Honest Man: The Life of R. Budd Dwyer (2010)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

I love this movie so much

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

So sad and truly heartbreaking to see how even the best of us can be ripped apart and stomped on by our own. We are an inferior species. I will never understand how people can feel good about themselves by dragging others to their graves. We live in a very self centered country and it appears that we will never learn. Every day I see people who seem to gain pleasure and comfort from trying to break people down. Why do we treat others in a way that none of us would ever wish to be treated? The reviewers appear to have learned nothing. How do you walk away from this with nothing but criticism for how a documentary should be made?

Every viral video or sensational clip that receives airplay or notoriety has a backstory, and Honest Man: The Life of R. Budd Dwyer is a documentary that works to add context to one of the most famous suicides ever captured on video. On January 22, 1987, Pennsylvania Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer, after being found guilty of accepting bribes from a Californian accounting firm, called a press conference before numerous officials and journalists. He was presumably going to announce his resignation, as his sentencing was scheduled to take place the next day. Following a four minute speech about his wife, kids, his innocence, and his legacy as Treasurer, Dwyer pulled a .357 revolver from a manila envelope, pointed it in his mouth, and shot himself, dropping dead instantly having broadcast his suicide to numerous Television stations.One of the most tragic things about Dwyer's case is that what he did, or allegedly did, while in office, is something that is more-or-less legal in state and federal government today. Accepting bribes, or "political donations," isn't uncommon and since the dawn of Citizens United, is something that special interest groups and lobbyists have been doing in excess. Honest Man works to tell Dwyer's side of the story, which has been shortchanged to the extreme act itself.Dwyer's wife, children, and colleagues all appear in the documentary and recount his life and the case that eventually engulfed his life. Dwyer studied political science and accounting in college, eventually running for the general assembly when he graduated. Roy Wilt, a colleague and a legislator, comments how politics was who Budd was and how it took over his life as soon as he began running for the assembly. He goes on to say how Budd would never look at the donators who graciously gave money to his campaign, nor could he ever bring himself to ask for money. While intelligent and crafty, he was extraordinarily humble, especially for a politician.Controversy began to plague his career once he became Pennsylvania's state Treasurer. When Dwyer wouldn't approve of state Governor Dick Thornburgh's wife's plane ticket as a business expenditure, he saw himself on the oust with the Governor. Right then and there, from the perspective of some, Dwyer seemed stubborn as a mule and somebody who was willing to fight over the smallest circumstances. Following this, Pennsylvania discovered that its state workers had grossly overpaid in their federal taxes because of the state withholding funds. This, in turn, led to dozens of accounting firms vying for a multimillion-dollar settlement contract in order to compensate each employee for the amount they overpaid. In 1986, Dwyer allegedly received a bribe from a California accounting firm that was trying to obtain the lofty contract, to which he plead not guilty to, wouldn't agree to a plea bargain, and stood trial in the case.The main witness to Dwyer's act of taking the bribe, William Smith, even admits to lying under oath in the documentary, saying Dwyer took the bribe during a false testimony. Smith admits here that he is, as a result, responsible for Dwyer's subsequent suicide.Dwyer's charisma and almost blue-collar, everyman charm is seen through each piece of archival footage shown in the documentary. He was a man of many commonalities, who in and of himself, didn't seem to have any interest in unethical dealings. During his famous final press conference, it was almost as if Dwyer couldn't believe he was in this situation; he seemed shocked, almost like a deer in headlights, as if he had no idea how he found himself in this situation and was more-or-less forced into it.The death of Dwyer is one of the most bizarre but saddening political tragedies I have yet to read of, and Honest Man does a solid job at detailing it. It's a case that found itself captured in a whirlwind of hearsay and miscalculation that led to the death of an arguably innocent man. Dwyer's surviving children explain in the film not only their reactions to their father's suicide at the time, but how, despite the suicide video's ubiquitous presence online, this kind of thing could happen again. Dwyer's widow, Joanne Dwyer, who died a year before the release of this film, nicely states how we live in a society obsessed with violence, and in this case, violence without much regard to context or history. Both her and her children state how the impact of Dwyer as a political figure and his legacy have, as a result, taken a backseat to the sensationalism and act of his suicide. They're not wrong, and it's depressing to see a story where a sympathetic, and quite possibly innocent, politician has fallen on deaf ears in present time.Directed by: James Dirschberger.

Honest Man is by far one of the most compelling films I've watched in many years. You do not need to be a political person to become enthralled with this very human movie. From the very beginning to the end you will be engulfed in a story of a man who's life was turned upside down in a moment. Life accounts from his family as well as from his colleagues and video clips draw a picture of man who within 75 minutes becomes your friend or a close relative. You will feel his despair as his trial nears and watching this family man succumb to such a desperate end is a true tragedy. What remains is sadness when the movie is over but with it the hope that the lesson here for us is that while we inhabit this earth together, let us remember to treat each other with respect, kindness and honesty.

James Dirschberger's feature-length debut is an astounding portrait of R. Budd Dwyer, the Pennsylvania State Treasurer who committed suicide during a press conference in 1987. For the last 23 years, Dwyer's final moments have been talked about much more than his productive life; so much that it actually has become somewhat of an internet meme despite the event taking place years before people even knew what the internet was. Just three years ago, if you put Dwyer's name into a search engine, all you'd find were suicide related results. Even now it's somewhat difficult to find a picture of Dwyer without the .357 Magnum revolver in his hand… or, in his mouth.Dirschberger attempts to do the man justice by creating a film that covers more of Dwyer's life than his death. In uncovering Dwyer's life, Dirschberger has brought to light many things that were shadowed during Budd's fight for innocence. The film becomes a tale of an honest man driven to the breaking point.The 75 minute documentary covers a lot of the man's life and also the story behind the guilty verdict. Dwyer upstaged many of his achievements in life by the way he died, but he made us care enough to look deeper behind how and why he was found guilty… and, even prosecuted in the first place. What's most impressive about the film is that it gives Budd a second chance; it looks deeper into the CTA scandal and it doesn't allow the suicide to center around the plot like some sensationalizing news style article.To exclude Budd's suicide would deny the impact the CTA scandal had on him, and to include it in its entirety would make the audience focus too much on his death which has already been done for too long. Dirschberger compensates by including the suicide, but taming it down so Budd's story can appeal to more people than just the gorehounds and the morbidly curious.Interviewees include everyone from family, friends and colleagues to William Smith, the man whose testimony convicted Dwyer. It's a story so controversial and easy to misunderstand; hats off to the crew of "Honest Man: The Life of R. Budd Dwyer" for making all the right moves.**** (out of four)