4 stars (out of 5)
Prolific documentarian Alex Gibney (whose many credits include acclaimed studies of James Brown, Fela Kuti, WikiLeaks, sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and Enron) wrote, directed, produced and narrated this sometimes astonishing HBO production. And, as it’s about Scientology, it’s probably the first of his films that he might live to regret, as those vicious Dianetics freaks are smearing his name furiously.
Drawn from Lawrence Wright’s book (Wright appears and says that he originally intended to write a mere article but was sucked in by the extraordinary story), this offers many talking-head-type interviews with former Scientologists, and much of what they say is remarkable. Film director Paul Haggis (of Crash, The Next Three Days and more) speaks as though he can’t believe he was ever involved in the ‘Church’; actor Jason Beghe talks frankly of ‘horseshit’; and PR bigwig Sylvia ‘Spanky’ Taylor explains how she got out after experiencing terrible abuse.
These early chats are intercut with details of the life and work of camera-shy Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard, who holds the record for number of books published (1000+), lied about his service during World War 2 and is painted as a violent and manipulative liar before he hit upon Dianetics in the ‘50s. Gibney and his subjects then explain how the huge success of this ‘philosophy’ (shot through with science fiction, black magic, what we would now call ‘New Age nonsense’ and sheer hatred of psychology) led to Hubbard becoming paranoid, monstrous and an appalling tax evader.
There aren’t many docos that would dare speak in such terms about Scientology’s main-man, but that’s not all, as later some of the highest-ranking lapsed Scientologists (aka ‘squirrels’) confirm all the rumours that you’ve heard. And most controversially, Mark Rinder and Marty Rathbun admit that Hubbard’s replacement (the fairly terrifying David Miscavige) is virtually psychopathic, before also recounting how the marriage of Scientology’s biggest celeb, Tom Cruise, and Nicole Kidman fell prey to the nastiest bullying tactics of the ‘Church’. Some of their surveillance videos and footage of members harassing ‘squirrels’ is then shown, and they play like something out of a horror movie.
Of course, some have accused Gibney of bias or factual blurring with this two-hour investigation, but if it feels one-sided then what do you expect? Miscavige, Cruise and other still-active Scientologists refused to appear, and while the ‘Church’ hasn’t officially hit back and criticised this film’s facts, they have slammed Gibney in videos currently viewable on YouTube, which does tend to suggest that everything here is genuinely and demonstrably true. And that’s seriously scary – although maybe it could be my thetans talking…
I Wake Up Screening 