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Dear Zachary, 2008
In 2001, Andrew Bagby was found dead after arranging to meet the girlfriend he’d just broken up with in a state park. When his girlfriend, Shirley Turner, realized she was a suspect in his death, she fled to her home country of Canada. While the wheels of justice slowly turned, Andrew’s friends and family were shocked to learn that Shirley was pregnant with Andrew’s baby. Andrew’s childhood friend, Kurt, began assembling footage and interviews to create a film scrapbook about Andrew for the son he would never know, Zachary.
Highly emotional and full of rage, the film’s highly subjective bent is both its strength and its detriment.
For years and years, this film has appeared on lists of movies that are devastating, or too painful to watch twice, or what have you. I was aware of some of the basics of the story (that a woman was allowed to have custody of her baby, even after becoming a chief suspect in that baby’s father’s murder), but not the full extent of what happened. It is, indeed, incredibly devastating and infuriating.
While a good amount of the film is memorializing Andrew and fond reminiscences, most of what we see is the despair and impotent fury of Andrew’s friends and family at the grave injustices that continue to allow Andrew’s murder to go unpunished. The film gives almost all of its interview time to Andrew’s parents, Kathleen and David, and their pain practically radiates from the screen. You can feel yourself right there alongside them, furious at every decision by a judge or psychiatrist that helps Shirley escape consequences.
I don’t think that it’s necessarily a problem that the film is highly subjective. But this story doesn’t need any amplification, and when the film presents such flourishes, they feel cheap and kind of tacky. The facts speak for themselves, as do the experiences of the people in the film. Is Shirley actually Satan? I mean, maybe. If we go from what we hear from everyone. And is it necessarily a problem that we don’t get her side of the story? Not really. But at times the film uses zooms or music cues that are totally overboard and even border on feeling like parody. The events are so horrible, that they already exist in an “I can’t believe this is happening” space. No ominous music needed.
I also felt as if there were some things that were not being fully explored in terms of Andrew and his relationship with Shirley. I mean, she is a weird, inappropriate person. So why was he in a relationship with her? I don’t say that in any way to imply he’s at fault, but it seems to me as if maybe there were some mental health issues involved on his side of things that the film doesn’t want to address. It goes as far as saying that he “wasn’t happy”, but I feel like there’s more to it. Something made him vulnerable to Shirley, and I thought that was a missing piece.
On the whole, this film is a heartbreaker. The events in the film did eventually lead to some measure of reform, which is some small comfort. The suffering of Andrew’s loved ones, and especially his parents, burns very bright. Watching them be dealt blow after blow is vicariously devastating.
There is something to be said for the raw emotion on display. And the story itself is very compelling. While I don’t mind the biased perspective, the film is stranded somewhere between a personal project and a professional movie.
Dear Zachary, 2008
In 2001, Andrew Bagby was found dead after arranging to meet the girlfriend he’d just broken up with in a state park. When his girlfriend, Shirley Turner, realized she was a suspect in his death, she fled to her home country of Canada. While the wheels of justice slowly turned, Andrew’s friends and family were shocked to learn that Shirley was pregnant with Andrew’s baby. Andrew’s childhood friend, Kurt, began assembling footage and interviews to create a film scrapbook about Andrew for the son he would never know, Zachary.
Highly emotional and full of rage, the film’s highly subjective bent is both its strength and its detriment.
For years and years, this film has appeared on lists of movies that are devastating, or too painful to watch twice, or what have you. I was aware of some of the basics of the story (that a woman was allowed to have custody of her baby, even after becoming a chief suspect in that baby’s father’s murder), but not the full extent of what happened. It is, indeed, incredibly devastating and infuriating.
While a good amount of the film is memorializing Andrew and fond reminiscences, most of what we see is the despair and impotent fury of Andrew’s friends and family at the grave injustices that continue to allow Andrew’s murder to go unpunished. The film gives almost all of its interview time to Andrew’s parents, Kathleen and David, and their pain practically radiates from the screen. You can feel yourself right there alongside them, furious at every decision by a judge or psychiatrist that helps Shirley escape consequences.
I don’t think that it’s necessarily a problem that the film is highly subjective. But this story doesn’t need any amplification, and when the film presents such flourishes, they feel cheap and kind of tacky. The facts speak for themselves, as do the experiences of the people in the film. Is Shirley actually Satan? I mean, maybe. If we go from what we hear from everyone. And is it necessarily a problem that we don’t get her side of the story? Not really. But at times the film uses zooms or music cues that are totally overboard and even border on feeling like parody. The events are so horrible, that they already exist in an “I can’t believe this is happening” space. No ominous music needed.
I also felt as if there were some things that were not being fully explored in terms of Andrew and his relationship with Shirley. I mean, she is a weird, inappropriate person. So why was he in a relationship with her? I don’t say that in any way to imply he’s at fault, but it seems to me as if maybe there were some mental health issues involved on his side of things that the film doesn’t want to address. It goes as far as saying that he “wasn’t happy”, but I feel like there’s more to it. Something made him vulnerable to Shirley, and I thought that was a missing piece.
On the whole, this film is a heartbreaker. The events in the film did eventually lead to some measure of reform, which is some small comfort. The suffering of Andrew’s loved ones, and especially his parents, burns very bright. Watching them be dealt blow after blow is vicariously devastating.
There is something to be said for the raw emotion on display. And the story itself is very compelling. While I don’t mind the biased perspective, the film is stranded somewhere between a personal project and a professional movie.