It's the fourth quarter, and everyone in Beaver Stadium is on their feet, and for good reason. Paterno opens in media res, as Penn State battles Illinois University. This façade of moral superiority seems to be what Levinson – not to mention screenwriters Debora Kahn and John C. On these occasions, he’d also sexually assault these minors in the showers. In 2011, following a two-year grand jury investigation, Sandusky was arrested and charged with 52 counts of sexual abuse of young boys over a 15-year period. On June 22, 2012, Sandusky was found guilty on 45 counts and sentenced 30 to 60 years in Supermax prison. From that time until his retirement (and afterwards), Sandusky worked closely with many boys from the foundation, taking them on tours of the stadium and facilities. ![]() Like Paterno, Sandusky owned a reputation in State College, PA as being "a good man", who helped fund The Second Mile in 1977, a non-profit charity serving Pennsylvania's underprivileged and at-risk youth. Turns out my dad was unfortunately very astute in his assumption, as Paterno was eventually fired from his position as head football coach at Penn State, amidst a flurry of sexual abuse charges aimed at Jerry Sandusky – a former assistant who'd left the program in 1999. "You never trust anyone who says they’ve never done anything wrong," he'd tell me over breakfast, before folding the sports section in two and moving on to whatever interested him next in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Yet while my dad's incredulousness regarding the incredibly successful shot-caller – who'd been captain of the massive state college's program since 1966 – was certainly fueled by his intense loyalty to Western PA teams and institutions (being the product of Steel City will do that to you), he was actively distrustful of Paterno because he believed the coach held himself up as this holier than thou "molder of men" an untouchable bastion of moral righteousness that was too clean to be true. Growing up in Pennsylvania, my father despised Joe Paterno – the subject of Barry Levinson and HBO's feature length original film, Paterno – because he "never trusted him." The gnomish Italian-American football coach barked out plays with a shrill squawk, as he stalked the sidelines of Happy Valley's Beaver Stadium. Indeed, I already have the unmistakable feeling that Paterno won't be able to fully come to terms with the scope and gut-level terror of Sandusky's crimes, to say nothing of the people who protected him in the hopes of shielding a football team and college's legacy."This was a crime involving children, so why the hell is anyone talking about Joe Paterno?" That being said, most trailers literally spell out the movie for you nowadays, so I'm sticking with my gut for now. This is only a teaser trailer, so maybe this will all shake out to Levinson's benefit when the movie finally hits HBO later this year. ![]() In this case, its the father who must reckon with an age where your iconic status can be easily gutted by your leniency toward crimes ranging from the petty to the horrific. In both cases, the focus remains on an older man who has become famous due to incalculable amounts of cover-ups and shady dealings having to face the truth of his actions when confronted by his own children.Its a worthy subject but also feels a bit stale, considering that most movies nowadays are about children trying to reckon with the shadows of their parents. The entire trailer is framed as a question of Paterno's guilt, ending with his son asking "Did you know?" This puts it in a similar league as Levinson's last film for HBO, The Wizard of Lies, about Bernie Madoff and the familial aftermath of him being charged and jailed for his crimes.
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