Review of Happy Valley

Happy Valley (II) (2014)
7/10
Not all cults are comprised of dancing hippies...
29 April 2021
First of all, this documentary really stated nothing new for me beyond the Matt Sandusky angle. In reality, why should you watch it to begin with if nothing new is brought to the table?

The real vision of the documentary is how cults can easily form and easily maintain a grip on a person. I've always learned it is never a good thing to deify someone, regardless of their truest intentions. While it might leave you empty of people to look up to, what do you think will happen when you find out this "hero" aided in something terrible? Clearly the people of State College have recoiled deeper into their cave, not willing to think for a second about their demigods. A normal person would state the obvious...Joe Paterno paid a heavy price for his actions. But to sit for 10 years and say nothing and then claim ignorance? A normal person would say would fully acknowledge maybe it wasn't good to put him on such a pedestal.

Fortunately for the people of State College the filmmaker decided to leave everything on the screen, making no grand proclamation even though we could clearly see it. The only scene you really need to see is the protester at Joe Paterno's statue. People just did not want to believe the truth that and they were almost ready to throw down, mouths foaming, minds completely clouded. No person or concept should ever have this hold on you.

And here is the scary thing the film eluded to....it will happen again in State College. And it will happen in other cities all over the world. If anything, what we can take out of this film is that if you are good at sports, people will forgive you or completely downplay your actions. And this mentality is dangerous.
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