I watched it twice before and after, and I felt very moved when I walked out of the cinema. On the one hand, I was moved by journalists' unremitting pursuit of the truth and self-restraint in the face of the truth. On the other hand, I was moved by seeing that the ugliness under the protection of power will eventually expose the wonderful things brought by the world.
First of all, the infamous priest Geoghan
Father Geoghan once sexually assaulted seven boys in a family for nearly two years.
Dussourd, a devout Christian, raised eight children, three men and one woman, plus four boys of his niece. At first, she was glad that the children could have a priest as an example. In the past two years, the pastor often took the children out to eat ice cream, and visited her house almost every night, dressed up and taught the children to get along behind closed doors. But what she doesn't know is that the middle-aged priest behind that door is often naked. Priests prefer little boys. Of the eight children, only the little girl was lucky not to be favored by the priest. Among these children, the oldest is twelve and the youngest is only four.
After the incident was exposed, Dussourd did not get everyone's support. Parishioners accused her of making a scandal, while church officials pressured her not to take legal action. On the other hand, Geoghan was not deprived of the priesthood when he admitted it. After a short suspension from school, he was sent to a new parish, where he could continue to take his children out for ice cream.
In the mid-1990s, the crimes accumulated by Geoghan for many years could not be concealed, and there were as many as 134 sexual assault lawsuits against him. The church mediated nearly 50 of them privately through means and about $6.5438+million, and the plaintiffs in the remaining 84 lawsuits refused to mediate easily, which has been in an unresolved state.
A small column in The Boston Globe reported 84 pending lawsuits filed by Geoghan. This report caused the newly appointed editor-in-chief Marty Barron (Levi? Schreibor), he decided to let the focus group dig deep into the facts behind the report.
But the focus goes far beyond exposing Geoghan's sins.
Secondly, the focus group survey process is briefly summarized.
Geoghan is the epitome of corruption that the Catholic Church covers up the scandal of child abuse priests. Thanks to his loud and ugly name, it is hard to hide, and Focus has the opportunity to start investigating this matter.
Most of the time, the whole film is the restoration of the focus group investigation process. The best thing about this film is that it is pure, clean and unpretentious. Although the story involves many characters, it is clear and hierarchical. The film narrative line is the restoration of the news investigation line: setting the goal-digging the details-proving the source. The realism of movies even made the older generation of reporters joke that the experience of watching movies is similar to watching porn.
1. Target Settings
Expose Geoghan's obvious crimes and the church behind him. Geoghan can commit crimes repeatedly because he has never paid a real price for his sins, and such "privilege" comes from the connivance of this pedophilia within the church. Therefore, the goal of the focus group is not only to expose Geoghan's ugly crimes, but also to explore the fundamental reason for the existence of such tragedies-the protection of the church.
Dig into details
The clue digger is divided into three ways. One: The Boston Globe called for lifting the confidentiality of Geoghan's 84 litigation documents, when the right to keep the documents confidential was in the hands of the church. Second: interview lawyers who have experience in such cases. Garabedian (Stanley? Tuqi) is a defense lawyer in a pending lawsuit, who has a lot of case information and is pressured by the church to shut up; Mcleish is a lawyer who has had private mediation experience with the church and knows the names of priests who have experienced child abuse. Focus group leader Robbie (Michael? Keaton's old friend Jim is a lawyer hired by the church and knows the information of child molesters. Third: interview victims and child molesters. Adolescent homosexuality and children from broken families are often the targets of priests. Record the specific experience and details of sexual assault, restore the truth and keep the news.
With the deepening of the investigation, it is obvious that there is more than one Geoghan in Boston. Just sort out the figures to sort out the whole survey:
Thirteen:
SNAP is a support group gathered by people who were sexually assaulted by priests in their childhood. SNAP has evidence that thirteen priests abused children in Boston alone.
Ninety:
Catholic priests who abuse children generally take the form of "suspension+treatment". After treatment, the priest was sent to a new parish. A.W. Richard, a former priest, used to be a doctor in such a so-called treatment institution, and later engaged in the study of child abuse priests. According to his speculation, about 90 priests in Boston are pedophiles.
Eighty-seven:
When the focus group consulted the pastor's work log, it found an amazing rule-the pastor who was publicly accused of child abuse had a sign similar to "sick leave" in the work log during his suspension. According to this rule, all the work logs were compared with four people, and it was found that about 87 priests met this rule. This figure is close to the forecast.
Seventy:
1At the end of February, after five months' investigation, the focus group finally determined the names of 70 priests who had participated in private mediation cases between Catholicism and families who sexually abused children in the past decades. These mediations never went to formal courts.
3. The source of the certificate
1At the end of February, the official publication time is imminent. The Boston Globe decided to let the people of Boston have a quiet Christmas, especially since they just experienced the pain of 9. 1 1 in the same year. The names of these 70 priests had better be accurate, otherwise the upper echelons of the Catholic Church will definitely seize the handle and fight back. The confirmation of the list by the insiders of the church will be a great guarantee of accuracy.
On Christmas Eve, Robbie (Keaton) takes the list to Jim to verify that his lawyer friend has worked for the church for many years. At first Robbie was kicked out, and the camera followed him to his car, with dim street lights and cold roads. But suddenly Jim came out and stopped him, and Robbie turned around with tears in his eyes. If you don't look carefully, it's not even easy to find the tears in his eyes-this scene moved me very much, and all the restrained emotions were revealed in the red eyes. The lawyer circled all the names with a pen. Ask, why not earlier, earlier where we are. Answer: I don't know, neither do I.
Third, the corruption of the church and the resulting tragedy.
The Catholic Church described child molesters as "just a few rotten apples in a big garden". But this is definitely not a trivial matter of a few rotten apples, but the decay of the system and the decay of the upper level of the system.
In the mystery of child abuse, the priest (Hoffman) who was driven away by the nun (played by Aunt Mei) was not punished, and even transferred to a higher new position. Finally, the old steel nun buried her head in tears and lamented the limited personal strength and confusion about the world. The power of the church can suppress a nun and several families of victims, hide the rotten smell and let cancer develop. But that doesn't stop reporters. The support behind the reporter comes from the concern of the whole society and the power of truth. That's why the reporters in the Presidential Team overthrew the president.
There is a scene in Von Tell's Female Sex Addicts about a middle-aged man exposing/discovering that he is a pedophile. Gambus said that he felt that the man should not be despised or even praised-because he successfully restrained his desire and didn't hurt anyone. It seems reasonable to express this through the mouth of a female sex addict, who is also marginalized.
But obviously, the ordinary social system is completely different from the church system. The church has even become a paradise for pedophiles. According to research data, 1% of the population is good at paedophilia (Dr. Michael Seto), while in Catholicism, the figure is as high as 6% (A.W. Richard). On the other hand, the superstructure's attitude of covering up the scandal and its neglect of child abuse (priests who have experienced child abuse can even serve repeatedly) have even become the advertising slogan of church-style children? Join the church.
There is a scene in the film that also reflects the decay inside the church from the side. Female reporter Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel? Mcadams) knocked on the door of an elderly priest and asked him if he had ever sexually abused children. The priest nodded openly, as if talking about the weather. He went on to say, but he didn't rape these children, and stressed that "no rape" is very important-he said that because he was raped as a child, he knew the difference. It can be seen that this is a tragedy of reincarnation.
In reality, the behavior of the church sending child abuse priests around it has caused a similar tragic cycle to a family. It is reported that a little boy unfortunately became the victim of Father Geoghan, and his father was sexually assaulted by another priest when he was young.
Fourth, the closed system of self-censorship restrictions
It can be said that the film reflects the failure of self-censorship of the closed system from two different levels.
First of all, the failure of self-reflection within the church. Obviously, the church's self-examination of child abuse is a complete failure, covering up and deceiving itself and letting the cancer develop. I heard that the Boston Globe had a new editor-in-chief, and the Bishop "summoned" the editor-in-chief in time and offered to cooperate with him, so as to further achieve the purpose of hiding people's eyes and ears. However, what the media really wants is bigger and more powerful than power itself.
Secondly, Boston journalists failed to accurately smell the problems in their own cities. The list of priests who abused the children sheltered by bishops was sent to the focus group as early as the mid-1990s, but it was not taken seriously. It was not until the new millennium that we realized the decline of the church in our city with the help of the news sense of the new editor-in-chief from outside-non-Bostonians. Therefore, the tears in Robbie's eyes when he was stopped by a friend on Christmas Eve were a feeling of guilt and self-redemption.