Reddit reviews Paterno Legacy: Enduring Lessons from the Life and Death of My Father

I made a similar post in a discussion on the trailer a few months ago, but I thought it was worth sharing again.

Portrayal of the Riot

While the riot was intense in emotions (if the media footage was accurate), there were no fires to my recollection. It was to my understanding one news van (not several vehichles) was overturned and several lampposts were uprooted. While the riot was embarrassing and damaging (to both property and public image), exaggerating it does little more than to further the “evil cult” narrative and demonize the PSU community as a whole.

Mention of The Second Mile

It’s appreciated to see mention of the significance of The Second Mile in this ordeal (grooming at-risk youth, etc), context that was largely overlooked by the media and general population.

Source Material for the Movie

While the initial script was clearly based off of Posnanski’s book, it appears to be far from the only source (ex: Ganim, Victim 1, Jay Paterno, etc).

• Sarah Ganim: She was a consultant for the film and her personal experience during the scandal was shown in the trailer. While her coverage of the story was important and deserving of her Pulitzer, I still have mixed feeling on her coverage on more dubious aspects of the scandal (ex: speculated connection of the Sandusky case to Ray Gricar’s disappearance in 2005, the ‘71 claim and use of Bernie McCue as a corroborating source, etc). All that being said, she did not deserve the harassment she received. It’s one thing to criticize her reporting, but it is unacceptable to harass and throw out unsubstantiated personal attacks.
  
  
• Victim 1 (Aaron Fisher): His story about coming forward with his abuse was brave. In addition, the bullying and harassment he endured from his high school classmates after Joe’s firing was angering and heartbreaking. I need to get his book.
  
  
• Sue and Jay Paterno: The segment at the end of the trailer, when Sue mentioned how Joe’s kids regularly swam with Jerry, was interesting. His son, Jay, brought up (I think in his book) that Joe’s grandkids also hung out with Jerry months before the scandal broke. I’m not saying Joe didn’t have any idea, but if he and the coaching staff thought Jerry was a pedophile, why would they let their own kids and grandkids interact with the guy? If we’re going to assign a selfish motive (ex: protecting football or legacy) to their inaction, wouldn’t protecting their own families/children also take priority?
  
  Overall, I’m interested in seeing it, but I’m concerned with what other “creatives liberties” the filmmakers took for the sake of narrative.
  
  Paterno is far from blameless in the scandal, but I’m interested in how much blame the film infers is shouldered by him.