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The drama debuts on Saturday and stars Al
Pacino as the late Joe Paterno. It offers a behind-the-scenes
glimpse of the Paterno home during a weeks-long media siege as
the family grapples with its sudden fall from grace.
"Here's a man who talked about integrity, and yet this
happened," director Barry Levinson told Reuters. "So, what did
he know? What didn't he know?"
Levinson explores the paradox of a coach who professed and lived
by the high moral code he also demanded of his players, yet
failed to act on signs assistant Jerry Sandusky had been abusing
boys.
"Paterno" sets forth the questions but gives no answers.
"Human behavior is always more complicated," the Oscar-winning
"Rain Man" director said. "There are things that we may never
understand, but that's the part of what makes it interesting."
The film tackles several narratives ranging from university
administrators who ignored complaints against Sandusky to young
reporter Sara Ganim who broke the story and the emotional trauma
of a young Sandusky victim who comes forward.
Levinson and screenwriter Debora Cahn save their great
conundrums for Paterno, college football's winningest coach who
in the span of a few autumn weeks in 2011 went from celebrated
to fired.
They show Paterno detached from his job's details, and confused
and struggling to grasp the nature of Sandusky's decades-long
crimes.
"What is sodomy?" Paterno asks his wife while reading the
criminal complaint that led to Sandusky's conviction on 45
counts of sexual abuse.
The film recreates known and alleged instances when Paterno
either ignored signs of Sandusky's behavior that he became aware
of, or failed to follow up after reporting to superiors.
Paterno died from lung cancer in January 2012 at age 85.
Cahn believes the lessons of Paterno's story mirror the tsunami
of years-old misconduct allegations in the #MeToo movement.
"What kind of responsibility does each of us bear as individuals
who are near events that we think might be fishy, but we aren't
sure," Cahn said. "Do we push further? Do we investigate more?
Or do we hope somebody else is going to?"
(Editing by David Gregorio)
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