LEAVING NEVERLAND. (2019) REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©


 

LEAVING NEVERLAND. (2019) A DOCUMENTARY DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY DAN REED. STARRING WADE ROBSON, JAMES SAFECHUCK AND ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE OF MICHAEL JACKSON.

REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

This is a documentary co-production between Channel 4 and HBO. It comprises two ninety-minute episodes, and it makes for shocking and powerful viewing. It’s made up of interviews with two men, Wade Robson and Jimmy Safechuck, who each claim that they were sexually molested as children by music superstar Michael Jackson, with whom they’d each had a long-standing friendship/relationship.

The funny thing for me- not that there’s anything funny in this whole situation, mind you- is that, the week before I’d watched this film, I’d seen Martin Bashir’s interview with Jackson in the ITV 2003 film LIVING WITH MICHAEL JACKSON. Concerns raised in this film led to Jackson’s being criminally charged with several counts of child molestation in 2005, although he was found not guilty on all counts.

I’d cried my eyes out at the revelation in LIVING WITH MICHAEL JACKSON that the cruel, tyrannical father of the Jackson Five rehearsed them rigidly with a belt in his hand, and if you didn’t do the dance steps right or hit the right notes, well, then, he lashed out at you big-time.

I watched angrily as Martin Bashir openly encouraged Jackson to make a fool of himself by climbing up his ‘tree of inspiration,’ the tree in which Jackson claims to have written some of his best songs, and I was upset by the footage of Jackson on a shopping trip where he was just buying up everything around him, with not even one wise adviser to put the brakes on his outrageous spending or suggest that, if he really wants to spend millions of dollars in a five-minute spree, maybe writing a cheque to a homeless charity would be a better idea.

Even when he talked openly to Martin Bashir about letting little boys sleep in his bed, I still didn’t think he was a paedophile, just a really stupidly innocent man so screwed-up and emotionally stunted by his awful upbringing that he wanted to remain a child forever, and who thought that hanging out with these boys was great innocent fun for both him and the kiddies. He doesn't know what's appropriate and what's not, God love him.

Then, the following week, I watched LEAVING NEVERLAND, and suddenly it’s a whole different ballgame. In it, Wade Robson, an Australian-born dancer and choreographer, who has worked with Britney Spears and NSYNC, says that he was sexually abused for several years of his childhood by musical superstar Michael Jackson. Jimmy Safechuck, an American male who was obsessed with Jackson when he was a child (he was the boy in Jackson’s famous Pepsi commercial, when Jackson says ‘Looking for me?’ to a young besotted fan in his dressing-room), says the same.

The story they tell of grooming and abuse rings startlingly true. They each met Jackson when they were kids who loved dancing and singing and wanted to dance and sing like their idol.

Jackson befriended them- separately, that is; the kids didn’t know each other, as far as I know- and made a huge fuss of them and even befriended their families, talking to them on the phone for literally hours, sometimes.

Neither of their moms had a problem with an eccentric, child-loving bazillionaire taking an interest in their kid; in fact, it could even seem like they encouraged it. One of the moms loved the champagne-and-limos lifestyle so much that she moved herself and her kids over to America from Australia to be closer to it.

The abuse started with hugging, kissing, touching and cuddling, in bed and out of it. It escalated to full-on anal and oral sex. When Wade Robson tells us that Jackson once freaked out a day or so after sex about a pair of bloodied underpants he thought might incriminate him, I remember feeling sick in my stomach and thinking of Jackson: Well, here is a man who knows perfectly well that he’s committed a crime and is looking to cover it up…

Jackson ensured their silence by telling the little lads that both they and Jackson would go to jail for the rest of their lives if they ever told anyone about what went on behind the closed doors of their ‘special friendship.’ Naturally, the kids would do anything to protect their idol and ‘special friend’ and keep his grubby little secrets. He even bought one of the boys a wedding ring, which he still had at the time of filming.

Each of the boys were devastated when it appeared like Michael was side-lining them and then actually replacing them with new boys. They endured all the terrible heartbreak of people experiencing a horrible relationship break-up, but, as they were only children, they had neither the emotional nor mental capacity of adults to help them deal with their distress and pain.

They probably went through all the suffering that adults go through during a break-up and asked themselves some of the same questions we all ask ourselves at  times like that. 

Why doesn’t he love me anymore? Why doesn’t he want to be with me? Doesn’t he like me anymore? Are we not friends anymore? Is it my fault? Was I a bad friend/person/lover? Am I fat? Ugly? Too old? Why does he love this new person more than me? What do they have that I don’t? Why, why, why? Just, why?

It’s making me wince even to think about little kiddies blaming themselves for the break-up of a relationship that never should have been allowed to happen. There’s a good question. Did anyone know that Jackson was abusing kids behind closed bedroom doors, and if they did, why did they never blow the whistle? Was it because Jackson was a fantastically rich and powerful man? I guess we’ll never know now.

Both men grew up prone to bouts of depression and self-recriminations. There were breakdowns and periods of utter desolation in both men’s lives. Wade and Jimmy each have supportive spouses who feature in the documentary and I’m sure that that’s a great help to them, but I bet the wives would prefer not to be living their lives and marriages in the shadow of the man who abused both their husbands.

I’m not a huge fan of ‘cancel’ culture, so I’m not suggesting for a minute that you stop listening to Jackson’s music. I myself think that the video for THRILLER is the best music video ever made, and that BILLIE JEAN is one of the best pop songs ever written. I like a lot of the Jackson Five stuff as well. I WANT YOU BACK, CAN YOU FEEL IT?, etc.

I’m just thinking that maybe, when we’re watching or listening to these mega-hits in the future, we might stop to acknowledge for a minute the kids who were abused by a man who more than likely knew perfectly well that what he was doing was wrong. 

    

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.

 Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, poet, short story writer and film and book blogger. She has studied Creative Writing and Vampirology. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, women's fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO

Her debut romantic fiction novel, 'THIRTEEN STOPS,' is out now from Poolbeg Books:

https://www.amazon.com/Thirteen-Stops-Sandra-Harris-ebook/dp/B089DJMH64

The sequel, ‘THIRTEEN STOPS LATER,’ is out now from Poolbeg Books:

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1781994234

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