dream on Trial". what? where'd that come from? there was no attempt to define "the American Dream". in fact, you could say the victim had an Dream and it ended with his murder. i do think that if you approach this documentary as an attempt to focus very narrowly on a small town, how its fortunes have changed, and its individuals and overall "culture", then you will be somewhat satisfied, but there remain large gaps in the picture we are presented. the demolition of the town's old Catholic Church was nice reality/symbolism. i just felt a larger opportunity had been missed by the narrow focus. the power of this film is the decision to focus mostly on just letting people speak for themselves. even the woman with the microphone at the "USA Rally" felt compelled to admonish the more radical shouters in the crowd.

i was left with many competing thoughts and emotions regarding the mentality and behavior of many of the people (and our society) in the film. this is probably why i felt strongly enough to offer a review - not something i do very often. this speaks to the power of the film: to give the viewer pause, and stimulate some reflection, both of self and of "tradition". one is left to once again ponder, like the main cooperating perpetrator, how such a tragedy happens ... there are no simple explanations and few people are really very self-aware, teenagers and adults alike ... concluding "they're just a bunch of racists" might be true, but fails to enlighten anyone as to the "why", and thus fails to offer any hopeful analysis or suggestions for how our society can minimize such mindsets and behaviors.

fyi: i stumbled on another tragic documentary yrs ago on PBS late one night, it is now posted on Vimeo: i highly recommend: "Unless a Death Occurs" by Anjalika Sharma. hazing death at Plattsburgh State. it gives a good comparison for how "active" an interview type documentary might be.

Important yet flawed

[pensacolacomputer · 5/10 · 5 August 2018]

Very important subject...yet could have easily been a 30 minute documentary. It would go on and on about things that had NOTHING to do with the main subject. Someone please edit this, and it would easily get 10 stars from me, but instead it gets 5 stars for wasting over an hour of my time.