This gripping documentary chronicles two years in the lives of three teenage boys who escape from the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints compound in Colorado City, AZ known as "The Crick." Warren Jeffs, known as The Prophet, rules over this cult and exerts enormous power over his followers—they are permitted no contact with the outside world, they may read no magazines or books, the boys must work at dangerous jobs from an early age, and the girls must submit to the will of the men, often marrying male relatives who are much older. The cult, which also practices polygamy, is a splinter group of the more mainstream Mormon Church. The boys in this film—Sam, Joe, and Bruce—try to build new lives for themselves. Escaping from The Crick separates them from their families and leaves them with little financial or emotional support. We witness their struggle to find their places in the outside world and to help their family members escape from The Crick as well. This film clearly illustrates the effects of the emotional child abuse that fanatical religion can have on its victims. Although filmed in a relatively objective, documentary style, this movie elicits a strong emotional response. Recommended for anyone with an interest in religious movements, cults, or the cultural phenomenon of the LDS.
6 Reviews
Stays with you
senditherethanks10 January 2018
A thoughtful, deep film about young men who were dealt tough cards. The way they deal with this and make sense of a world they know so little about is moving and fascinating. A stark reminder of the power abuses that exist today.
The Ravages of Organized Religion
labng12 June 2021
Young men--children more accurately, escaping so ill-equipped into a big bad world they know nothing about. They miss their mother's cooking and families. They want photos and visits with their siblings. Most of all they want to save them. Being a young adult is trying even in the best of circumstances. Run, run like crazy. Keep running. 😔
Very interesting look on brainwashing cults...
CurtHerzstark12 April 2012
This documentary is about teenage runaways or more precisely runaways from very disturbing sect led by their leader Warren Jeffs. The sect is called Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints(FLDS Church)and probably one of the most fundamentalistic mormon groups.
FLDS Church owns lots of land, and controls their members with iron fist. Polygamy is encouraged by Jeffs, also the use of childbrides between older men and teenage girls. Sexual abuse, mistreatment etc seems to be common in this organization and according to what police and FBI found out later Jeffs was one of the biggest perpetrators of these crimes.
This doc however doesn't solely focus on these serious matters but shows the teenagers and families that escaped this very dangerous sect and tries to adjust to normal life. But this however seems harder then one might think.
How to enjoy freedom when you never had any freedom before? And as the filmmakers follow these kids around you get the feeling that their real problems starts AFTER they escaped the sect.
This doc is well-made and should be seen by anyone who liked Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (2006), Jesus Camp (2006)etc.
Religious fanaticism shows it's ugly face regardless if you are Christian,Muslim, hindu etc and therefore docs like this one is so important.
FLDS Church owns lots of land, and controls their members with iron fist. Polygamy is encouraged by Jeffs, also the use of childbrides between older men and teenage girls. Sexual abuse, mistreatment etc seems to be common in this organization and according to what police and FBI found out later Jeffs was one of the biggest perpetrators of these crimes.
This doc however doesn't solely focus on these serious matters but shows the teenagers and families that escaped this very dangerous sect and tries to adjust to normal life. But this however seems harder then one might think.
How to enjoy freedom when you never had any freedom before? And as the filmmakers follow these kids around you get the feeling that their real problems starts AFTER they escaped the sect.
This doc is well-made and should be seen by anyone who liked Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (2006), Jesus Camp (2006)etc.
Religious fanaticism shows it's ugly face regardless if you are Christian,Muslim, hindu etc and therefore docs like this one is so important.
Sad but enlightening
erzbetwilson30 April 2019
This documentary is a few years old now & still hard to watch but I watch this and then 20/20 A House Divided because they're important in documenting the abuse both physical and psychological that the FLDS has placed upon folks.
Terrible. Embarrassing. Ignorant. Angering.
efffigie8 June 2017
Warning: Spoilers
This might well be the worst 'documentary' of cult kids I've ever seen. It may as well be some episode of Jack Black's 'Documentary Now!', it's that bad. That said, I'm SGA: a cult kid. This 'film' is absolutely wretched. The 'film-makers' should go back to Brooklyn or wherever they are from and never do this again.
The problems: there is, among cult kids, what I have grown to call the Persistence of Belief: that is, the exiting cult kids retain the basic beliefs while experimenting with the outside world; in this case, the extreme Mormon beliefs these kids were raised with are only, and I mean ONLY, magnified expressions of LDS doctrine, and when these kids exit, they exit into only a slightly less virulent version of what they grew up with. Nowhere is it explored if they have changed anything except their desire for broadened sexual opportunities.
There is a very telling 'interview' in which a kid describes some vague bad guy as 'That guy who killed those kids', and the alleged film-makers interject, 'Hitler'? and the kid politely agrees with them: in fact the person he is referring to is Bill Clinton. The Waco Branch Davidian Compound crime sent shock waves throughout splinter groups in the USA and THAT is what that kid was referring to, and these morons knew nothing about it.
This is an excellent example of how some people should not be allowed cameras. Worst rating. Terrible. Awful. For the ignorant.
The problems: there is, among cult kids, what I have grown to call the Persistence of Belief: that is, the exiting cult kids retain the basic beliefs while experimenting with the outside world; in this case, the extreme Mormon beliefs these kids were raised with are only, and I mean ONLY, magnified expressions of LDS doctrine, and when these kids exit, they exit into only a slightly less virulent version of what they grew up with. Nowhere is it explored if they have changed anything except their desire for broadened sexual opportunities.
There is a very telling 'interview' in which a kid describes some vague bad guy as 'That guy who killed those kids', and the alleged film-makers interject, 'Hitler'? and the kid politely agrees with them: in fact the person he is referring to is Bill Clinton. The Waco Branch Davidian Compound crime sent shock waves throughout splinter groups in the USA and THAT is what that kid was referring to, and these morons knew nothing about it.
This is an excellent example of how some people should not be allowed cameras. Worst rating. Terrible. Awful. For the ignorant.
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