Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father Blu-ray Movie Review

Good God. I wish I had never watched this. Yet I'm so glad I did.

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown May 17, 2024

It's difficult to discuss Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father without spoiling its power, punch and heart-wrenching narrative. It's a true story, to be sure. This is no mockumentary or staged horror doc, though you'll wish it were. It's about a small family, broken in the wake of their adult son's murder and their long, grueling attempts to gain custody of their grandson from his biological mother, who just so happens to be the murderer. There's no mystery in any of the setup. You'll be certain of her guilt from the jump. But it's the manner in which Dear Zachary unfolds, and the sudden bursts of visual and aural emotion that erupt on screen and in your speakers as the film's director -- close friend of the victim, Kurt Kuenne -- eventually allows the full force of his anguish, grief and rage to seep into the film itself. It's a potent documentary, one of the best true crime docs I've ever seen, and it will leave you shaken, unsettled and at a loss long after you walk away.

In 2001, 28-year-old Dr. Andrew Bagby is found dead in a park in Pennsylvania, shot by his ex-girlfriend and soon-to-be mother of his unborn child, Shirley Turner. Fleeing to Canada in the wake of the killing, she manipulates the justice system and walks free, after paying a small bail. Andrew's shocked parents campaign to gain custody of the infant and, ultimately, to bring their son's killer to justice. But their desire to see things set right is greeted by constant heartache as Turner miraculously manages to stay one step ahead of Andrew's parents and the law at every turn. Filmmaker Kurt Kuenne pairs this story with home movies and interviews with those who knew Andrew, hoping to one day gift his best friend's son, Zachary, an opportunity to meet his father. Presented as a "Dear Zachary" docu-letter, it's a stunning, at-times patience-testing, gut-ripping experience you'll absolutely hate-watch from start to finish. In the end, you -- like everyone who comes to the film -- will be overwhelmed with emotion and probably wish you never had come across the film. It's that good, and the story at its core is that awful.

Dear Zachary is crafted with a deft touch, but it's much like any other gripping true crime doc you'd find on Netflix. Until, that is, Kuenne subverts long-established documentary "rules" and begins to invade the film. It begins with small bits of despair leaking into the narration and slowly, painstakingly invades more and more throughout the film, until at one key point in the story, Kuenne, and the screen, explodes with anger. I've never quite seen anything like it before or since. Normally it would be an intrusive, irritating development. Documentary filmmakers who enter their own work (a la Michael Moore) risk alienating portions of their audience and biasing the very truth they're working to uncover. Here, though, it feels so raw, so necessary, so organic that, upon finishing the film, I can't imagine it playing any other way. It should be noted that there's no happy ending to be had here, and no update prior to the credits that will bring anyone anything resembling closure, but this is a story about failed justice, hinging on mental illness, and smothered with baffling, (in retrospect) inevitable twists and turns that not only suggest evil is a very real thing, but suggest the universe might just be as cruel, random and callous as some believe it to be.

It helps that Kuenne clearly isn't a party who's taking advantage of a sad story or looking to exploit David and Kathleen Bagby's plight for his own fame and fortune. He's a friend, pure and simple. His motives are sincere and his eagerness to create a time capsule for little Zachary is as noble as you might imagine. Christopher Campbell, in one of my favorite quotes about the film, says Kuenne's first directorial effort "will rip you apart inside and pour your guts out through your tear ducts." Visceral but dead on. His subsequent films, Batkid and Shuffle, are well worth watching as well, but it's unlikely he'll ever match the potency and unforgettable kick of Dear Zachary. I can't say any true crime tale could, simply because Kuenne does such an excellent job of concealing key plot points until they leave you almost as shocked as Kuenne and Andrew's parents. If there's a hell, Turner is there. And if that sounds too subjective for a review, just wait till you watch the film and see what you have to say.

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Comprised largely of home movies, news clips and modestly shot interview footage with friends and family, Dear Zachary's 1.33:1 1080p/AVC- encoded video transfer isn't exactly a striking piece of cinema. But anything more pleasing to the eye would take away from the earnest, homegrown nature of the production. Color and contrast are dialed in nicely, and detail is as revealing as the various source materials allow. There doesn't appear to be any encoding issues either. Macro-blocking, moire shimmer, halos and other standard definition anomalies are present throughout, but virtually all of the issues trace back to the original elements, not the Blu-ray presentation itself. But you won't care about any of it, honestly. Long before Dear Zachary sinks its teeth in, you'll be too taken with the story to nitpick the image.

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Dear Zachary's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is engaging and immersive, but purely thanks to the sound design rather than any technical prowess. Again, the film's tone and tenor is front and center. LFE output is strong and assertive, rear speaker activity is engaging, and voices are clear and intelligible at all times (though the humble nature of the documentary audio mics and recording prevails during interviews). There's no sexy tricks of the lossless trade, nor is there much beyond the fact that you will definitely remember the moment the film and its audio come apart at the seams and skirt all rules of documentary filmmaking. It's here, two-thirds of the way through, that Dear Zachary's lossless track makes its presence and power known.

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• New Video Epilogue (HD, 15 minutes) - Director Kurt Kuenne delivers a new extended retrospective epilogue, complete with an opening spoiler warning since all the revelations of the documentary are discussed.

• Additional Footage (HD, 24 minutes) - More footage of Andrew and Zachary, divided into three segments.

• Expanded Scenes (HD, 10 minutes) - Additional interview segments and archive clips cut from the final film.

• Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2 minutes)

• Other Oscilloscope Release Trailers (HD)

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I actually hope you stopped reading my review -- or any review -- long before Dear Zachary was described in full to you. Avoid as much description and detail as possible and go in as blind as you can. It's a documentary meant to be felt and experienced rather than merely watched. Fortunately you can't really go wrong with its Blu-ray release. Though the AV presentation isn't anything to write home about, it's proficient and more than up to the task at hand. The fact that it includes multiple extras and additional footage only helps, despite the fact that no one will blame you if you're too distraught by the credits to watch any supplemental material.