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7 Excellent But Morally Problematic Movies

Movies possess a power over popular culture, one that is diminishing but nevertheless impossible to ignore. They have the ability to broadly influence people in a way that perhaps no other form of art/entertainment is currently able to do. With that great power, it is said, subsequently comes great responsibility. So for as long as it has been culturally significant, film has for many people been the subject of a certain moral requirement, that it should teach its huge audiences how to be righteous while it entertains their attention.

[h2]6: Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey[/h2]

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This is one instance where hindsight is a killer. Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey was one of my favorite documentaries from 2011, telling the story of Kevin Clash’s enduring love of the Muppets and Sesame Street and chronicling his journey toward realizing his dream of being a professional puppeteer at the Jim Henson Company. It’s tremendously engaging and captures the magic of the Muppets for the generations that grew up on Jim Henson’s work. Clash comes off as a delightful, determined individual who overcame some big obstacles to get his puppet to his spot in the Muppet pantheon.

Since the news of Clash’s legal issues involving sex with minors, I’m more conflicted on how to evaluate this documentary, which paints a very flattering and rosy picture of who Kevin Clash is, both as a professional and as a person. While they remain allegations, I’m curious to know whether the filmmakers behind this documentary knew about the situation, which would either call into question a decision to edit that part of his story out, or their glossing over fairly big revelations in their research, resulting in a portrait of pure veneration rather than trying to understand a complicated figure.

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