It’s a movie starring his nephew in the lead role, approved by his estate, and by all accounts it just feels like an attempt to whitewash him. This is a man who was accused of being a serial child molester, settled with a family out of court for $25 million just to avoid a trial (Chandler), and openly admitted he slept in the same bed as kids while he was an adult (Bashir interview), among other things. I don’t really see what there is to debate.

Anything pointing this out gets backlash on movie-related subreddits, which I find wild. It makes me wonder, if Epstein could sing and dance, would he have gotten a biopic too? Would people be defending him like this?

  • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Just for giggles, I chose to check the wiki for leaving neverland…

    Safechuck says Jackson eventually replaced him with Brett Barnes; Robson claims he was replaced by the actor Macaulay Culkin, who is two years older, because Jackson preferred prepubescent boys

    Funny, Culkin explicitly says nothing ever happened. Culkin must just be lying though, right? One of the people in that documentary said he was the next in line, so that’s that.

    • Optional@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      He’s interviewed at the end of the documentary. It’s worth it.

      A quick scan of wikipedia is not sufficient.

        • Optional@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Yet opinions about any lengthy works by people who have never read / seen / heard those works are abundant.

          • Pinto, the Bean@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            If you think wikipedia is wrong, you can submit proof that the links are inaccurate.

            But they probably don’t listen to people who hate facts that prove them wrong.

            • Optional@lemmy.world
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              22 hours ago

              The one i found said Culkin denied there was any wrongdoing. That was it. That’s the one you’re basing this on? If so, you’re putting a lot of weight on something that isn’t even alleged in the doc.

      • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Should I also watch Loose Change because it’s compelling and would leave me flabbergasted if I didn’t do any other research?

        One of the two kids who the documentary follows makes an outrageous claim that we already know is fake based on the word of the person who allegedly experienced it. Just because you enjoyed it doesn’t mean it’s accurate.

        I don’t even have any skin in he game (I don’t like Jackson’s music, personally), but the rhetoric around the man has always been contentious, and not always consistent. I’m not going to waste tons of time on a subject I don’t care about by watching a documentary that I already know includes a major falsehood from one of the primary subjects.

        Honestly, I wasted more of my life on this subject than I wanted just responding here, so duces.

        • Optional@lemmy.world
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          Should I also watch Loose Change because it’s compelling and would leave me flabbergasted if I didn’t do any other research?

          Well they’re not the same thing at all so your rhetorical comparison shows your lack of good faith in the question.

          One of the two kids who the documentary follows makes an outrageous claim that we already know is fake based on the word of the person who allegedly experienced it.

          What? Try that again.

          I’m not going to waste tons of time on a subject I don’t care about by watching a documentary that I already know includes a major falsehood from one of the primary subjects.

          So you don’t care and you’re wrong and don’t want to see it. Got it.

          Honestly, I wasted more of my life on this subject than I wanted just responding here, so duces.

          Just have a habit of shitting in threads about things you don’t care about, eh. Yeah. Alright then.

      • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Ok but it’s easy for a documentary to make you go insert shocked gif here if they just lie about things

          • edwardnashton@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            bro, there’s so many docs about aliens constructing the pyramids. do i think they did? hell no. Docs are made to make money.

            • Optional@lemmy.world
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              22 hours ago

              Mm. And the Enron doc? Also lying? Fog of War? Made for the money? If all documentaries are to be dismissed for being documentaries, thats fucked up, but ok. If not, this one is a “real” one.

          • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            The other commenter pointed out a pretty major inconsistency in what I assume is one of the main points of the documentary, so if they’re correct, then yes.

                • Optional@lemmy.world
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                  2 days ago

                  Well, he’s like a postscript to the doc. He’s only on it for like two minutes.

                  He [Reed, the director] told Business Insider: “In the end I knew that Macaulay and Brett [Barnes] had made statements consistently rebutting allegations that were made. I’m not in the business of outing anyone. I think we make it very clear in the film that they deny to this day that anything sexual happened and I’m not about to try to change their minds about that.”

                  The doc is about the two boys before Culkin, not the entire group of boys he collected, so dismissing 98% of the movie, and the corroborating accounts Culkin has made seems disingenuous.

                  I understand people don’t want to believe it. But these two guys are direct and their stories match in many ways and they are eminently believable. If it didn’t happen to Culkin, he’d be an outlier, but - good.