They Called Him Mostly Harmless (2024)

They-Called-Him-Mostly-Harmless-(2024)
They Called Him Mostly Harmless (2024)

As it turned out, a man referred to as ‘Mostly Harmless’ by his fellow hikers has his vertical taken up by a wide spectrum of people including journalists and private law enforcement agencies. As soon as this occurred, reports about Vance Rodriguez, a supposed abuser, soon surfaced. This case was documented by Gillespie, who directed The Fire that Took Her and streams tomorrow on Max as They Called Him Mostly Harmless.

This documentary, one of only a few today, focuses on the positive aspects of internet detectives, the other popular one being Don’t Cats and this is immediately better than that because it makes an informed decision not to exploit the events that transpired. Of course, the plot is out of the ordinary, and instead of using such means as popular culture allusions, Basic Instinct clips, to make a point, or graphic descriptions of abuse as real as possible, Gillespie, in my opinion, took a very balanced position with respect to the general background of this story. Such tactful sensitivity must have been developed from her previous feature which was also about a case of abuse related to her.

From a unique angle, the doc features interviews with law enforcement, private DNA cooperatives, a handful of internet detectives, and a wealth of hikers who knew Vance Rodriguez, making the argument: There were a couple of interesting questions posed by They Called Him Mostly Harmless.

A somewhat interesting point that is captured earlier in the narrative, and more interestingly towards the end of the film, when participants are summonsed to comment about their fellow childhood friends is whether or not individuals can really transform themselves. Most of those who knew him as “Mostly Harmless” would argue that people are invariably capable of change. And indeed, the doc does such a great job emphasizing that by concentrating on the love people had for him when he died bringing them from all across the nation, and eventually the world, together.

The second review asks about those what if: What if the image of a person is far greater than the recessions of that person. While, once more, the majority of those families interviewed considered Rodriguez as an enigma and thus, ‘Mostly Harmless’, there is no doubt that El Maestro was a fallible human being. Gillespie’s style of attempting to handpick the two people and define their lines is rather clear. The final implication is that we are many people out there, an equally interesting argument.

In some ways, stylistically, the documentary is like a techno-thriller because of its construction and the insertion of synth songs in the score. This part is executed very well and as most true crime watchers will tell you, the saying goes that the truth is often more bizarre than the fiction.

Patricia Gillespie: Ethan Goldman and Eric Cook [EP of the documentary] came to me with a project and at that time the case was already solved who never looked at this case from a thousand-foot view and thought there was a very good place to explain how we in our lives recognize one another through the internet, something that intrigued me and which I felt was quite worth reporting.

TS: Walikudconstationen was such a fascinating case to follow, I first came across the case when I am watching the trailer. Dein vorheriger Dokumentarfilm [The Fire that Took Her] war ja eher aufklärend und erzieherisch, was war das Ziel mit diesem Film?

PG: I begin with a question rather than an answer and my question was really about the digital space and how it affects our lives, and then I try to let the people in my films provide the answers and allow them to emerge, right? I think the thing that really grabbed me was the realization of the difference between what we project of ourselves on social media versus who actually are, that social media ‘ is not real’ rhetoric that we are used to hearing, the reality is that it is how we live.

The real risk is involved in the process. Real losses and real wins are possible. Such were the aspects I wanted to explore during this research, and I was interested not just in the development of a plot around some sort of mystery but in the story of the people who want to resolve such mysteries who, of course, I can relate to because that’s part of my job too. But it would be incorrect to label myself a “real crime artist” in this context.

I’d be happy if they told me what the driving force is behind a person’s willingness to do what is essential on a deeper level a good deed. An act of kindness, as was with the hikers who assisted in uncovering this mystery as a result of bumping into [Vance]. Here, there seemed to be such glimmers of hope and humanity amidst the loss and pain and I am drawn to that.

TS: There is a stage in the film where one of the internet amateur detectives makes the revealing comment about where some of the humor came from after the exposure of the person whose body you decided not to focus on was there then such a purpose you wanted to instill in them, they observed.

PG: Was it the intention? I think it was just natural for me to consider someone I love and appreciate and just people in general everyone makes mistakes.

PG: Well more often than not, with every good intention of doing good, we go through the process of messing up a couple of times. The key thing is about picking oneself up. It can’t be helped that we do wish to warn our audience about certain things because I believe beneath it all, the focus of the documentary is not the blunder, but the obligation to one’s actual existing self. The metaphorical, em, stalking, and researching does focus on being a real person with other people. That was important to me but I try not to dwell on other people’s mistakes and I did not seek to dwell on this. It is one of the moments of the plot, but not its centerpiece, everything worth doing is impossible to do in one go because in that case, everyone would do it.

TS: Of course! Then tell me what you think about the true crime genre as a whole. It’s safe to say in the last eight years, it has gained some prestige, so where do you think it will be in a few years?

PG: I have so many so many thoughts about that!

TS: Tell me the specific ones.

PG: I get that some of these filmmakers do approach this from an ethical perspective, but this is a genre that faces a lot of pressure, and while there has been expansion, so too has there been a lot of pushback of sorts. The makers are right to be under fire you can be an ethical true crime maker, which I aspire to be, and an unethical true crime maker. Both of those exist. But I get so annoyed though when they criticize our audience, for example, it’s so good to talk to a guy who is into true crime when it is portrayed as a girl’s hobby, a lot of things girls, like to do, are easy to condone and apply stereotypes to.

In general, the true crime viewer seems to be very compassionate, what they are looking for is justice in the most susceptible situations – situations that bear the traits of “life and death”, not the gory parts of the narration of the incident on which the storyline is based.

This genre has a lot of potential. It is evolving to be less sensational, it is a great way to explore some of the major problems of our society in a way that reaches audiences who might otherwise not be exposed. I am particularly keen on creating work that is able to reach out to a wide section of society. I do not necessarily want to be addressing people of my political persuasion or of my background, I want to be addressing everybody. I personally think this is quite a good, global, approach to look at and such possibilities excite me.

TS: True crime today compared to even a decade back, people have started utilizing drone cameras, and films have become series! What do you think the future holds for the genre in a couple of years? More shorts? More features?

PG: I hope so. Features are bolstered! I know what I want to do, and I’d like to see more verité in these pieces. I’d like to see more getting into what I call the “shrapnel of violence”; the crime doesn’t just happen to the person who’s the victim, it happens to their family and their community. I think we’re starting to really look at that in the genre and a way to do that is through character study and character work. I see our audience is actually hungry to explore bigger issues and I think that the networks and studios are trying to catch up on that to tell “true crime ” and stories.

Through this, I would like people to understand that there are others in this world who do not have the ‘commercial appeal’ or are not washable as Mostly Harmless ( a young, good looking, white male) is. Due to the deep-seated discriminatory cultures, there are unknown corpses lying in anonymity who are hardly going to be reposted for even their kith and kin are also looking in vain. That problem, as well as the problem of the Facebook aspect, was significant to me in this instance.

TS: I feel like I’ve had one last question what are you working on next just out of the clock?

PG: I’m not allowed to say but I’m so thrilled about it

TS: Just One Clue!

PG: It is another story with the backdrop of crime. There are a few underlying themes that crop up and for a lot of them a crime scene kind of finds its way into the story sometimes, it is not intended to be that way it just turns out like that. Quite a number of my films as well have a sub-surface exploration of class; I am working-class and I narrate stories of working-class people and so, the next film has that. Women in my opinion have a great story about her: she is in almost every one of my tales. The role of men in that tale is almost invincible, but I believe this has much to do with the very structure of gender in society. Those are the hints I can give you!

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