Review 191: Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015)

I remember hearing about Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief and my wife asked about watching it on demand. It seemed as good a time as any to check out a documentary on Scientology. The claims made in the movie are shocking and appalling. It is clearly a one-sided point of view, but mainly due to church officials declining comment. I give Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief the Must See rating.

Going Clear sheds a biased point-of-view on Scientology that is rather interesting

The documentary is a series of interviews primarily from former members of Scientology and their Sea Org that takes an in-depth look at the inner-workings of the Church of Scientology.

Directed by Alex Gibney,  who also directed several other documentaries such as Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and Taxi to the Dark Side, Going Clear paints a clearly biased picture of Scientology. Being a purist for journalism as an unbiased, objective search for the truth, I often avoid documentaries with clear agendas. That said, if any of the stories are accurate or true about Scientology then it truly is a horror movie. The treatment of members and the clear money grab the “religion” represents sounds like a bad plot for a movie.

Anti-church sentiments from former members

This is a documentary that has made me more curious about everything. The interviews with former members of the church like Paul Haggis, Jason Beghe, Spanky Taylor, and David Miscavige make any rebuttal from the church seem like lies. Basically going as far to say that being a PR person for Scientology was being a professional liar. So, as a result, anything I read from the church’s point of view is assumed to be a lie. However, if the people on the documentary were those liars once, who’s to say they are telling the truth now. Integrity and credibility is a fragile thing. It is not easily repaired once it is shattered.

Whether you agree with the content or not, it’s a story that people should hear. The idea of belief is a scary thing. Often it’s easy to watch people who fall for cons, scams, or cults and think “how could anyone believe this nonsense.” Yet, remember that it’s about perspective and often hope for something bigger than ourselves. The search for answers can lead to many different paths. Some more traditional than others.