BEFORE: Back on Netflix today, let's hope I can catch this one before it disappears from the service with no notice, like maybe right in the middle of my viewing...
Juno Temple carries over from "Wonder Wheel".
THE PLOT: The life of Madelyn Murray O'Hair, the outspoken activist and founder of American Atheists.
AFTER: We're supposed to have a separation of church and state in the U.S., which means that one is not supposed to influence the other - but in many ways, it's been impossible to keep them separate. You always hear about Congresspeople saying that they vote according to their morals, and if you press them, it's always those "Judeo-Christian" morals, so how is that even permitted by the Constitution? They should all be voting in accordance with what's best for their constituents on a day-to-day level, not what's best morally to get everyone in their district into heaven by trying to outlaw abortion or same-sex marriage. Right?
I remember the debates when I was in grade school (mid 1970s), when they made us stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance - should we be required to say "under God"? Could we skip those words if we wanted to? Heck, could someone be allowed to leave the room and not recite the Pledge if it was against their beliefs? Once in a while I heard about some kid in another grade or another school who was a Jehovah's Witness or something and they didn't have to say the pledge, but generally the basic rule of grade school was "try to fit in, don't be different or call attention to yourself in any way, or you'll be bullied or ostracized". Grade school was a bit like prison back then, I was surrounded by kids who were bigger and tougher than me, and I just wanted to put my head down, serve my time and look forward to my daily lunch and my 30 minutes outside in the yard.
But Madalyn Murray O'Hair was exactly right about school prayer - it shouldn't be mandated, based on the laws that make our country great. Besides, if kids WANT to pray at school, they certainly can, most likely right before exams, so why did they try to bring back school prayer during the Reagan years, and I'm guessing the conservatives have brought this up again in recent years, when it's a losing battle? If you want your kid to pray in school, send him or her to parochial school and not public school, why keep trying to enforce YOUR religious beliefs on everyone else? It's right there in our mission statement, freedom of religion, which also includes freedom FROM religion. So you can't legislate morality, either, it's a contradiction in terms - but people keep trying.
So I agree with the attitudes and struggles of Ms. Murray O'Hair, she seemed like a person ahead of her time. Problem is, she didn't know how to do what she did without ruffling many feathers, and pissing off a whole lot of people. She would rather be right than be liked, and I get that too. But there's another side to her, according to this film, and it has to do with how much money her Atheists Society brought in, and how much of that was making its way into her own pockets. I knew almost nothing about her going in to this film, and I think that was for the best. I would suggest not reading up on her before watching the film, because there's some dramatic tension in not knowing the ending when you start the story.
But we're bouncing around the timeline again tonight - the film toggles between O'Hair's past, the development of her activism and the formation of her American Atheists society (1953 to 1995) and the "present" timeline, set in 1995-2001, which details the kidnapping of O'Hair, her son Garth and her granddaughter Robin (from her other son Bill) and the kidnappers attempts to get O'Hair money from offshore accounts, and then what (allegedly) happened after they couldn't get as much as they wanted. Umm, let's just say it doesn't end well for the O'Hair family. She pissed off so many people that it seems when she was reported missing, the police didn't really investigate very hard.
But when a film jumps around in the timeline like this, and I've said this many, many times, it's ultimately one of the more confusing ways to tell as story, as the audience has to sort of assemble everything after the fact when it's not presented to them in clear linear fashion. Obviously this was done to make the story more interesting here, because if they didn't do this, there would be a long, long section of the film detailing O'Hair's history and her court victories (a rather dry topic) before getting to the much more exciting kidnapping part. But I got confused in the latter part of the reporter's investigation into their disappearance - it seemed like maybe several years passed before someone recognized the sketch of the guy who sold their car.
Perhaps this was just me - having just watched Season 3 of "True Detective", which bounced between a 1980 investigation, a 1990 re-opening of the case and a modern-day re-examination through a documentary, maybe I was reading a little too much into the time-jumps. In the real world, it was only a few months before the reporter found a solid lead to the identity of one of the kidnappers, and arrests were made I think that same year. The trials and conviction process might have been a lengthy one, because it was another 5 or 6 years before they found out what exactly happened to the Murray O'Hairs.
I found the relationship between Ms. Murray O'Hair and her eldest son Bill quite ironic - she raised him as an atheist, and he was a big supporter of his mother's activism, but then the time inevitably came when he rejected her beliefs and felt he was wasting his life as part of her organization. I think it's only natural to reject your parents' beliefs at some point - for me that meant leaving the Church, and regarding my parents as suckers for spending so much of their time (and money) there. Bill Murray (not that one) broke from his mother to get himself sober, but going through the 12-step program meant he had to put his faith in a higher power, so he converted to Christianity. It's a shame that the 12 steps can't be separated from religion - like somebody should fix that. I've heard that some people choose a rock or a tree as their "higher power", but I bet for most people, they can't get clean without having faith in the more conventional God, and that seems a little faulty to me.
Also starring Melissa Leo (last seen in "Snowden"), Josh Lucas (last seen in "You Can Count on Me"), Michael Chernus (last seen in "The Family Fang"), Devin Freeman, Rory Cochrane (last seen in "Hostiles"), Vincent Kartheiser (last seen in "Alpha Dog"), Sally Kirkland (last seen in "Factory Girl"), Adam Scott (last seen in "The Disaster Artist"), Alex Frost, Brandon Mychal Smith (last seen in "Dirty Grandpa"), Peter Fonda (last seen in "Easy Rider"), Ryan Cutrona (last seen in "The Last Boy Scout"), Anna Camp (last seen in "Café Society"), David Gueriera with archive footage of Rev. Billy Graham, John F. Kennedy (last seen in "Chappaquiddick"), Johnny Carson (last seen in "Super Duper Alice Cooper"), Ed McMahon, Phil Donahue.
RATING: 5 out of 10 talk show appearances
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