Brother's Keeper

Stars: Delbert Ward, Roscoe Ward. Made on a shoestring budget, Brother's Keeper chronicles the events in Munnsville, NY (pop. 499), beginning on June 6, 1990, when William Ward was found dead in the bed he shared with his brother Delbert. Within hours, Delbert had signed a confession that he had suffocated the ailing William to put him out of his pain. Filmmakers' Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky interview Delbert, Roscoe, and Lyman Ward, the three surviving brothers, elderly bachelors who had lived in a two-room hovel for the past 60 years and worked a 99 acre farm. Combined with commentary from community members, local police, and legal counsel, Brother's Keeper weaves an interesting portrait of rural life as it investigates the possibility that the illiterate Delbert Ward signed a confession he didn't understand. Shot mostly with hand held cameras and on-the-fly sound recording, the film looks and sounds rough--which the Ward brothers, who tend to mumble a lot, don't help (the sound problems are offset, somewhat, by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason's beautiful acoustic score.) Yet, after all the red herrings about local authorities railroading Delbert as part of a real estate scam, or Delbert killing William in a crime of passion, the final trial--which sheds little light on what really happened--is both anticlimactic and confusing. Generously compared to Erol Morris's superb The Thin Blue Line by critics--with which it shares nothing in common except the subject of murder--Brother's Keeper took many Best Documentary honors this past year and landed on over 50 critics' top 10 lists. Audience: Real crime aficionados and adventurous filmgoers.