I saw something very human in Oscar Angulo. Am I the only one?
This was a pretty great documentary.
It did an amazing job at skillfully capturing both the physical and emotional interiors of the Angulo family. The children, the mother... A fascinating group of people under fascinating, unique, harrowing circumstances and confinements. I felt like I really got to know this family in under two hours.
I did feel like the portrayal of Oscar Angulo was somewhat manipulative and un-fair, though. This was clearly a man who had CHOSEN to disengage from society, viewing it to be full of evils and wanting to shield his family from those perceived evils. I did find it very interesting to see someone choosing this kind of lifestyle for his family based out of a contempt of religion, for example, as opposed to an embracing of it. That is hardly ever the case when you have sheltered families like this. His motivations seemed to be based around a loathing of the herd mentality lifestyle we see all too often these days.
He made value judgements about the nature of modern society that were his and his alone to make, and though he imposed stricter limitations than most of us would perceive as "normal" on the degree to which his family interacted with that society, he certainly broke no laws and was not shown to be physically or emotionally "abusive" beyond normal standards of parenting. Slapping your wife is certainly NOT acceptable, but it pales in comparison to the kind of physical abuse people who are objectively more accepted by society have been known to dish out, and yet we sometimes give them a free pass because they're living within the conventional standards of modern society.
I thought these children were actually much more interesting and fascinated by things than most suburbanite kids running around shopping malls all day long. The guy clearly had ambitions and a vision for his family unit at the outset, but seemed to fall prey to the conventional kind of laziness that would naturally follow from this immobile, un-present kind of lifestyle that he imposed. So, essentially he became a victim of his own making.
I felt like the documentary needed someone to really "go at" to make it appealing to your normal lazy viewer who views everything, including morality, in black and white. They needed someone to target and paint as evil. I do not think Mr. Angulo was that man, though he - like you and me - is FAR from a perfect human being.
Just my 2 cents