The previous adage reminds us “if one thing appears too good to be true, it in all probability is.” Oleomargarine inheritor Michael James Brody, Jr., the topic of Keith Maitland’s intriguing documentary, “Dear Mr. Brody,” appears poised to disprove that adage. When the movie opens, Brody guarantees to provide away his whole fortune, doling it out to anybody who writes him a letter asking for money. He’s 21 years previous in 1970, and wealthy sufficient to purchase all of the seats on a 747 simply so he can dramatically make his announcement. His rationale for invoking the principle plot factor of “Brewster’s Tens of millions” was to usher in a period of world peace. At the time, world peace sounded as groovy to hippie philosophers like Brody as free cash sounded to everybody else. However no quantity of charity can convey a couple of worlds the place everybody loves each other—human beings are too corrupt for that. And irrespective of how good the intention, it nonetheless has the potential to pave the highway to Hell.
To show he was on the extent, Brody gave out his workplace telephone quantity and Manhattan handles at 1650 Broadway, in addition to his dwelling handle in Scarsdale, NY. After all, individuals confirmed up in droves at each area, making a logistical nightmare. Brody threw $100 payments at a few of his early appearances, and Maitland offers loads of footage of reporters asking individuals how a lot of cash they’ll be hitting their new benefactor up for in the event that they get to see him. Surprisingly, nobody is requested if they’d heard that different adage about how one can’t get one thing for anything. Maybe it’s as a result of the media taking this enterprise so significantly. Brody was on the entrance web page of newspapers worldwide. Ed Sullivan put the wannabe singer-songwriter and his spouse, Renee on his “actually massive shew.” On the identical community, revered newsman Walter Cronkite reported on him after the 2 allegedly smoked grass. Cronkite seems to be actually completely satisfied in that clip.
Brody’s experiment lasted 10 days. Earlier than it went down in flames, he was continually shadowed by a press corps that included the late “60 Minutes” correspondent Ed Bradley and hounded by mobs of individuals in search of a snippet of his fortune. He appeared on TV trying to sleep disadvantaged and irritated, begging to be quickly left alone and continually altering his web price from the unique $25 million determined. As if the reality weren’t unusual sufficient, Brody additionally tried to bribe President Nixon to finish the Vietnam Warfare, going as far as to attempt to fly a helicopter into White Home airspace regardless of warnings it will be blown out of the sky. “He stored telling the pilot to maintain going whereas throwing cash at him,” stated Renee.
After which there are the letters that give “Dear Mr. Brody” its title. There are literally thousands of them, many in a number of packing containers holed up in Hollywood producer Ed Pressman’s storage space, left there after a botched try to make a fictional film of Brody’s life with Richard Dreyfuss within the lead. Others reside with Brody’s son, Michael Brody III. They’re all unopened, and due to this fact unanswered. Contemplating the worldwide publicity, letters poured in from in every single place. Even when Brody’s intentions had been utterly noble, there’s no method he would have gotten by all of them. His small group of helpers included just a few buddies, Renee and Bunny Jones, an entrepreneur with a number of hair salons. Jones sought cash for her ventures and walked out of Brody’s home, to cite the reporter interviewing her, “as a beneficiary of his largesse.” They grew to become companions in Astral Recording Studios.
Although we observe the tragic trajectory of Brody’s quick life, a lot of the main focus of “Dear Mr. Brody” is on those that dared pursue a payout. “To have a look at that group of individuals,” Bunny’s son, Chris says concerning the traces exterior Brody’s workplace, “and to see the joy of their faces … I went ‘oh my God, that is so uncontrolled.’” In a number of scenes, we see these individuals, their smiles wider than the Kool-Help Man’s as they inform their tales of woe, redemption, and greed. One man all of a sudden realizes that his issues are minuscule in comparison with others and decides to stroll away empty-handed.
For the letter writers, Maitland levels re-enactments that look period-specific each visually and of their casting. His producer, Melissa Robyn Glassman seems onscreen to learn some entries as properly. As with the director’s prior movie, “Tower,” animation is steadily employed. At first, I discovered these components to be a bit too tacky for my style. Finally, I succumbed to the well-presented concept that each letter informed a narrative, presenting a snapshot of the lifetime of the author at that second. A few of the letters are darkly humorous: One man desires cash so he escapes his in-laws, whereas one other wants $2,000 ($14,492 in as we speak cash) to repay his pusher.
Nonetheless, for probably the most half, the epistolary endeavors chosen had been crafted by working-class individuals with the identical, acquainted wants we all know as we speak. Individuals asking for cash to maintain the lights on, to feed their youngsters, to pay payments medical and in any other case. To maintain them afloat as a result of they’re out of labor or veterans returning dwelling from the warfare. “Dear Mr. Brody” seeks out just a few individuals who wrote letters or had kinfolk who did. The outcomes are transferring without being manipulative, incomes just a few lumps within the viewer’s throat. One lady reads a private letter from her 14-year previous self; in one other scene, teary-eyed sisters snort at one thing their late mom did to the letter that instantly recognized her because of the writer. We’re flies on the wall, attending to know these individuals briefly as we watch previous and currents converge.
Maitland and firm current info that elicits one response or opinion then provides additional info that complicates our reactions quite than contradicts them. Was Brody a puppet grasp of kinds, a lonely, poor little wealthy boy who loved watching determined of us soar by hoops? Or did he actually consider making a gift of his fortune would heal the world? And did his fixed use of PCP give him that delusion? Have been the 1000’s of people that wrote or typed out letters to him freeloaders, or had been they naïve souls humbling themselves within the hopes they’d be a guardian angel?
That final query caught with me. A cynic, or any con artist price their hustle, would have steered away from Brody, particularly in the event that they thought he was operating a rip-off. Not counting the 54 packing containers of unread letters in Michael Brody III’s home, Pressman’s letters complete over 32,000, 11,000 of which had been learned by the filmmakers earlier than donating their whole lot to the Columbia Uncommon Books library. A small proportion might need to be written only for the hell of it, however, there’s an excessive amount of uncertainty for almost all of grasping of us to take a position their time. That leaves the hopeful, the determined, and the cautiously optimistic.
No matter who tried to correspond, “Dear Mr. Brody” does a positive job of exhibiting how the monetary chasm between wealthy and poor individuals is as extensive and insurmountable as we speak because it was in 1970. Whereas we don’t get a definitive verdict on Michael Brody, we’re left with the revelation that anybody can go to Columbia and open any of the remaining letters. That may be much more fascinating than this entertaining documentary. And it will be interactive.