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.
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:
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