Sadly Over-hyped

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This documentary covers the topic of 'deprogramming', the process of (at times forcefully) rehabilitating religious cult members, and the man who could be considered its originator, Ted Patrick. It's a subject matter that fascinates me, but sadly this documentary doesn't make the best of it.It starts with what led the documentary maker to make this film, and that's her stepbrother who had at some point been the subject of a 'deprogramming' by Ted Patrick. Except the stepbrother — who strikes an imposing and perhaps somewhat intimidating figure, which may explain why no one asked him to speak up a little so viewers get to hear more than his grating vocal fry — didn't appear to actually have been in any organised religious cult as such, which is where both Ted Patrick went wrong in attempting to deprogram him, and the documentary maker in making him a subject of her documentary about deprogramming people from organised religious cults.Moreover, the way in which both cults and deprogramming are depicted seems shallow, over-simplified and perhaps even misleading. I soon tired of the archive footage of groups of people in apparent (perpetual) trance-like states dubbed with seemingly unrelated sounds of religious chanting, which seems to have been used as fillers to stretch this to full documentary feature film length and/or as to avoid any real investigative depth.The subject matter could and should have made for a really interesting and insightful documentary, but I felt what I got was some really interesting bits and pieces (that stop me from rating this with only one or two stars) interspersed with too much tonal fluff (that stop me from rating it with four or five stars).

A better title for this propaganda piece might be 'Reprogrammed: Our Cult is the Right Cult' Let's start off by short-circuiting the people who will defend this crap. I'm an atheist, not part of any cult. I work full time, I study, I have friends and hobbies (A favorite technique of cultists like Patrick is to try to strip authority from any who oppose their teachings) Yes, I'm using the same language about him that he would use about any other cultist and that's because he is. He is proud of his use of abuse, torture and re-education techniques that are functionally identical those used by cults, and the military (Oh I went there! Why yes, waking soldiers up for 'drills' at all hours is a form of psychological conditioning that is designed in part of make them ready for emergencies but all to make them more obedient.) These people have the misguided belief that somehow working full time at a job you don't like, having a mortgage and credit card debit, a house full of possessions you don't really use often, etc is somehow different or better than the lives of people who chose to live in a commune. They blither about how people in cults are robots while sticking doggedly to their scripts about the superiority of their own belief system.When you watch this film, do yourself a favor. Think about all the groups you belong to. Really think, don't just give it 10 seconds. Spend some time. Ask yourself about your life, your church, your big screen TV. Are you REALLY happy or have you just been told these are the things that make you happy. Are you actually any different from 'those poor deceived fools in that cult', or have you just been in the one you're in so long that you don't recognize its trappings.Disappointing. This could have been an excellent film but it had an agenda and that agenda was selling authoritarianism. It never asked any of the hard questions, never dared challenge the status quo. It was a film for cultists about a cultist attacking other cults in often illegal and violent ways.

This documentary is about Ted Patrick, a man who originated cult deprogramming. However, unlike many deprogrammers his approach was active...and illegal in many cases. So, while parents claimed that their children were being held captive by various cults, Patrick abducting these 'kids' (most were legally adults) and forcing them to undergo his 'deprogramming' was in many ways the same behavior as the cults. The film interviews him, his secretary, various parents and folks who went through his deprogramming. As for the latter group, they give Patrick a very mixed set of reviews. Some are, in hindsight, very thankful for his intervention while others are still furious at him. If you are looking for very clear answers about cult deprogramming, you won't find them here. Instead, the film offers both sides of the argument (which I appreciate) and lets the viewer decide what to think about this radical practice. Worth seeing.By the way, one thing the documentary only glossed over very quickly is the way Scientology uses lawsuits, nuisance lawsuits and threats to silence critics. For more on that, try the film "Going Clear".

For people who're curious about cults, this might be an interesting documentary. I didn't really 'got into' the documentary until like 30 minutes in, it was a bit slow and wasn't really making a point at first. I thought it was a bit chaotic, switching from one person to another, talking about different cults etc and it was quite a long sit (could've shortened it a bit). I did like the footage of the actual deprogramming, but I was disappointed that they didn't include a confrontation between Ted the people that he had these deprogramming interactions with. But... in the end I am glad that I watched it. I liked how they showed different opinions and stories on what Ted Patrick did, so in the end you can form your own opinion about him and his actions.