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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'Leaving Neverland': Sundance's Michael Jackson Doc Leaves Audience Shellshocked
There was no gaggle of protestors outside the Egyptian Theater in Park City, Utah early Friday morning, despite news reports that the Sundance Film Festival had been told to brace for a massive disruption on Main Street. There were, however, policemen patrolling the area with bomb-sniffing dogs, three times the usual security of a typical screening and, per Festival Director John Cooper, healthcare professionals in the lobby in case anyone bothered by the material needed to talk to someone immediately.
The warning to the packed house was warranted: Leaving Neverland, Dan Reeds two-part, four-hour documentary focusing on two men who claimed that Michael Jackson had abused them as children, opens with a disclaimer about graphic descriptions of sexual acts involving underage participants. And after hearing these subjects recount in horrifying detail what they say took place in various hotels, houses and on the Neverland Ranch, its hard not to feel that youve experienced post-traumatic stress disorder yourself. During a 10-minute intermission, audience members appeared slightly dazed. By the end of the screening, the crowd looked completely shellshocked.
Centered primarily around extensive on-camera interviews conducted with Wade Robson and James Safechuck with additional testimonies from their family members and spouses Neverland begins with the two men recalling their first encounters of the King of Pop. For Robson, an Australian kid who became enamored of the singer after his mother Joy brought home a Making-Of Thriller videotape, hearing Jacksons music for the first time led to obsessively studying the artists moves; after getting first prize at a Jackson-themed dance contest at a mall, he won the chance to meet the man himself during a concert stop in Brisbane. He was eventually pulled onstage to perform his moves for the crowd and spent time with the pop star at his hotel before Jackson left. If youre ever in America, Jackson tells the Robson family, look me up. That would eventually lead to Joy, Wade and his sister being invited to spend time at the ranch later on. By this time, the child had permed his hair and taken to wearing carbon copies of Jacksons outfits. He was seven years old.
As for Safechuck, a gig acting in a Pepsi commercial in which he sneaks into Jacksons dressing room, trying on the singers sunglasses until the man himself shows up brought him into the singers orbit. Unlike Robson, he wasnt a superfan; like Robson, he was immediately enamored of the pop superstar paying attention to him and making him feel important. Jackson also befriended the family, often having dinner and movie nights at the Safechuck house in Simi Valley, California. He flies the family to Hawaii during a Pepsi convention, and invites the boy to sleep in his hotel room. On the flight back, you can hear the singer flattering James to an unusual degree. Jackson invites the family to his pre-Neverland estate, eventually convincing the Safechucks to let James stay there on his own with the singer. He was 10 years old.
Neverland keeps cutting between these two stories, as the men begin to recall how the singer would allegedly initiate physical contact during sleepovers and escalate things from there. The stories suggest a similar pattern of childlike playing, followed by claims of grooming, mutual masturbation, further sexual advances and long lectures from Jackson about how you couldnt really trust your parents, and you definitely could not trust women. Gifts, trips and other high-life perks are lavished on family members, yet both boys mothers recall how theyd consistently be separated from their sons whenever the chance arose. Safechuck recalls how Neverland Ranch was set up with a series of tucked-away bedrooms and secret rooms where these alleged sexual activities could take place without folks knowing. Robson, who Jackson nicknamed Little One, describes a secret wedding between the two.
https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-features/leaving-neverland-michael-jackson-doc-sundance-784801/
sunonmars
(8,656 posts)There had to be people covering up for him.
If you are powerful enough and throw enough money at it, you can get away with anything.
I'm still amazed how the parents would let a 10 yr old boy sleep in a grown mans bedroom and not question it or stop it stone cold dead.
cynatnite
(31,011 posts)His superstardom and being so beloved is why no one believed it. Not only that, how he portrayed himself to people around him likely was convincing as well. It's Michael Jackson. He would never do such horrible things.
Plus, he manipulated those children in how to talk to their parents, so they would be kept in the dark as well. Everyone wanted to believe the best of him.
I used to be a huge fan of his and I felt for his children when Jackson died.
misanthrope
(7,418 posts)it all becomes clear. He chose and groomed not only his victims but their families.
Ilsa
(61,695 posts)from my kids when they were so young, but I guess the master manipulators found ways to make it work.
I can't really enjoy much of MJ's music anymore because of what he did or allegedly did.
sunonmars
(8,656 posts)misanthrope
(7,418 posts)But look at our culture. Look at how celebrity-centered it is, how many people lack critical thought and rational skepticism. Look at the hordes willing to sell their dignity for the most fleeting moments of fame on reality television. Where do you think those people on Dr. Phil, Jerry Springer and the like came from? It's all related.
PatSeg
(47,501 posts)The evidence was overwhelming at the time. I never got the idol worship of Jackson. The man was very strange and his behavior suspicious. I wouldn't have left my children alone with him.
obamanut2012
(26,080 posts)Grown men do not innocently sleep with children not their own. He was scum, and the excuses the media and people -- including many liberals -- gave him was sick. People compared this to McMartin and other Satanic Panic incidents.
PatSeg
(47,501 posts)was nonstop, as if nothing else was happening in the world. You'd have thought that a president had passed away. I had to turn the TV off, it was insane.
hlthe2b
(102,292 posts)HELL NO. Uggh.
OneBro
(1,159 posts)The jury from Jacksons actual trial.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)Jackson on the word of two men that have been in Court and have been unsuccessful at getting millions of dollars from him or his estate. It all boils down to what a particular person is willing to believe, in some cases they dismiss witnesses as not credible and yell for due process, in other cases they summarily believe hearsay, even though the rigors of criminal and civil court proceedings showed nothing was done wrong by the person they rushed to convict.
meadowlander
(4,397 posts)and one of the housekeepers testified that she saw Michael showering with one of them.
And the lawsuits were only dismissed because they were filed outside of the statute of limitations - not because they were not found to be credible in their accusations.
Have you actually seen the documentary? If you haven't, you should. Nobody is that good of an actor.