Since 2010, HBO has become a haven for the epochal Al Pacino, who lost his former popularity, and director Barry Levinson. Their collaboration began with a biopic about the famous doctor and euthanasia popularizer in You Don't Know Jack, and another "Godfather" Robert De Niro starred in Levinson's "Liar, the Great and the Terrible." If you saw those two movies, you should understand that watching "Paterno" you definitely will not find a clear answer.
The situation in which the legendary American coach Joe Paterno guessed (also lovingly and panibratically called funny for the Russian ear nickname "JoPa") is both vile and curious to study the public reaction. The assistant coach was caught on pedophilia, the university knew about the incidents, but did not publicize them, and, apparently, Paterno knew too, but did not move much. The public was divided: some (especially fans) believe that their idol did everything according to the instructions and it was the rectorate who covered the scoundrel who was to blame, and the position of others is that the authority of Paterno could draw attention to history and stop the scoundrel before it was too late. In parallel, the story of the journalist who inflated this media scandal is developing.
In fact, despite all the interesting reasoning lurking in the film’s main plot, the Paterno script looks somewhat complicated in its structural mess. The whole film is a reflection and memories of the hero Al Pacino about two weeks of preparation for a football match and the growing degree of scandal. Everything is punctuated by flashbacks of other characters, including the rector, vice-rector for security and vice-rector for sports. These figures in the film are needed only for the background, they are almost faceless, and deserve only contempt. As for the main character, who gave the film his name as a title, the idea it remains unclear. Is his memory failing him, or is he trying to shield a friend without knowing the truth about his inclinations? Or is Joe Paterno worried about his reputation? The attempt to make the character contradictory and deliberately confuse the viewer played a cruel joke. Psychology in the character of Joe Paterno is present, you can accept many reasons for his actions and speculate on motives, but still a powerful old man in the performance of Pacino is kind of ... empty. His relationship with the criminal before and after the truth was revealed to the public has never been revealed, except, of course, in one scene in which Paterno called the pervert his friend in flashbacks. The accents in the final are only confusing.
Incredibly, the aforementioned journalist, who for some reason focused too much attention, although she has no common scenes with the title persona of the picture, spoils everything. The role of a “consultant” who narrates events unfamiliar to the average viewer in dialogues further exacerbates her presence. The end result is a film, on the one hand, clumsily sympathetic to a confused elderly man and a careerist, rethinking some values (as opposed to staunch colleagues from “In the spotlight”), and this is not at all in its place. However, on the other hand, like the characters of the film, Levinson forgot about the true tragedy, so that victims of sexual violence are no more than words, texts and some dolls almost behind the scenes.
If Levinson’s previous film “Liar, Great and Terrible” was characterized by the fact that De Niro in it avoided his image of Robert De Niro, then Al Pacino in “Paterno” plays himself. However, even under tons of makeup and bulky glasses, the actor shows the full level of his skill. His hero is eccentric, but wise, fragile and vulnerable, but at the same time accustomed to go to the end with his principles. In many ways, it is the game of Al Pacino that does not allow you to understand the hero. It is a pity that the script does not allow Pacino to do something significant or at least admire him in various scenes: in most scenes, the coach sits at the table, while the life of endless relatives and some crisis managers boils around him.
One of the most powerful scenes in Paterno is somewhere in the middle of the movie. In contrast to many scenario speculations, a similar fact did take place in reality: hundreds of students took to the streets in protest both against Paterno and against the reaction of the university leadership to the long-standing actions (or still inaction?) of the coach. Residents denounce the media, and a reporter wanders in the crowd, stunned that people don’t care about the real victims in this story. Similar to "Paterno" as a film concerns a broad topic of mass media, their impact on the reputation and public, but the theme does not receive much distribution except for this scene, as well as the basic morality about the difference between action and inaction. It is a pity, because the meaning of the slogan “We want Joe” declared by the mad crowd would be open to interpretation. Apparently, the phrase is not finished, because it is unclear: do they want to help Joe or hang him?
6 out of 10