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The film is a visual medium and our eyes die of hunger
Feature film documentaries are often considered the definitive version of the truth, because we think that our eyes are the indispensable instrument for the search for the truth. The best documentaries are able to put an image directly in front of our eyes and when the light of the moment reaches the stems and the cones, the documentary is able to say: "See! See! That's the truth you were looking for. "
What makes Dan Reed's Leaving Neverland so atypical for a documentary and ultimately so devastating is that it can not give in to the viewer's appetite. By telling the tortuous story of two adult men with Michael Jackson, all that Leaving Neverland really has is these two men sitting in front of a camera, best illustrating their pain. Their wardrobe and the lighting of the rooms in which they are interrogated do not even recognize the pbading of time. It's a suspended animation story. All history, just history, so help his God. And it's excellent.
The two men in question in Leaving Neverlan dare James Safechuck and Wade Robson. Safechuck and Robson discuss separately their strangely similar histories of childhood badual abuse that they suffered at the hands of Michael Jackson in exhaustive and horrendous detail during the four hours of Leaving Neverland (available on All4 in the UK) .
Born in Brisbane, Australia, Robson meets Jackson in 1988 when he wins a Michael Jackson dance competition at the mall. Jackson was delighted with the movements of this five-year-old and invited him to a concert to dance on stage. Shortly after, Jackson will become a presence in the family's life and will eventually spend the night in the new home of the Robsons in Los Angeles, and then in Jackson's properties, including Neverland Ranch. Safechuck has a strangely similar story about his meeting with Jackson while he was filming an advertisement for Pepsi. The two quickly became close friends (Safechuck's mother stated in the document that she considered Michael as another son).
Safechuck and Robson both tell a common story about how their childhood friendship with Jackson evolved to become a platonic love, then a romantic twisted love, followed by badual abuse persistent under the pretext of consensual experimentation. Their stories are credible and devastating.
When approaching Neverland, it is important to keep in mind first of all what it is not. Despite its close chronological alignment to "the other" legendary documentary about children, A & E surviving to R. Kelly, Leaving Neverland is certainly not that. Unlike Surviving R. Kelly, Leaving Neverland is not a daily diary. This is not the "complete" story of Jackson's badault allegations, nor does it claim it.
Leaving Neverland opts for a much more intimate approach. The documentary is simply stories of Safechuck and Robson, nothing less, nothing more. Before Leaving Neverland's premiere, no solid, significant, and significant evidence against Jackson had been discovered. And this will remain mainly the case after Leaving Neverland's debut. Although Quitting Neverland provides Jackson with truly disturbing fax and answering machine messages, none of them gets close to the level of a Robert Durstian confession about the restroom.
Yet, despite this lack of solid evidence or perhaps even because of it, Leaving Neverland is more captivating than many crime documentaries covering similar topics. The reason it comes down to our damn eyes and the brain to which they are connected. Despite the many evidence to the contrary in current events, human beings are truly empathic creatures. And it's impossible not to sympathize with Robson and Safechuck as they tell their truth.
The pain is written on all the faces of the duets. The details they share largely corroborate each other's stories and are filled with incredibly meticulous and disturbing details. While the first half of the documentary covers almost all of their respective experiences with Jackson, the second half brings the most pathos and presents the most convincing case. With the benefit of hindsight and a good dose of therapy, Safechuck and Robson are able to really articulate the damage caused by the trauma followed by years of repression.
Leaving Neverland also maintains with family members of Robson and Safechuck and, during the second half, their contributions pound the long-term effects of this type of abuse. Not only that, but the inclusion of the respective mothers of Robson and Safechuck helps a lot to answer the increasingly worrying question of "letting your child sleep in the same bed as Michael Jackson ?? How?!? "It is a question posed as if there was another case of the world 's most famous man who also has the spirit and mannerism of a child who wishes become friends with your child to compare and determine human behavior. To say that it was an unprecedented scenario would be a euphemism and the narrative presented by the Robson and Safechuck families proceeds from a kind of dark and understandable logic.
That does not mean from the outside that it seems normal. Among the tertiary evidence and uncomfortable images of Neverland, there is a series of Jackson's paparazzi photos walking hand-in-hand with his young companions, disquietingly resembling the candid photos we often see of celebrities holding the hand of their loved ones . If Michael Jackson had really been a predator as these two men likely claim, we are all responsible for letting him go.
That's where the problem lies: Quitting Neverland can not possibly claim the truth about Michael Jackson. allegations of badual badault and child rape. It is likely that no documentary will ever be able to do it. Leaving Neverland, however, wisely places his gaze a little lower than absolute objective truth. It presents the respective truths of James Safechuck and Wade Robson and does so with sensitivity, fairness and credibility that it seems that their truth is the best possible.
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