Be Good, Smile Pretty (Documentary)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: B     Documentary: B

 

 

Tracy Droz Tragos could not take not knowing.  She had to know about the father she never knew.  No one in her family wanted to talk about it, she was so deadened by the silence, it was something she just kept letting go.  That is until one day, when she put her father’s name on an internet search engine, and it turned up something!  So began the journey for closure in Be Good, Smile Pretty (2003), a remarkably private and personal work like few we have seen in recent years.  It even reminded me of the over-privileged look at family life that made Hoop Dreams (1994) have such impact.

 

Though it only lasts about an hour, that is more than enough time to put a substantial slice of these persons’ lives on the screen.  IF you look at the media’s portrayal of people today, they are NEVER shown as this human, if human at all.  These people were part of a debacle that is STILL being felt years later, no matter how much government, politicians, and the media have tried to boldly erase the truth.  Even those on camera stop themselves when they feel they are revealing too much.  Those who say anything are among the bravest people we have seen on camera in the last 40 years. 

 

The letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image is mostly shot on analog videotape, but is not anamorphically enhanced.  There is very little film footage, but a generous number of stills, some of which are available frame-by-frame in the supplement.  Six people are responsible for all the taping, and it runs together well.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 is light stereo at best, with no surrounds.  It is very recently recorded and very clear, so no problem there.  Extras include a text statement by Tracy about her work, a brief Docurama catalog with some trailers available, a resource guide with websites, phone numbers and addresses that others in her situation could use, the aforementioned photo gallery, crew biographies, and extended versions of the interviews in the main program that deserve to be seen.  It makes sense about how they were cut for the feature, but are also strong in their longer versions.

 

The title refers to something special and distinct Tracy’s father used to write on his letters to her mother.   The climax of this program is that Tracy and her mother have never known how he died.  The story is devastating, unspeakable.  The result is a triumph, no matter what you think about Vietnam.  It is a microcosm of the great American story and Tracy is its latest hero… just like her father.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo