Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015)

[K1stpierre]

Discuss

[Ozymandias]

This nearly made me ashamed to be a part of the human species.  Yes I know there are far worse religious fanatics in the news everyday, but there is just something particularly pathetic about this freak show.  It leaves you feeling more sad than outraged.

[Avatree]

I really wanna watch this but it ain't on any VOD sites that I can see.

[The Panda]

I watched this and wow.  This was an excellent example of documentary filmmaking.  It is riveting, fact-filled, shows its sources, and objective.  It not only exposes Scientology as the crime against humans as it is, but it offers a full picture of how a cult can be formed and how it imprisons people.

 

While this is mainly done by showing the case example of Scientology, it is a relevant comparison to many other cults.  Some of which had been able to perpetrate mainstream religions (such as the television ministries of the 80s that focused on trapping people into their way of thinking).  

 

It shows how a man can manipulate people into practically selling themselves to them, one step at a time, and imprison them by their own will.  In many ways it parallels with dictatorial rises, and how people go all in on a person who knows how to manipulate the thinking of others.

 

It not only exposes the atrocities of Scientology but presents how such an atrocity could be possible in the first place.  How it could happen.

 

Have there been more relevant documentaries than this, on more important issues? Yes.  But few are able to be so clear cut and brilliant in their craft.  

 

I'm very critical and harsh on my grades for documentaries.  Much more so than I am for fictional film, and it's because in a way a good film documentary has to do so much more.  It has to be well-crafted, it needs to be objective or it risks having a null point, and it needs to prove relevance on why the watch was worth it.  Going Clear does that.

 

A

[Goffe]

that was pretty amazing, and terrifying 100/100

[The Futurist]

Could make the same film about any -ism in the dictionary.

 

 

[Blankments]

It's fantastic. A