Review by a german TV-Station
https://www.swr.de/swr2/kultur-info...6/did=23797554/nid=9597116/1lrghlw/index.html
Unbalanced film about Michael Jackson: "Leaving Neverland"
From Rüdiger Suchsland
The TV documentary "Leaving Neverland" by director Dan Reed raises serious allegations of child molestation against Michael Jackson. This film makes Michael Jackson posthumously unbalanced the process, finds SWR2 film critic Rüdiger Suchsland. ProSieben sends the controversial documentation on Saturday, April 6.
The King of Pop - soon a king With no land?
He was the King of Pop: Michael Jackson, the first global black media icon. If it goes after the television documentary "Leaving Neverland" of the director Dan Reed, then he is soon a king with no land.
"Leaving Neverland" tells how, in 1987, Michael Jackson met ten-year-old Jimmy Safechuck while filming an ad, sexually seducing him for the first time, at least for the first time, according to adult safechuck.
A movie full of disgusting stories
This is an unpleasant movie, bursting with disgusting stories, with details that hardly anyone wants to know, and that nobody has to know to get a picture. Because after 20 minutes, the film has said what he has to say. After that, he only repeats and varies this again and again.
ProSieben - not known for special or social conscience
The two two-hour parts, which will be on show for the first time in Germany on Saturday, in the private station ProSieben, which is not known for its special sensitivity or social conscience, consist mainly of interviews with Safechuck and Wade Robson, the two young men who come here for star witnesses of the thesis and main actors of the film, from public archive images and close-ups on their faces and those of their mothers.
Film also highly controversial in the US
The director suggests with drone shots on the former estate Jackson at the same time the godlike perspective of an omniscient narrator. Stylistically, this is a weak movie, below the level of great American documentary art.
The verdict seems to be spoken. But the impression is deceptive. Despite all this, "Leaving Neverland" is highly controversial, even in the US, and that has good reasons. Director Dan Reed does not document, he argues.
A document of the indictment - without arguments of the defense
This movie makes Michael Jackson posthumously the process. This movie is a document of the indictment. He is not balanced. Arguments of the defense are not heard, relieving evidence does not occur.
One has to remember the facts once again: The well-known, not squeamish American justice has acquitted Michael Jackson. The FBI has determined for years, without success, the 300-page investigation report is publicly available on the Internet.
Unproven if Michael Jackson had pedophile tendencies
So you do not have to like Michael Jackson, but being a child molester and having pedophile tendencies is totally unproven.
That this film takes four hours to build and reproduce this accusation is as exaggerated and monumental as the one-sidedness of the film is monstrous. As monstrous as the tendency of the international public to rise to fast and absolute, completely one-sided judgments.
Staging a spectacle? The filmmakers succumb to this seduction
As sad as the readiness to throw rule-of-law principles overboard - in doubt for the accused. No judgment without a fair trial? Forget everything.
The film describes processes of dependency on seduction, seduction through fame and seduction through wealth. He succumbs to all those who try to stage a spectacle about a dead man who can not fight back.
Greasy capitalization of the subject pedophilia
This film, and the disagreeable, greasy capitalization of pedophilia, abuse and what surrounds it, is a reminder to stop and seek a more appropriate approach to these issues.
Public hysteria and show trials on the television pillory, with no defense and with the audience as a judge, hurt the cause, just as the desire for moral rapidity hurts our character and the whole society. The monsters are not just on one side. They are everywhere.