Featuring: Delbert, Roscoe, and Lyman Ward, and the townsfolk of Munnsville, NY
Directors: Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky
Producers: Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky
Screenplay: Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky
Cinematography: Douglas Cooper
Music: Jay Ungar and Molly Mason
U.S. Distributor: Creative Thinking International
Brother's Keeper is a remarkable documentary that chronicles the death of 64 year old Bill Ward, the arrest of his 59 year old brother Delbert for the killing, and the subsequent murder trial (and verdict). Put together on a miniscule budget, the film has all the power, drama, and tension of a big-budget Hollywood thriller. Producers/Directors/Writers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky are careful to present both sides of the story, although their bias for the "Ward boys" is evident.
This is not a "talking heads" movie, with an omniscient announcer's voice-over chronicling events. Instead, the story is presented as it unfolds. When the film makers began their project, they had no idea how the movie would turn out, and whether Delbert would be found innocent or guilty. The film evolves exactly as the real-life tale did, complete with a twist or two, and genuine suspense as the jury deliberates the verdict.
Ultimately, however, Brother's Keeper is less about the culpability of Delbert Ward than it is an indictment of police procedure, a look at the role of the media in criminal proceedings, and an examination of a people and culture that most mainstream Americans never encounter. Delbert and his brothers are throw-backs in time -- indigent farmers who live together in a house without central heating, sleep together for warmth, can barely read or write, and bathe perhaps once every six months. At times, their speech is so slurred that it's difficult to understand what they're saying.
Murder trials always start a feeding frenzy for the media, and Brother's Keeper captures this mood perfectly. Suddenly, the Wards are thrust into the spotlight, a role for which they're completely unprepared. For that matter, there's always a question about where Berlinger and Sinofsky fit into this picture as movie-makers. Are they detached observers or participants? Does their presence hurt the Wards, help them, or is it irrelevant? Brother's Keeper doesn't address these questions, but they're bound to occur to just about everyone in the audience.
At first look, Delbert and his brothers seem unlikely candidates for a documentary. However, while their lifestyle may not be all that appealing to those of us used to the modern comforts of civilization, the Wards are warm, likable people, and, during the course of this one-hundred minute feature, we come to care about them. The murder trial is just a springboard for several fascinating character studies. Berlinger and Sinofsky should be given ample credit for what they have managed to accomplish here -- the most engaging documentary since The Thin Blue Line.
© 1993 James Berardinelli