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Youthquake67
Reviews
Orientation: A Scientology Information Film (1996)
Highly Americanised propaganda for a suspicious organisation
Like for the vast majority of people (i.e. non-Scientologists) this is simply a heavily subliminal, subjective, and utterly bizarre insight into Scientology. Presented as an introduction to the "religion" (which it spends a lot of its time arguing its case for), this short documentary constantly attempts to entice the viewer into its world without really explaining what a Scientologist actually believes in, followed by plenty of overly exaggerated statistics of the literary successes of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and its number of headquarters and followers. In regard to his books, "They sell out fast", apparently.
Scientology is more or less the QVC lover's religion, or at least this video makes it appear that way. The video claims itself to be against materialism yet likes to show off the elaborate buildings and boats only the few higher ranking Scientologists will get to enjoy and not be enslaved in, the latter factor of which goes without mention. The dialogue has some interesting moments: "Materialists cannot disprove the existence of God, they just say there isn't one" - huh?
The last few minutes are truly epic to the point where I wish I was raised Catholic. Actor Larry Anderson (note: now an ex-Scientologist) really goes for it, pointing at the camera (complete with hypnotic, mind-influencing music this side of Disney) and iterates "If you walk out and never mention Scientology again, you are perfectly free to do so...it would be stupid, but you can do it. You can also dive off a bridge or blow your brains out. That is your choice." Don't mind if I do...
Uncle Buck (1989)
Charming family film which challenges stereotypes
I watched this film repeatedly as a child, and upon watching it again recently, was surprised to find the same enjoyment as an adult. The plot is simple: a typical suburban middle class American family face an emergency, and the parents have to contact the Father's dissociated slob brother Buck (John Candy) to care for their three children while they have to be away. The parents' emergency is not explored, which doesn't matter, for its the screen presence of Candy which makes this film so memorable. Although Buck is seen as the oddity of the family, he implements his own morals on the kids which prove to be as rounded as their own, and quickly adapts to a parenting role despite barely knowing his nieces and nephew. The teenage daughter is also great in this picture - she creates an awkwardness to the comedy as she constantly tries to antagonise Buck to no success. I'm not one for US family comedies but this one stands out to me due to the central character's taste for trash, of which this undertone makes it more palatable, and the sentiment is kept to a minimum. A film of its era undoubtedly (Macaulay Culkin is in it), it's good to know that it still is screened perennially on TV over 20 years later.