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“Do I Look Brainwashed To You?” – Louis Theroux’s My Scientology Movie (Film Review)
Vulture Hound: “Do I Look Brainwashed To You?” – Louis Theroux’s My Scientology Movie (Film Review)
http://vulturehound.co.uk/2016/10/d...is-therouxs-my-scientology-movie-film-review/
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Of all of the Louis Theroux canon to date, my favourite of his contributions to journalism is his description of BBC reporter John Sweeney going “shouty-crackers” when continually hounded by Scientology members when filming a documentary about the church. You can imagine my excitement upon finding out Theroux was to take on the church in a documentary of his own.
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One of Theroux’s greatest skills as a documentary maker is to present the blackly comic aspects of his subjects, to draw out the funny side, without making light of their essential moral and intellectual wrongness. Also, his commitment in attempting to portray his subjects as real people with good intentions, is never more apparent than it is in this film. Theroux is continuously thwarted by a high-ranking church member, Catherine Fraser, as he attempts to film outside one of the church’s buildings. Coincidentally, Fraser happens to be the ex-wife of Jefferson Hawkins, one of the contributors to this documentary and author of Counterfeit Dreams, a book about the church and his defection from it. Hawkins, when asked by Theroux, says his ex-wife is “trapped in a not-good system” but knows she is a “good person at heart.” And that’s probably the perception of Scientology most accurately conveyed in this film – well-intentioned people tricked into working for an organisation with a heart of darkness. As funny and ludicrous scientology may seem to us (and is), it has ruined the lives of real people trapped in its beliefs and there are some who may never get out.
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Vulture Hound: “Do I Look Brainwashed To You?” – Louis Theroux’s My Scientology Movie (Film Review)
http://vulturehound.co.uk/2016/10/d...is-therouxs-my-scientology-movie-film-review/
* * * * * BEGIN FIRST PARAGRAPH * * * * *
Of all of the Louis Theroux canon to date, my favourite of his contributions to journalism is his description of BBC reporter John Sweeney going “shouty-crackers” when continually hounded by Scientology members when filming a documentary about the church. You can imagine my excitement upon finding out Theroux was to take on the church in a documentary of his own.
* * * * * END FIRST PARAGRAPH * * * * *
* * * * * BEGIN LAST PARAGRAPH * * * * *
One of Theroux’s greatest skills as a documentary maker is to present the blackly comic aspects of his subjects, to draw out the funny side, without making light of their essential moral and intellectual wrongness. Also, his commitment in attempting to portray his subjects as real people with good intentions, is never more apparent than it is in this film. Theroux is continuously thwarted by a high-ranking church member, Catherine Fraser, as he attempts to film outside one of the church’s buildings. Coincidentally, Fraser happens to be the ex-wife of Jefferson Hawkins, one of the contributors to this documentary and author of Counterfeit Dreams, a book about the church and his defection from it. Hawkins, when asked by Theroux, says his ex-wife is “trapped in a not-good system” but knows she is a “good person at heart.” And that’s probably the perception of Scientology most accurately conveyed in this film – well-intentioned people tricked into working for an organisation with a heart of darkness. As funny and ludicrous scientology may seem to us (and is), it has ruined the lives of real people trapped in its beliefs and there are some who may never get out.
* * * * * END LAST PARAGRAPH * * * * *