Unforgotten – Twenty-Five Years After Willowbrook (2002/City Lights DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: B-     Main Program: B-

 

 

It is hard to believe, but there was a time before Al Capone’s Vaults, his infamous talk show and Fox News that Geraldo Rivera was a serious, cutting edge journalist who had serious credibility and could break a story in a way few others could.  Unforgotten – Twenty-Five Years After Willowbrook (2002) revisits his expose of the tile mental institution and the Nazi-level lack of care young children with severe mental illness were suffering.

 

The newer show is the main program and features interviews with the families and others involved in battling what was a national disgrace, while the original and still shocking version of the report is included as an extra and it is hard to believe that was how bad it was in the 1970s.  Though there have been strides to improve health care since, the one thing neither special can tell us is how recent cutbacks have hurt many such helpless persons in our society and it is too bad the original Geraldo Rivera is not available to tell us about that.  Still, both programs are powerful must-sees that show how solid journalism can change things for the better.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image is soft though the main program and a poor analog transfer of the original 16mm the original show was shot in, in the supplement, but all are painfully watchable and only the original could use an upgrade.  It should get it when another revisit program is done in HD, so it too can be shown in HD so no one can put too much distance between what happened and what is sometimes still happening.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is stereo at best on the new program, and flat mono on the original in the supplement.  Extras include the original Willowbrook report program and a trailer for the revisit.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo