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Looking forward to this HBO Docu.
Bombshell Scientology Film Revealed: Alex Gibney on Cruise, Travolta and 'the Prison of Belief'
Quote:
Gibney's film, based on Lawrence Wright's 2013 best-seller Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief, is set to become one of the most-talked-about documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival. The exhaustively researched (and lawyered) exploration of the controversial church and its ties to Hollywood is set for a Jan. 25 premiere at the MARC Theater and will air March 16 on HBO after an awards-qualifying theatrical release in New York and Los Angeles.
Going Clear is the latest film to emerge from what has become Gibney's amazingly prolific factory of awards-magnet documentaries. (Having written about Scientology over the years, I should state that I am a talking head in the film.) It features vintage footage of enigmatic church founder L. Ron Hubbard as he builds his empire as well as rare sequences shot inside Scientology gatherings, some of which include the church's biggest star, Tom Cruise.
Looks like Xenu is not taking this sitting down....
New York Times Runs Scientology Ad Targeting Upcoming HBO Documentary
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Rarely has this gif felt more appropriate:
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Oooooh. I have to watch this.
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Seems kind of a shame to target Cruise (again) about all this. He's always seemed like a stand-up guy regardless of his crazy religion, and his career's been great.
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I don't see anything that indicates that they're "targeting" Cruise. Guess we'll see.
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Cruise's name brings instant recognition, so I imagine it's strategically done to build awareness for people who otherwise don't care. Scientology is terrible, but big deal right? But if Cruise is linked to them? Oooooooohhhhh, scandalous...it's just the way some people's minds work unfortunately.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ambler 
Cruise's name brings instant recognition, so I imagine it's strategically done to build awareness for people who otherwise don't care. Scientology is terrible, but big deal right? But if Cruise is linked to them? Oooooooohhhhh, scandalous...it's just the way some people's minds work unfortunately.
Unfortunately explains why Edge of Tomorrow didn't do that well. Too many conversations with people that ended with "eew Tom Cruse is in this? I don't wanna watch that movie."
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ska Oreo
Unfortunately explains why Edge of Tomorrow didn't do that well. Too many conversations with people that ended with "eew Tom Cruse is in this? I don't wanna watch that movie."
I don't think the scientology stink is doing Travolta any favors either.
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01-22-2015, 12:46 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-22-2015, 12:47 PM by ambler.)
A[quote name="Ska Oreo" url="/community/t/152932/going-clear-scientology-hollywood-and-the-prison-of-belief#post_3833862"]Unfortunately explains why Edge of Tomorrow didn't do that well. Too many conversations with people that ended with "eew Tom Cruse is in this? I don't wanna watch that movie."
[/quote]
Edge didnt do as well bc it was marketed poorly. Cruise still pulls in big bucks via the Mission Impossible franchise, so it doesnt seem to be as much if an "ew" thing as first thought. If it was, those people would avoid MI too.
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AAnd people who saw EOT liked it. 100 million from a 28 million opening weekend indicates good word of mouth.
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01-22-2015, 10:16 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-22-2015, 10:17 PM by Reasor.)
AThis Crooks And Liars article on the infeuding that broke up a white supremacist organization segways into an illuminating history of the Church of Scientology's doctrine of Holocaust denialism:
Quote:Scientology's keen interest in Holocaust revisionism is a major reason why the German government monitors the cult of L. Ron Hubbard, whose imaginary history of the Second World War blames Jewish psychiatrists for the mass deaths of Jews. Scientology critics have been talking about this issue for years because it's not just a phenomenon on the fringes of the cult, but seems to be an actual church doctrine. For example, David Miscavige, the current leader of Elron Hubbardism, has discussed the Holocaust in front of Scientology audiences thusly:
Miscavige then tells us the horrors of the Holocaust "did not begin with a Nazi declaration of war".
He says: "The bureaucracy, the methodology, even the ideology for mass murder, sprang fully-armed from the forehead of German psychiatry."
I, for one, look forward to the Church getting more of this kind of press once Gibney's film starts getting talked about in earnest.
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01-27-2015, 06:05 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-27-2015, 06:08 PM by ambler.)
Quote:
The festival's most hotly anticipated documentary did not disappoint, however. The revelations were almost as numerous as the number of lawyers HBO Documentary Films hired to vet the movie (160).
Among the bombshells asserted by eight former church members: Scientology intentionally broke up Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman; it tortured some of its members in a prison known as "the hole" and subjected others to hard labor; it harassed those who left the organization and forced their family members to cut off all contact.
The film also claims that Hubbard beat and threatened his first wife and kidnapped their daughter, leaving her in Cuba in the care of a mentally disabled woman. It also detailed Hubbard's elaborate cosmology incorporating space aliens, invading spirits, volcanoes and other elements that his sci-fi writing had contained.
Spanky Taylor, a former publicist and friend of Travolta, details how her infant daughter was taken away from her and left in a urine-soaked crib and unsanitary, fly-infested conditions. Meanwhile, Taylor was forced to do arduous physical labor while she was pregnant. Fed up, Taylor took her child and escaped from the church. She attended the premiere with her daughter Vanessa, now grown, whom Gibney called "the stolen baby."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movie.../22337995/
Can't wait to see this shit...going to be glorious...
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AThe church was awarded its tax exempt status in America as recently as 1993? There's a story. I want to see that movie.
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trailer...
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AI'll probably become a Scientologist.
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AYou're being glib and suppressive.
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02-19-2015, 08:22 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-19-2015, 08:23 PM by vtran.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bradito
I'll probably become a Scientologist. Just make sure they use the 'Mark VIII Ultra E-meter' as the earlier versions 1-7 weren't as "accurate".
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Caught the first half of it last night. Scary as hell and pretty thoroughly damning of Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard. Based upon what I saw, I question how anyone could possibly fall for this scam.
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AI dunno. It made me sympathize with how anyone could be trapped by something like this.
Less for the actual belief stuff, but through social forces and no free will.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mcnooj82
I dunno. It made me sympathize with how anyone could be trapped by something like this.
Less for the actual belief stuff, but through social forces and no free will. Oh, make no mistake...anyone who gets trapped by this church has my complete sympathy. It's brain washing, pure and simple, and they get so much leverage on you that you CAN'T leave them for fear of being ruined, financially and otherwise.
I have full and complete admiration for anyone who has been able to escape this cult, be they a major celebrity or an ordinary citizen. They are all survivors.
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AIt's the first time I'd ever seen what Hubbard looked like.
I see that face jabbering its BS and I just wanna smash it on a curb. What a creep.
Fascinating creep though.
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Yeah, it was the actual footage of the guy that was the most unnerving. I found myself staring at his bad teeth more than anything.
I'll be honest: I'm really tempted to go to a local Scientology church and do their free e-meter test just to see what happens.
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ATHAT's HOW THEY GET YOU!!!
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03-30-2015, 10:51 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-30-2015, 10:51 AM by Judas Booth.)
Oh my God...this is perfect. I just did a search for where the local Scientology church is...it turns out that they moved into the old Science Museum in St. Paul. There's something so oddly crazy about that.
Oh, and Nooj? I'll be sure and bring my wallet if I go.
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AIsn't the e-meter session basically the interrogation, where they collect the dirt that they use to leverage members later? Go in with a fake ID and a litany of bloodcurdling impulses that you claim to want help with.
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03-30-2015, 10:52 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-30-2015, 10:53 AM by Nooj.)
ASOMEBODY STOP HIM!!!
SUCH HUBRIS
I can't imagine there hasn't already been people who have tried pranking these auditors with fake identities.
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No, if I do it, I'll do it legit. I'll even be open about the fact that I watched the documentary. I just kinda want to see it all for myself and make my own judgment on the church from firsthand experience vs merely watching a documentary.
If I go Tom Cruise Crazy, I trust one of you to call me out on it.
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AYou'd just drop us all for being SPs!!!
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03-30-2015, 11:22 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-30-2015, 11:22 AM by fraid uh noman.)
AThe first few questions are probably "what are your bank account numbers" and "did you ever go BOTH WAYS in college."
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Judas Booth
I'll be honest: I'm really tempted to go to a local Scientology church and do their free e-meter test just to see what happens.
Make sure you give them a fake phone number and fake address.
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AWhen I lived in Hollywood a decade ago, I took the church's free IQ test on a whim because I was broke and bored one evening. Apparently, I have an IQ of 143.
They had some other test where they ask questions about whether or not you've had homosexual sex, used drugs, etc. Oh, and then they sent me into a screening room where I watched a short film about a football player who overcame quadriplegia through Scientology.
There are probably better things to do when you're broke and bored in Hollywood.
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