"Maybe, maybe not."

Brother’s Keeper 08/12/11

Directors: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky

1992

            It is not necessarily the job of a documentary to entertain us. It is not the job of a documentary to intrigue us and pander to our interests. Documentaries, in my opinion, have only to deal with truth, whatever level of truth the film maker wants to show us, and however they want to distort it. This particular documentary is very intriguing, interesting, and has a vein of suspense running through it – did Delbert Ward kill his brother?

            As far as truth goes the directors do not attempt to convince us of Delbert’s guilt or innocence, but I do think they convince us that he is not an evil man. The background of the story is that four brothers – Delbert, Bill, Roscoe and Lyman Ward – run a farm together, where they all live together in a run-down building, semi-literate and increasingly elderly. Bill died. Delbert was arrested for the crime and confessed in questioning with no attorney present, and now in his trial, is denying the charge of second degree murder.

            Now the film opens in the farmhouse, it is messy, dirty, in a state of disrepair. To be honest it is creepy, it could easily be the set of a horror film. Then we see Delbert, himself not in the best shape. The intro titles intercut with a browning, broken clock, empty pill bottles, long and dirty fingernails. It is obvious that these brothers would be easy to vilify and see as strange. We see Delbert herding cows while we hear him being questioned in court and being accused of murder, and wonder how he got from A to B.

            Berlinger and Sinofsky use news to fill us in on the crime, and the apparent motive of mercy. If we heard the story on the news it would be easy to believe, that one brother would kill another to rid him of illness and misery. As one Munnsville resident says, that is what they would do to a sick farm animal. Later in the film we learn that the prosecution are willing to accuse Delbert of killing having an incestuous relationship with Bill, since they share a bed every night. We see the media attention changing Delbert, opening up his world, and see that he doesn’t fully comprehend the meaning of all of it.

            This is an amazing story already, but what makes the documentary worth watching is how close and personal the filmmakers are with the brothers, they try to get a full picture of their lives. Added to this is the brother’s standing in the community – they are mentioned as being smelly, and are still referred to as boys at 60+ years, they are not considered bright – yet the townspeople raised $10,000 bail money as well as money for Delbert’s defence. It became a battle of rural versus city. There are juxtapositions between the locals accent, honest demeanour and farm clothing against police officials in suits with technical jargon.

            As I said, the film remains mostly unbiased and all theories of motives, guilt or innocence are left as an open possibility, but with the intimate look in to these men’s world we can make up our own mind before the jury does. It is an interesting and accessible documentary that I would certainly recommend.