MCCS1977

…the final two Ward Boys died, Roscoe and Lyman. Survived Delbert by a good 9 years. Munnsville, New York is near 50 miles from here, right next door, a world away for some:

My wife and I caught the documentary “Brother’s Keeper” on the Independent Film channel this past week. She’d never seen it and I hadn’t since its début on HBO back in the mid-90′s. Watching the movie again I was caught up in the sounds of summer in Central New York, cicadas buzzing away, cows mooing forlornly. You could feel the chill as the story progressed through fall and into winter and the camera followed the documentary’s subjects around doing daily chores, tasks I myself had a hand in in my childhood on a farm. This could have been the farm next door, or maybe two doors down, which is why I found the following review by Robert Moore a “Top 100 Reviewer” at Amazon.com to be so silly:

This one of the most profoundly disturbing movies I have ever seen. The documentary details the events surrounding the trial of Delbert Ward for the alleged murder of his brother Bill, two of four elderly brothers living as near-hermits in a tiny shack near the rural township of Munnsville, New York. After an autopsy revealed that Bill might not have died under natural circumstances, Delbert was questioned and signed a confession, though he might not have been mentally competent to do so.

Initially, the viewer responds to the sheer oddness of the Ward brothers, their way of life, their extraordinary social isolation, and the way of life they have carved for themselves, which was utterly unlike that of the rest of American society. At times, one feels one is taking a vacation trip along the edge of the abyss. Gradually, however, the film takes on far more nuanced and subtle aspects in relating their story to the town as a whole, and their growing support of one of their residents being judged and accused by outsiders.

This is not a movie that clears up any mysteries or comes to any firm conclusions. Filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky start off with a perplexing possible crime and end in a confusing fog. One doesn’t know quite what to think (though a possible mercy killing of Bill, who was ill at the time of his death, seems a possibility). But the depth and power of the film is undeniable, and it unquestionably belongs on a short list of the best documentary films of recent decades.

I’m sorry, who is socially isolated? I haven’t visited a state in this country (or others for that matter) that hasn’t had some kind of rough equivalent to the environs of the Ward Boys. For more comedy view the IDMB message board–Christ I think I just had a “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” flashback.