Wow. I was shocked to see that this documentary did not have rave reviews. Director Mark Lewis, who unfortunately has only made too few animal documentaries, really shows off his melodramatic style in this one. Here's what he does: he finds slightly atypical persons who have some strange stories to tell about an animal. Then, he gets stunt animals and has each person re-enact whatever screwball story they want to talk about in the documentary. In _Rat_, he gets New York City rat-attack victims and the rat police who follow their leads to all tell their stories. Mark Lewis does a pristine job of editing the interviewees' stories, and if you pay attention to things like camera angle and lighting then you will see how accomplished he is in his non-standard technique. The voice-overs during the dramatizations will make you laugh, feel scared, be in shock, and make every detail of the show stick in your mind. _Rat_ more so than all other of Lewis' documentaries is gripping to watch and highly melodramatic. _Rat_ is appropriate for viewing in the most conservative elementary schools, but I can also assure you that the tame but surprising rodent antics in this video could win-over even that older bunch who only seem to like the crudest things on film. Check out _Rat_ and you will wonder why nobody else teaches and entertains on video like Mark Lewis does.
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