Throwing Copper

Did anyone watch this documentary on HBO tonight?

How revealing was it, and was it any good?

silentbob007

I thought it was interesting. I had heard quite a bit of it before but it spends time in history, stars, and then retribution.

Double_Oh_7

Just makes it even more puzzling how seemingly intelligent people fall for this scam in the first place.

The Questyen

Seemingly intelligent people have fallen for scams like these for thousands of years. At least the Scientology scam isn't responsible for millions of deaths like the other ones.

dhmac

I haven't seen it yet, so does it have any footage from the downtown area of Clearwater, Florida ?

Years ago, my brother (who lives near there) drove me through Clearwater's downtown. Most (if not all) of the downtown buildings there are owned by the Church of Scientology. And driving through it was an eerie experience with deserted streets and just a few groups of people here and there walking around wearing all black robes. It was like driving through a movie set depicting some sort of future dystopia.

Groucho

Good documentary, even if there were no shocking new revelations or anything I hadn't seen.

No footage or mention of Clearwater, FL...sorry.

aintnosin

I've read the book already, but have seen the movie. If they stuck to the book, it was very revealing.

PhantomStranger

There are many desperate people in Hollywood with broken dreams. Scientology promises them a way out of their problems. It's a pseudo-religion for people that aren't conventionally religious.

starseed1981

No real revelations here, but it was entertaining. It's all a scam...everyone knows that.

Double_Oh_7

Tom Cruise and John Travolta have broken dreams???

aintnosin

The Church openly courts celebrities, then turns around and offers itself up as the ultimate "insiders" network. In the case of Cruise, they held on to him by catering to pretty much every whim and offering him unbelievable perks unavailable even to other celebrities.

Their approach to Travolta is a little different. They keep his secrets as long as he remains loyal.

slop101

Yeah, for every Cruise/Travolta, they have about a thousand actors who's careers didn't pan out.

As for the doc, it was good, but nothing I didn't already know. Their membership is steadily dwindling these days, but their financial holdings are stronger than ever.

Throwing Copper

Just watched it.

Damn, that Miscavige fella is one devious, greedy and crazy SOB.

I've enjoyed Tom Cruise's work a lot for many years. I hope he eventually leaves this cult like Paul Haggis did. Hell, I think it said Haggis was in it for 30 years or something.

Norm de Plume

I caught this docu. This Scientology crap is even more unfathomable than most religions. Hard to believe anyone with a fragment of a brain would fall for it. This Miscabbage twerp has the googly-eyed fervour of a Hitler Youth member. He's dangerous.

PopcornTreeCt

The scientology building in Clearwater was shown multiple times. There were also a lot of footage shown from a conference in Clearwater. I thought Clearwater was far more mentioned than I anticipated.

As for the doc itself, I thought it was amazing. The interviews with the former executives and other high level people gave it credibility. And maybe a lot of people here are Scientology experts, but I had no idea about the abuses and the lengths the organization goes to harass former members.

In short, the doc confirms all the worst things you've ever heard about Scientology and more.

Throwing Copper

It's just downright scary, IMO. We can bash all these people for being dumb enough to fall for this, but in the end, I really feel sorry for these folks.

joliom

You should read about "Operation Freakout" - their campaign of harassment and terrorization against Paulette Cooper. Besides trying to frame her for various crimes including criminal conspiracy and acts of terror against the President and Secretary of State, they used their prison outreach programs to hand out her home address and telephone phone number to convicted rapists and predators in an effort to get her raped and/or killed, called all her neighbors and co-workers claiming to be public health officials and informing them that she was a sexual deviant and disease carrier, and made bombs threats against the Arab consulate pretending to be her. The FBI even uncovered memos from the Guardian's Office where they discussed having her killed.

mhg83

Please tell me someone did some serious time for that shit?!

rocket1312

I believe L. Ron Hubbard's wife (who was in charge of the church's covert intelligence branch at the time) went to jail for a few years, but not specifically for the Cooper stuff.

Even more unbelievable is that despite knowing all of this, the IRS still gave Scientology tax free status because the church had basically sued them into submission.

Nth Power

I set aside some time to watch this and thought it was very good.
Interesting to find out some more about the behind the scenes stuff at the highest levels.
Miscavige seems like one psychopathic and dangerous person.
It's sad that so many people have been indoctrinated and brainwashed by the cult, although good to hear it's numbers are dropping.

Shannon Nutt

Already knew most of the stuff about Hubbard's background, so the first half was rather dry for me...however, the second half was really good. I actually feel bad about what they've done to Tom Cruise...if he doesn't know what they did to his relationship with Nicole (and he may not, since I'm assuming he's not going out of his way to read/watch anti-Scientology materials), I hope some of his close friends tell him.

Thrush

I never thought I'd be in the position of feeling sorry for the IRS.

bluetoast

For some reason, I thought it could have been longer. A lot of interesting information here.

Lara Means

All religions are cults. Scientology isn't anymore ridiculous compared to the the more popular religions of the world.

bluetoast

Thanks for the insight Neil DeGrasse Tyson.