Can I Make Pat Cry?

If there's one thing our old friend Pat is known for, it's not for his cuddly nature. That frosty, reptilian demeanor hides little warmth or sympathy; this much I'm sure of after twelve years of knowing him. But just like how you see Darth Vader not immediately dismissing Luke's claims of hidden goodness on Endor, Darth Holland offers up small nuggets of human potential every once in a while.

When I saw Pat's post regarding the BC-Camden game, I saw words that I never thought I'd see the man admit himself: "I cried." There was no sarcasm, no cynicism, and no mockery. He was so emotionally moved that his tear ducts activated and produced physical evidence of...feelings. Now, I'm not ready to believe Pat is on the verge of a face turn, but every good villain has more than one dimension.

I now will begin a series of challenges in order to see if I can make the man cry again. It'll be tough, because any video or movie I present to him will have none of the nostalgic weight that gave the BC video its power. I also have to rely entirely on Pat's word, since no one will be there to see if he indeed held back tears.

And I'm starting big. Going for all the marbles right at the start. Rolling only for Yahtzee. Starting with the essay portion of the test first. And if it doesn't work, I may be SOL. I recently watched a documentary that is infamous for breaking people down, and I can attest to this. I put off watching it for over a year, and having seen it now, I must say the intensity of this movie is unparalleled.

The movie is called Dear Zachary, and my first advice to Pat and to anyone else interested in watching would be to not read a single thing about it. No googling and no reading the description. This is what I had always read people say online, and it really does matter, especially for this challenge. The bare minimum I can offer you is that the filmmaker sets out to make a movie about his childhood friend who was murdered, but that's only the set-up in the first 15 minutes. Here is the link to stream it on Netflix. It has a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes if you need some critical backing in order to watch. It's 90 minutes long, so Pat, don't act like you have anything else to do. Report back to us. We want your tears.