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

This is like a primer for people that know nothing about Scientology, its origins, practices or high profile cases. The more you know about it, the less interesting it gets because there's very little original discovery in the documentary.The beginning was very, very interesting. The first 48 minutes had me glued to the screen. It is a biography of LRH. The rest of it, if you're old enough or read enough, is all from the news.

There's not much more to say honestly. Winner of 3 primetime Emmy awards, '' Going Clear '' destroys all of Scientology's lies in one riveting swoop. The whole documentary is really well made and painfully interesting. Good on them for speaking out against this sordid cult.

This is not a documentary, it deliberately shows one side only. All the interviewees are people that have been many many years ago members and all of them have a negative attitude towards Scientology. Isn't it peculiar that ALL of the interviewees are of that sort?It is called hate, discrimination, but even that hate isn't genuine -it's all for the buck only.

Documentarian Alex Gibney produces a devastating investigative report on Scientology based on Lawrence Wright's book. First he lays out L. Ron Hubbard and his questionable past. It's a recitation of his poor war record, his bad marriage, his sci-fi stories and his propensity for fiction in his own life. The movie puts the creation of the religion down to a tax dodge.For the most of the movie, I find the religion being described as a money grab, soft cult. There is true ugliness in the world and this seems to be more of a middling evil. The story that Sylvia 'Spanky' Taylor tells about her child is heart-wrenching but most of the first 2/3 of the movie is reminiscent of a pyramid scheme. In fact, I thought the movie over-stepped by implying that John Travolta stayed because of the records they keep on the members. The movie has nothing to back up that claim and implying it is almost as bad as the Travolta gay rumors running on the supermarket rags.The last 30 minutes is where the true ugliness is recounted. Scientology leader David Miscavige is essentially a paranoid dictator of a vast monetary kingdom. The imprisonment and torture techniques are fascinating. It's rich material to base another movie on. This is an eye-opening look inside some closed doors.