Documentary Looks at the Amazing Life of Norman Lear

Cinema | February 27th, 2016

As sharp and entertaining as the man it examines, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s “Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You” is a substantive chronicle of one of the most influential television creators/producers in the history of the medium. While some degree of hagiography is inevitable on the heels of Lear’s 2014 memoir “Even This I Get to Experience,” the filmmakers handle several delicate and/or controversial public and private themes important to Lear’s biography. While some of these — most certainly the treatment of race on “Good Times” and “The Jeffersons” — demand closer scrutiny, Ewing and Grady’s work will send plenty of new Lear scholars to the archives.

Framed with a series of snazzy, staged interstitials that depict a preteen version of Lear, played by Keaton Nigel Cooke, ambling around backstage in signature white hat, the documentary stretches its creative muscles to imagine one of television’s eminent elder statesmen as the ultimate show business innovator. Plenty of stars are lined up to speak on behalf of Lear’s mentorship, but the often hysterical and always articulate thoughts and expressions of Lear himself are the main attraction start to finish.

Ewing and Grady are not nervous about skipping over huge chunks of Lear’s vita, making choices that reflect a sense of what they endorse as the most critical passages. As a result, one of the film’s finest sequences takes a long look at “All in the Family.” Lear’s tribute to Carroll O’Connor is moving and tender, and the clips selected to illustrate the commentary are electrifying — especially one from the legendary 1978 episode “Two’s a Crowd” (reportedly O’Connor’s series favorite) in which Archie Bunker talks about his abusive father when he and Mike Stivic are locked in a storeroom.

Archival, behind-the-scenes footage of the making of “Good Times” hints at a level of intensity few viewers — and certainly the white ones — would not imagine during the show’s rise in popularity. Both Esther Rolle, seen in previously recorded interviews, and John Amos summarize the painful shortcomings wrought by the writers’ tendency toward broad stereotype and comic buffoonery, particularly when Jimmie Walker’s J. J. trumpeted his catchphrase “Kid Dy-no-mite!” Lear, who was supposedly not a supporter of the recurring bit or the move away from more serious topics, might have had more to say on the subject, but the filmmakers turn their attention to other issues and the viewers are left wondering.

Beyond the giant footprints Lear left on the small screen moonscape, his extracurricular activities as founder of the political action group People for the American Way and as a father (again) in his sixties offer more insight into his character. Lear’s strongly held beliefs about the meaning of patriotism and Americanism led to the $8 million acquisition of a Dunlap broadside, an early copy of the Declaration of Independence that was shown publicly throughout the United States. With an impressive list of professional accomplishments spanning the majority of the medium’s lifespan, one might imagine Lear would slow down. But at the Sundance Film Festival, the 93-year-old happily spoke about his current and upcoming slate of TV projects.

“Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will be broadcast on PBS in 2016.

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