Paterno

I think he was in denial, subconsciously not wanting to admit the reality of the situation because it would negatively effect his ability to win games. He passed it off and nothing was done. He let sleeping dogs lie because it was good for him and he didn't want to know. Good movie, HBO does it again.

 

I think the theme of the movie was that Paterno was an idiot savant that could only see and care about football.

"I've got a game to win" kept coming up again and again.

Maybe it's a metaphor about school sports in general.

 

Yeah, this thread isn’t the place is to discuss this.

(Moderator edit: Yes, this. Thank you, GodShifter. Non-topic posts deleted.)

 

Well, I dunno. Central to the plot of the movie Paterno was PSU's response to the scandal. But I'll be quiet.

 

After watching this I’ve been thinking lots about playing high school sports in the 90s and how crazy things were. We travelled and stayed overnight in hotels in tournaments and it was barely supervised and turned into lord of the flies. Thankfully nothing too bad ever happened but I did actually go to a school where years later a teacher/coach was caught having sexual relations a girl. Hopefully things are better now with it known what happened at PSU, MSU, the endless stories about hazing and teacher/coach-student relationships, etc.

 

Whoa whoa whoa. Are you aware of the facts in the PSU case? This wasn’t some inappropriate teacher-student relationship or hazing....it was an older man raping children that were part of his charity in the showers. Let’s not even pretend that high school hazing (even extreme hazing) is like anything that happened in those showers.

 

Hey, let's start a thread about Gone With the Wind. But don't anyone mention slavery, OK?

 

That's not what I'm saying at all. I've read the reports know the details of the PSU and think football should be scrapped from PSU.

 

Obviously that would be too controversial. Someone actually started a Civil War thread the other day and I'm sure you can imagine ...

 

It is what it is here ...

/reality

 

the movie comes a decade too late IMO.... it will end badly

 

Getting back to the movie itself, is this a really subdued Al role? So much of the time, Al finds time to chew some scenery (which can be good or bad) . I still think one of his best 'disappear into a role' films was Any Given Sunday, so I'm curious how he plays this.

 

He is definitely subdued. Not the who-ha Al. One of his better recent performances in my opinion.

 

'who-ha Al' LOL

Thanks!

 

I didn't know what to expect... but it's mostly a movie about journalism and speaking truth to power. Pacino was great in it. Much better than his Phil Spector imo.

 

I just watched the HBO movie and was thoroughly impressed.

I was going to post some thoughts, but I think this poster here nailed it.

The same personality that lead Paterno to be the most talented, influential, and successful sporting coach in history lead him to react and handle the Sandusky situation the way he did. Genius is indeed situational.

 

Living outside the US (and no connection at all to the actual events portrayed in the film), I watched it purely for its intriguing narrative, great cast and notable director. I enjoyed the film immensely for its intelligence and for the way it allowed you to draw your own conclusions; withholding a vital piece of the narrative until the final minutes of the film, that was a king-sized kick in the gut, for me.

A very human drama that asks the question, at what point do we intervene / stop being by-standers? It may be black and white for some, but life is rarely like that. It stayed with me for days....

 

Saw this today. Pop psychology writer Malcolm Gladwell defends Paterno in new book and on a podcast today. What an idiot.

https://deadspin.com/malcolm-gladwell-goes-on-bill-simmonss-podcast-to-dust-1838218193

 

He has plenty of idiotic company.