Film Summary And Film Analysis: Dear Friar Lawrence

When I watch Dear Zachary: a letter to a son about his father, I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I started watching it. The documentary deals with the death of Andrew Bagby, a young doctor. HIs childhood friend Kurt Kuenne narrates, directed and wrote the entire film, while using a lot of home video;s from both their childhood and adulthood. This movie is brought out every single emotion I had, though I felt myself going from sad to angry throughout the movie.

The story begins telling audiences about the death of Andrew Bagby, he was shot five times on november 6th, 2001, in Pennsylvania where Bagby lived. It was clear early on that the person responsible for the death was Bagby’s ex girlfriend Shirley Turner. We are shown how she
was a little obsessive and controlling particularly when Bagby broke up with her, one of the interviewee’s and Bagby’s friends calling her “a psychotic bitch” she would call him non stop, even after the murder and even showing up at one of his friends house, the day of the murder. She had gone to a shooting range the same day, with the bullets from the shooting range gun, matching the bullets that hit the young doctor. As the finger started being pointed at Turner, she packed up all her belongings and moved to Newfoundland, Canada, where she was originally from. This complicated matters further, as nearly every hearing that was arranged for her was postponed, not only was she able to walk freely, she also revealed to be pregnant with Bagby’s child, Zackary.

The structure of this documentary was a little all over the place.
I wasn’t mad on how the whole movie was edited. Although the voice over’s at times was amusing, when the director kurt started talking fast, particularly when he finds out turner is pregnant, it seems he is trying to get out as much information as possible about his road trip to interview andrews close friends and family, however if you blink or don’t stay focused you will miss something important on his plans.

Dear Zachary isn’t your average murder mystery, where the audience are trying to piece together who could have killed Andrew, and how and why. From the beginning we know who did it, we know why. This is not a movie where at the end, you talk about how good it was, or discussing how you figured out who did it, you leave feeling sickened, let down over the justice system and above all sad. This heartbreaking documentary really show’s the good vs evil with people, and also showcases how the american justice system let the Bagby family down especially little Zackery.

Although the film is brilliantly done, with mountains of interviews from Andrew’s close friends and family, I personally liked how Kurt's faced paced movements and short shots in the film as I felt I was never getting bored as there was so much information and story to be told.
Dear Zachary is a must see but make sure to bring your
tissues.