Over the years, there have been a number of books, exposés, newspaper and magazine stories, as well as documentaries about the Church of Scientology. Its practices are shady at best, its tactics are abusive and its members are brazen enough to believe themselves above the law.
Even its most bizarre aspects – the sci-fi history stuff with the aliens and the galactic "Overlord Xenu" – are no secret.
So what can a new documentary – even one by famed filmmaker Alex Gibney – reveal that we don't already know? Why showcase Scientology when it's all been said before?
These were the questions nagging at me as I sat down to watch the engrossing new documentary Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief. The answer I received two hours later was – no pun intended – clarity.
Gibney, the documentarian behind dozens of films including Enron: The Smartest Guys In the Room, Taxi to the Dark Side, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In the House of God, We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks and The Armstrong Lie, pulls back to show us the big picture of Scientology, before zooming in to examine the lives it has harmed. Gibney has made a career out of examining the darkest corners of modern culture, the corruption and conspiracies, covering many who have escaped prosecution. Scientology is therefore a perfect target for his razor-sharp lens.
Going Clear kicks off with a history lesson. Everything traces back to L. Ron Hubbard, the prolific pulp fiction writer who dabbled in the occult — although like most aspects of Scientology, Hubbard's past is highly disputed.
There's the squeaky-clean Scientology version, in which he's a virtuous world traveler and expert on pretty much everything — and then there are the documents and records that tell of a con artist and cult leader capable of controlling his followers by force of personality.
Going Clear, which is based on the book by Lawrence Wright, paints Hubbard as an ambitious businessman who grew resentful of the American government's taxation. Eventually, Hubbard became obsessed with creating his own religion, because he believed it was the only way to get rich in a way that the government couldn't touch. If that sounds shamefully opportunistic... Well, Scientology appears to have been built on one outrageous idea after another.
A damning case is made, both against Scientology – exposing it as a scam of epic proportions – and the clever, resourceful man behind it who found ways to perpetuate his lies for decades to amass a fortune off the backs of his followers. For example, when world governments focused their attention on him and his increasing Scientology wealth in the late 60s, Hubbard left the U.S. and moved out to sea, aboard a small fleet of ships that sailed around the Mediterranean Sea for years.
Who does that?
Photo: PictorialEvidence
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