royfaust Al delivers another excellent performance in this riveting true story about a legend who placed protecting his legacy over the lives of children. We all knew of his greatness and commitment to his program and school, but now we see the struggle and the cover up. It's bad enough what happened to all those kids we know about, it's worse that people want to try to defend those in power who clearly knew what was going on and could have done a lot more to stop it. This film is a statement that power and ego can corrupt even the most well intentioned people.

Kai Stoll It's unfortunate that now a days movies get blasted for their message or perspective, regardless of how well they are made from a cinematic experience. I see this movie get blasted simply because of the way it painted Paterno, or its confusion of "good and bad guys". While everything is this movie was basically factual and based on actual reportings, it actually indicated Paterno much less than I thought it would. Levinson gives life to the personal workings of a darkness that none of could imagine. The brilliant cinematography, along with a stunning Pacino, somehow humanizes the turmoil and pain of someone worshipped as a god for 60+ years, suddenly facing indescribable demons that challenge everything he has ever stood for. If you really paid attention to the message, as well as any other work done on this particular scandal, you can understand that one not need separate the legacy of Joe from the moral character and human.

merelyaninnuendo PaternoThere isn't much to look up to in this plot, no matter how much impact it creates on screen the characters are left off far away disconnected from the audience which is never acceptable especially on such character driven feature. Barry Levinson; the director, tries too hard on executing the anticipated vision but fails to deliver it. And if anything that helps one survive this feature, it is Al Pacino and his brilliant portrayal that is supported with a good cast. Paterno is plausible on some aspects but is piled up by this raw script whose attempt to go in detail on facts leads to an informative art rather than being entertaining one.

MilesKelley And before anyone attempts to call my review a "Penn St faithful" or "Aterno faithful" or anything like it... I'm a Buckeye. Lifelong, die hard Buckeye. So I owe nothing to the Nittany Lions. But I've got to be honest... this movie literally has nothing to do with Joe Pa. This movie should've been titled "Sandusky" and Pacino could have honestly been left out of this film entirely. Save a heavy hitter like him for a real movie about this man. They really wasted Pacino. And it was honestly a pretty ridiculous plot line. They attempted to pin Sandusky's cover up and scandal on Joe, but also attempting to paint him as basically senile or something. Like he seems completely out of it for anything at all besides football. So if that how you feel, then why are you trying to blame him for what Sandusky did? ESPECIALLY considering that the moment Joe heard about it he told the AD exactly what he knew? If Joe is so spaced out and such, why are you attempting to blame him and not the fully of sound mind AD???I don't get this film at all. It seems like they are just trying to capitalize on a big name and big scandal and not actually make a credible or even entertaining film.