Just, Melvin: Just Evil

Just, Melvin: Just Evil
Directed by James Ronald Whitney
Produced by James Ronald Whitney
Sheila Nevins (for HBO)
Written by James Ronald Whitney
Narrated by James Ronald Whitney
Music by Brent Argovitz
James Ronald Whitney
Cinematography John Taggart
Distributed by HBO Films
Release dates
 January 27, 2000 (Sundance Film Festival)
April 22, 2001 (HBO)
Running time
 96 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget <$500,000[1]

Just, Melvin: Just Evil is a 2000 American documentary by James Ronald Whitney about his grandfather, Melvin Just, and the devastating consequences of the sexual abuse Just inflicted on their family. It premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival and aired on HBO on April 22, 2001. The film was well received overall; critic Roger Ebert called Just, Melvin "one of the most powerful documentaries I've seen."[2]

Synopsis

Whitney, at the time a Wall Street executive, returns to his rural hometown of Carlotta, California, and interviews his family members about his maternal stepgrandfather, Melvin E. Just. Just sexually abused 10 of Whitney's relatives, including his mother, uncle, aunts and step-aunts, some as young as 2 years old. The abuse resulted in dysfunction spanning three generations of the family. Whitney reveals he was also molested by his uncle, who now spends his days trying to live incestuously with his half-sister. Whitney's aunts discuss their struggles with alcohol and drug addiction, and bouts of homelessness and prostitution.[3]

In the film, Whitney confronts Just on camera about the accusations. Just, who died at aged 71 shortly after filming was completed, denies all the accusations, although he was convicted in 1979 of 12 counts of child molestation in his family and sentenced to 13 years in prison. He served fewer than nine years.[1][3]

In addition to the sexual abuse, three of Whitney's aunts say they witnessed Melvin Just rape and murder retired nurse Josephine Spegel, who was acting as a social worker. Spegel had arrived to check on the children's welfare only to find Just in bed with his stepdaughter. Just was a suspect in her murder, but was never charged in the case, which remains unsolved.[1]

Reception

Just, Melvin is critically acclaimed and received mostly positive reviews. It holds an 86% approval rate on film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.[4]

Critic Roger Ebert summarized Just, Melvin as a "lacerating portrait of a monster," while praising Whitney's documenting of his own family: "His film is not only devastating but subtle in its artistry, with great attention to a soundtrack that suggests the echoes of long-ago words of hate and current painful memories. Nothing in the film quite prepares us for the closing scenes at a burial service, where a pastor reads futile words of comfort while drunken family members alternate between grief and rage."[5]

Michael Carlson, writing for The Daily Telegraph, praised the film despite its shocking content. "Yet, for all its shocks, Just, Melvin is not a work of morbid depression or a confessional freak show. It is, rather, a challenging film that reveals the real cost of abuse but, also, the deep strength of familial love."[6]

David Zurawik of The Baltimore Sun wrote that HBO should be commended for daring to air such a graphic documentary right after its hit Sunday night show, The Sopranos: "The kind of incest and stepchild molestation this film explores is exactly the kind of ugly secret too many of us are all too happy to ignore in the name of propriety, while innocent victims not only have their childhood violated but also their ability to enjoy their adult lives destroyed. This is the kind of documentary that is behind HBO winning all those Emmy, Oscar and Peabody awards."[3]

Emanuel Levy, reviewing Just, Melvin for Variety, was more critical, writing that the documentary was less engaging than it could have been due to its "remote" tone. He wrote, "Scandalous testimony relates how Melvin was paying the girls from 25 cents to one dollar, depending on the depth of penetration, and how he forced them to get “training” by using crayons and hot dogs. However shocking such disclosures are, they’re often presented in a manner that diminishes their emotional effect. Overall, this richly detailed docu suffers from an unnecessarily cluttered structure, which makes it difficult to unravel the family links among its numerous victims."[7]

Awards

Just, Melvin: Just Evil was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival and the "Truer Than Fiction Award" at the Independent Spirit Awards. It won awards at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, South Beach Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival and Newport Beach Film Festival.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Ellen, Abby (April 30, 2000). "PrivateSector; A Broker's Painfully Personal Tale". The New York Times. Retrieved July 16, 2015.
  2. ↑ Ebert, Roger (April 16, 2004). "Games People Play". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved July 17, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Zurawik, David (April 21, 2001). "HBO hits hard with 'Just Evil' tomorrow". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved July 16, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Just Melvin, Just Evil". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved July 17, 2015.
  5. ↑ Ebert, Roger (January 28, 2000). "Houses of Pain". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  6. ↑ Carlson, Michael (January 13, 2000). "A monster in the family". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved July 16, 2015.
  7. ↑ Levy, Emanuel (March 5, 2000). "Review: ‘Just, Melvin’". Variety. Retrieved July 16, 2015.

External links

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