LEAVING NEVERLAND
US, 2019, 240 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Dan Reed.
Neverland will be forever associated with Peter Pan. However, in the latter part of the 20th century, it became associated with Michael Jackson, his celebrity, aspects of Peter Pan in his life, and his palatial home and property, Neverland.
Michael Jackson had an extraordinary career for over 40 years, with his family, the Jackson Five, singing, dancing, performing, music videos, appearances in movies, concerts all over the world.
In the early 2000s, there were accusations about his molesting young boys. The charges were heard in the courts, several boys brought in as witnesses, denying that anything like this happened to them. Those attacking Jackson were considered to be after money, holding the star to financial ransom. He was acquitted.
There have been many documentaries about Michael Jackson, his music and concerts. There was also the feature film, Searching for Neverland, about his marriage to Lisa Marie Presley and his relationship with his children.
However, the accusations were raised again after Michael Jackson’s death in 2009. In fact, the main charges came from two men who claimed that they were abused by Jackson over a period of years. This documentary opens with each of them talking to camera about the charges.
For those without a vested interest in Michael Jackson, his music and his reputation, the material in the documentary comes across as convincing. However, the two men concerned, and this documentary and a subsequent interview program with Oprah Winfrey, stirred the rage of diehard fans who could not believe, who refused to believe any of the stories about Jackson and his behaviour. These can be seen plentifully in the IMDb comments on this documentary. Many of the comments are vitriolic, unwilling to consider anything in the accusations.
The film takes the events in the boys’ lives step-by-step, rather calmly in many ways, the men telling their stories to camera, quietly reflecting, moved, describing what happened. Their families are also introduced, Wade Robson from Queensland, meeting Michael Jackson on his tour there, already a little performer and dancer, welcomed by Jackson, incorporated into his act, and the family moving to California (with some tragic results in conflicts within the family). The other man is Jimmy Safechuck who was also involved in performance, dance, and his parents brought into the Jackson sphere.
There are substantial interviews with each of the mothers, their memories of the past, their shock at the revelations, their blaming themselves in letting the boys stay with Jackson over long periods, in his bedroom, allegedly playing computer games, they themselves in further parts of the hotels or Neverland.
The film takes up and gives details of the accusations, the court cases, other boys who denied any molestation, including Macauley Culkin.
The film then raises the issue of why the boys denied anything about Michael Jackson, their love for him, protecting him, plus the fact of their age and the psychological effect of the sexual experiences.
The film shows their beginning to tell the truth, each of them married, the effect on the respective wives, the effect on the mothers, on the anger in Wade Robson’s older brother, the suicide of his father, the disillusionment of his sister who stayed so often as Neverland.
There are the discussions about therapy, the effect, the ups and downs in the life of each of the men – Michael withdrawing more to himself but Wade Robson having a very successful career as a choreographer, even from his teens.
While the documentary is on the side of the two men, it makes its case quite convincingly – even though audiences know that so much material in interviews were filmed but this is a four hour edited version.
