Educational Media Reviews Online

Sometimes a personal tragedy is transformed into a public catharsis of grief and soul searching. The deaths of Princess Diana and Dale Earnhardt seemed to touch a sensitive chord in our national psyche. Unfortunately, the tragic murder of Stanford University graduate student, Amy Elizabeth Biehl, in South Africa was not one of those events that shook the national consciousness.

Good and Evil is an ambitious documentary that attempts to weave together the violent death of Amy Biehl, the grief over the loss of Stanford University's founder's only son, and the origins of evil in the social problems of ignorance, racism, and sexism.

Regrettably, the ambitious goals of the documentary are not realized. The organization of this documentary lacked clarity. The analogy of Amy Biehl's parents grief over her death and Leland Junior's parents’ grief over his death seems appropriate. Both personal tragedies gave birth to public acts-- the founding of Stanford University by Leland Stanford and the initiation of a scholarship fund in memory of Amy Biehl. However, the videotaped segments of Stanford University's Summer College Course on Good and Evil (interspersed between Amy Biehl's funeral oration) did not fit well into the context of the documentary. For example, the comparison of the World War II deaths of 669 schoolgirls in Hiroshima and the murder of Amy Biehl is tenuous at best. The tragedy of Hiroshima, which was the culmination of a brutal war started by Japan, is simply not comparable to Amy Biehl's murder in South Africa by the people she meant to help.

Moreover, while the other video segments: "Children and Dreams," "Education and the Family," and "One of Us" presented a reaffirmation of liberal values, they did not explore the more complex, mysterious nature of evil. I also feel that the documentary should have spent more time examining the lingering legacy of South Africa's Apartheid system and its implications for the Amy Biehl's murder.

The structure of the video is diffuse, but the production values are top drawer: color is vivid, sound is clear, and editing fast paced. A variety of on location settings kept the documentary visually interesting.

Good and Evil is a well meaning documentary that does not add up to the sum of its parts. Its relevancy seems restricted to the Stanford University community. I wish I could be more positive about this good intentioned documentary but I really cannot recommend it.