| Related Item |
 |
|
|
|
|
‘Brother’s Keeper’
By Rita Kempley
Washington Post Staff Writer
February 06, 1993
|
|
|
|
|
|
A documentary as compelling as the best whodunit, "Brother's Keeper" revolves around Delbert Ward, a backwoods dairy-farmer who becomes a media curiosity when he is accused of murdering his ailing older brother, Bill. The shy, nearly illiterate 59-year-old insists "Bill went natural," despite the signed confession obtained by the New York State Police. Delbert's neighbors, a spunky group of farmers who've known the Wards since they were kids, rally behind Delbert, insisting that he was coerced into signing a document that he could neither read nor comprehend.Shot as the events unfolded over most of 1990, the film, directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, is both a suspenseful murder mystery and a strangely moving Gothic family portrait of the rural hamlet of Munnsville. Berlinger, Sinofsky and cinematographer Douglas Cooper open with a visit to the 99-acre farm where Delbert and his surviving brothers, Lyman and Roscoe, have spent their lives together in quiet eccentricity. The Wards, whom locals consider "boys with old men's faces," dwell in a squalid two-room shack without an indoor toilet, telephone or running water. Filthy bachelors with unkempt beards, the Wards weren't exactly popular before Delbert's arraignment. "The smell might get to you," points out an old dear who helped raise $10,000 in 10 minutes to pay Delbert's bond. But by the time of the trial, there were fund-raisers in their honor, TV appearances with Connie Chung, and kind words from friends they never knew they had. Still, their new-found celebrity has a double edge: Delbert's lawyer, a sharpie from Syracuse, frets that the recluse will become too schooled in the ways of the world. It's crucial, he explains, that the jury see him as the cave man he was the day his brother died. The cinema verite footage reveals that the lawyer's fears are for the most part unfounded. Even in their best bib and tucker, the Wards look like the Smith Brothers by way of "Deliverance." But as Berlinger and Sinofsky demonstrate with such compassion, they are as sweet-natured as their milk cows. In contrast, the people of the community prove both shrewd and articulate as they expound on the case. Some see it as the work of a pesky young DA with political aspirations, while others think it's some kind of a suburban land grab. And some think Delbert just plain put his brother out of his misery. Though the filmmakers follow the provocative trial to its conclusion, the jury's verdict doesn't really clear up the lingering questions. There are as many reasons to believe in Delbert's guilt as his innocence. The people of Munnsville still have their doubts too, but they have proved something about their community and the courts. "System works, don't it?" said one Munnsvillian.
|
Save money with NextCard Visa
