Spellbound
by Kernon Gibes
In case you didn't know, "Spellbound" isn't the name of a 'me too' movie trying to capitalize on the laurels of "Lord of the Rings" or, for that matter, "Harry Potter". It is a documentary on the national spelling bee of 1999. And it's worth seeing.
It was a bit difficult for me to believe that a documentary on spelling could possibly hold my interest. You see, I am a terrible speller - one of the unfortunate victims (to borrow post-modernist terminology) of an abandonment of phonetics with no rational substitute.
But I was pleasantly surprised. The show did an admirable job of making the contest come alive by following the lives of eight students as they rose to the top of their regional engagements and made their way to the national finale.
There were some uneven aspects to the documentary. The writers choose to concentrate on the studying methods of some but only the social environments of others. Hence, we know that Angela (the daughter of immigrant Mexican parents) comes from a very small rural school and a poor background, but not much about how she studied. Alternatively, we know a great about the spelling tactics adopted by Neil. Neil's father takes a very deliberate, calculated approach to enhancing his son's chances. He hires private tutors to help Neil according to the language of origin (Spanish, German, etc.) of the words to be studied. The father compiled a list of all previous words used in National contests to drill his son on as well as "analyzing" the spelling mistakes in order to discern any possible pattern to the failures. I was reminded of the stereotypical "stage mother" while observing Neil's parent as the ultimate spelling bee father.
With my Objectivist hat on, I wondered to what extent the documentary would satirize and hold up for rebuke Neil's father and his (shall I say) capitalistic approach to helping his son. It seemed close at times, but in the end, I felt that if they were truly seeking such a goal, then they failed. Neil's father may have been pushier than the rest, but not distant, cold or uncaring. He simply had the money, energy, and the will to do more. Having a soft spot for hard-working underdogs, I'll have to admit that I was silently campaigning for one of the other contestants to win. But the documentary did not, as far as I could see, make one dislike or specifically hope for Neil to lose. There was just the feeling - more so than the others - that Neil was a creation of his father's ambitions.
There was comic relief too, as when the hyperactive Harry Altman asked if the boom microphone was edible, or when a couple's dog came on camera and started licking the leg of one of the mothers.
Unlike far too many stories these days, achievement and working extremely hard to achieve a goal was not mocked - it was celebrated. There was an occasional aside here and there about the meaning of it all, such as when one parent discussed whether the whole thing might not be a form of child abuse. But the love and pride of each parent as they rooted for their son or daughter was unmistakable and the meaning of the contest to the spellers was evident. These things shone through any possible fog of ulterior messages that might have been present.
And you know what? Not once did anyone suggest that the spelling bee should give up declaring a single winner and award cute little badges of merit to all participants!
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