Summary of Scaredycat by Andy Blubaugh

Andy Blubaugh’s “Scaredycat” is a short film documentary which takes a deeper look at fear and how a crime effects a victim. This short film begins by introducing some information about Andy, including references to conversations with his father and friends regarding rituals he performed starting as a young boy. These rituals involved actions such as lining up a magazine such that it laid parallel to the edge of what it was resting on, or avoiding stepping on the cracks on the sidewalk. By doing these things, he is able to better control his fears. what Andy believes he’s able to There are also scenes that give a glimpse into one of his fears, black men, due to Andy being the victim of a robbery.

In the next scene, Andy is shown as a victim of robbery, this is shown in a quirky cartoon style. He believed that all those that attacked him were black, but they were actually white, black, and Hispanic. Instead of being shown in a dramatized way with real actors, which might instill fear in the viewer, the same fear Andy has, the cartoon style serves more of a story telling purpose. Because of his belief, Andy now has a fear of black men. He realizes this fear is wrong, and he knows that those who robbed him and beat him up were not all black, but avoiding black men was what he could do to alleviate fear, so this is what he did. In what is possibly the most powerful scene of this documentary, Andy contacts one of the men who attacked him. Andy asks questions of his attacker in attempts to get to know him better and to understand what he did and why he did it. It is in this part of the film that we learn about Oregon’s Measure Eleven, which is a mandatory sentencing law. This raises the question – is this fair? To the victim, in this case Andy, he seems to be able to detach himself from the crime committed against him to see his attacker’s side, but he still recalls that night and acknowledges for his own sake, he is content with the jail sentence.

Andy Blubaugh’s short documentary on the fear he has based on being a victim of a robbery also addresses some of the negative impacts on the attackers. These consequences, while deserved, raise questions about how effective minimum sentencing laws are. Do these laws assist a prison in accomplishing the task it set out to do, which is to rehabilitate criminals? Or does taking away the opportunity to get out on good behavior actually prevent a prison from proper rehabilitation or inmates? While the film never answers these questions, it is a thought provoking topic that viewers are left with. However, the focus of the film, Andy’s fear, is resolved in a sense. It is acknowledged that he has fears and that he does things to mitigate the impact of these fears on his day to day life. The end of the film sees Andy sitting across from a black man on a train, but this time, he is not shown getting up and off the train. He might not be over the fear, but there is an implication that his fear is no longer controlling his every move. He may never stop lining up a newspaper with the edges of the seat upon which it is resting, but maybe he can sit across from a reminder of the night he was attacked without getting off of the train.