While this story is compelling and told through an interesting medium, the documentary misses the mark.
“Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal” will make you question the validity of your own college acceptance and degree.
This documentary is told completely through recreations of wiretap conversations that the FBI used to build their case against Rick Singer. What stood out to me about “Operation Varsity Blues” is that those involved in this story thought that they would never be caught. Obviously, this was not the case.
Rick Singer, played by Matthew Modine, is shown on the phone the entire time making deals with rich family members trying to get their children into schools. While these wiretap conversations were interesting, there are certain details left out, and the conversations are combined and modified for time and clarity.
Perhaps, where this documentary fails is that it was made too early. There are no interviews with those who were convicted, and no new information is given to the public in this documentary.
However, “Operation Varsity Blues” does manage to snag Stanford University sailing coach John Vandeomer, and he offers a unique look into how he got swept up into Singer’s college scandal. Yet, his role simply tells you how willing athletic programs are to take any extra cash they can get.
Despite failings, this documentary does a good job of revealing how the upper class exploits the systems universities have created. It also shows how little these colleges are willing to do in order to rectify that problem.
“Operation Varsity Blues” breaks down what Singer calls a “side door” to colleges. Singer would allow rich parents to lie on their children’s applications through false ACT and SAT scores or a background in athletics that they didn’t have.
Even after Singer’s arrest, the back door still exists. This door is commonly a 7 figure donation given by a wealthy individual who expects their child’s application to move to the front of the line. However, Singer’s side door no longer works for entry into colleges.
The question is why do it? “Operation Varsity Blues” points out that sometimes getting into places like Harvard or USC is about prestige more than the educational journey students are on. For example, US News started ranking colleges in the 80s based upon one thing: prestige.
In the end, this documentary shows a montage of those who have been accused and what they have pleaded. This ending slideshow portrays that those who were a part of the college admissions scandal are serving minimal sentences. The highest amount of jail time so far has been a 5-month stint. Although, many of those involved are still waiting for their sentence including Singer.
In fact, you really don’t root for anyone in this documentary. Rather, you see those who are swept up into this scheme and the privilege of the wealthy. You also see the sad and lonely life Singer lives because he is hiding a huge secret.
While there are certain aspects this documentary does well in regards to revealing a broken system, this is an informational piece and it is not compelling as it adds nothing new to the story. Sometimes even the wiretap conversations fell flat as some of them are just random blathering about daily life, and Singer assuring concerned parents that his scheme will work.
“Operation Varsity Blues” relies heavily on the viral nature of this scandal to pull watchers into this story and the natural drama that people seem to be drawn to. Nonetheless, the story fell flat because it is not finished yet. I would only recommend this documentary to those who wish to know more about the scandal, but it is not compelling otherwise.
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