Abducted in Plain Sight - 2017
There are some stories which are so singular, so crazy and wonky, and most importantly, so dependent on just about every star and planet aligning in the perfect way in EVERY circumstance, that if one little iota was different it would have all fallen apart. We have literally dozens of examples of this from the world of sports. True MJ fans will recall two alone in the '98 Bulls title run. Or the US hockey team in '80. Or Tiger's chip in at the Masters on 16. Inches. Seconds. Jump balls. Coin flips.
But there are some of these on the negative side as well. Remember the Titanic? It's said that the glacier hit a mere few feet along the starboard side. Not a bang, but a "scrape." Just a few more feet of turning left, or a less foggy night, or...or...
I am reminded of a line from The Mighty Ducks. Emilio Estevez is talking to his star player, Charlie, about the goal he missed when he was a gifted youngster himself. "A quarter of an inch this way and it would have gone in," he says. "A quarter of an inch, Charlie." Do you remember Joshua Jackson's response? Let me clear the cobwebs: "Yeah, but a quarter inch the other way and you'd have missed completely."
Abducted in Plain Sight is the "missed completely." It is what happens when every, single, little, minutiae, decision, phone call, choice, parental advisement, manipulative word, and lifted charge goes that quarter of an inch wrong.
Briefly scanning Letterboxd reviews from my peers on this one has elicited a common response - call it the "What the fuck" phenomenon. As in, I just spent about 90 minutes saying WTF over and over again. This was close to the one my wife had beside me (if you add in an occasional swinging arm slap of my shoulder, as if I was the perpetrator). I have to admit. You all are not wrong. This is about as disturbing a watch as it gets.
And yet I could not help being struck by the circumstantial nature of it all. It must be stated firmly and emphatically at the outset that Bob Berchtold was a master manipulator. The ways that he could turn and manipulate people (not just the Broberg's, as it would turn out) play like a modern take on Rasputin. He had the subtlest of ways to get under people's skin, to indebt himself to them for him to call forth favors whenever the need arose. The rooster always came home to roost when Jan was around. He ran the game, and all the other pieces on the board were pawns.
Now, of course, part of the "WTF" of it all is our anachronistic reading of the sordid details of the case. Quite simply, things were just different in the 70's (so I've read...and heard). There was no Sandusky. There was no national registry of sex offenders. We hardly had the nomenclature of pedophilia in our psychological toolbox, let alone a law enforcement one. If we take Mindhunter as our guide (and this seems to me to be an almost unimpeachable positive beacon to follow), the science for all of this was barely in its nascent phase. Berchtold was not a serial killer, but he WAS decidedly a serial offender.
So B went to work. He hoodwinked the mother, caught the father in a compromising action, and ensnared poor little Jan in his sick clutches. But that's what I just can't shake. The horror of it. If just ONE thing could have gone differently. If they had taken her to counseling after her first abduction or pushed her on the details of her interactions with Berchtold (again, a victim of the time in history in all likelihood), perhaps they would have saved her from the rest. If they would have changed their home number. If they would have just aired their own dirty laundry so that they could keep the heat on B. If she would have just been a few years older (and therefore not even bought the "mission" in the first place).
If. If. If.
And yet, it wasn't meant to be. Instead, we're left with this harrowing tale of manipulation, rape, and pedophilic sickness. But fortunately, in the end, we're left with something else besides. Put simply, GUTS. Courage. The power and will to overcome. For that is who Jan Broberg is and what she has done. She deserved none of what she suffered at the hands of an untrustworthy adult, but she has fought her way back most nobly AND paid it forward by offering her words to other victims who may be suffering. We all should sing her praises from the rooftops. Her bravery is monumental, her strength as high as Berchtold's weakness was low. She stands tall to this very day.
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