Silentlambs potential for Hollywood film

by Derrick 17 Replies latest jw friends

  • Derrick
    Derrick

    Hello Bill, I have been thinking about one great method to make public awareness of child molestation and rape in the organization to explode like an 80 megaton hydrogen bomb!

    Hollywood studios have an obsession with crime movies that chronicle the lives of the abused, and those like you, Bill, who make a major difference in protecting them.

    There are two kinds of movie themes, the documentary and "docu-drama." It's the second that is ordinarily used because it's based on real life. However, it's "speculatively enhanced" to show hypothetical scenarios that will really stick with theater audiences. In an example, suppose the movie is named simply "SILENT LAMBS". In this brief example of a scene, two innocent looking and attractive fellows in suits and ties, carrying book bags, ring the doorbell in a classic looking upper-middle-class neighborhood. A little girl with pig-tails and bright pink dress answers the door and greets them with the smile of pure innocence. Sweet nursery music is playing in the background as they hold green NWT Bibles and tell the little girl how she will live forever in "paradise." They describe paradise as "a land flowing with milk and honey, where you can play with friendly lions and fluffy little sheep..." She looks so bright eyed and happy at hearing this, perhaps they fade to an idyllic scene where the little girl is running through a field of purple flowers with her mommy and daddy. She invites the two men inside the house, and tells them her mother left because of an "emergency" and will return soon. Friendly music fades to a quiet gothic melody as they enter her home.

    Next scene shows police entering a Kingdom Hall during a meeting and whispering to an elder, who motions in the direction of the same two men sitting together near the front... I'm sure your imagination can fill in the rest as this thriller goes on an upsetting to shocking downhill ride into terror in its expose of child molesters and rapists. The Silentlambs Corporation and its founder Bill Bowen work with police to find a serial rapist, taking the audience on a horrifying ride from the streets of the door-to-door ministry and Watchtower conventions all the way to the Watchtower's headquarters in a desperate attempt to stop a serial child rapist.

    Imagine the public awareness level raised if you could sell the movie rights to a movie about the problem you are trying to bring to light in this organization? Universal Studios, MGM or another motion picture corporation might be interested, who knows?

    The issue of child molestation and rape within the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses could be graphically exposed in the most shocking way possible, Hollywood style! Think of the shock waves if one or more major stars were to take up this cause and appear in such a film. Give it some thought, and maybe a tangible way to get this kind of public awareness into a tangible form will take root. This is just some food for thought.

    Keep up the fine work, Bill. You're an upbuilding role-model to so many people including the young ones whom, I have a feeling, view you like a mythical hero.

    Derrick

    To see a World in a Grain of Sand
    And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
    Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
    And Eternity in an hour.

    -- William Blake (Auguries of Innocence)

  • Celia
    Celia

    Derrick, I don't know if I like your scenario at all !
    The cases we hear about are not about molestation of kids met in the door to door work, it's about JW kids whose parents are too blind and too naive to protect their own children from abusers, or fathers who abuse their own children....
    It is a good idea however.
    More like an "Erin Brokowich" story....

  • TR
    TR

    I like your idea, Derrick.

    I'd love the idea of a kick-ass crime/drama based on the "silent lambs" scenario.

    An elder, fed up with the molester protectors, sacrifices his livelihood, friends and family to protect the innocent.

    Man, there are some possibilities here.

    TR

    "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
    --Benjamin Franklin, 1759

  • SUSCARRA
    SUSCARRA

    The question is, Who do you think will play the leading roles? Russell Crow did a fantastic job in 'A Beautiful Mind'. Any ideas folks?

    SUSCARRA

  • Celia
    Celia

    Harisson Ford as Bill Bowen.

  • TMS
    TMS

    Tommie Lee Jones as Bill Bowen

    TMS

  • Derrick
    Derrick

    I think Russell Crowe would be excellent to play Bill Bowen. Crowe looks like the too-honest-to-be-an-elder and finds-out-being-an-elder- is-not-what-it-is-cracked-up-to-be type.

    Although someone else's suggestion Harrison Ford would also be good!

    I'd love the idea of a kick-ass crime/drama based on the "silent lambs" scenario.

    An elder, fed up with the molester protectors, sacrifices his livelihood, friends and family to protect the innocent.

    Man, there are some possibilities here.

    Exactly. If it's fictionalized ("based on the true story") then the writer chosen to do the screenplay (hopefully someone who has done similar crime thrillers) and the Director (such as Brian DePalma) could really take it places that eventually this will go if left unchecked! As someone pointed out, this is really a situation that is occurring INSIDE the congregation. However, HOW DO WE KNOW IT'S NOT OCCURRING DOOR-TO-DOOR? If the writer can rope the viewer into empathizing by starting with the familiar door-to-door situation I gave in the plot example, then it can work its way INSIDE the congregation.

    Also, sooner or later one of these insane pedophiles could turn into a serial rapist and eventually even murder a victim. In an environment rife for pedophilia, it's only a matter of time, IMO. As such, if the movie is a fictionalized account "based on the true story" then the plot can work its way into something quite terrifying. This will leave an indelible impression on the viewing public, and hopefully shake the brothers at Society headquarters into making major changes very fast to quell the controversy.

    Yes, there are some shocking possibilities that could put a film such as this right up there with "Silence of the Lambs" and other chilling journies into the minds of psychopaths. In a sense pedophiles are psychopaths in the making, and unfortunately Kingdom Halls have become incubators for them!

    I think Tom Cruise would make the "perfect JW" on the surface who turns out to be the wild-eyed pedophile/psychopath in the end. Perhaps even a "den" of pedophiles living together as singles in a house? These type of arrangements are common amongst Jehovah's Witnesses where 6-12 brothers share expenses, upkeep and cooking in a large multi-bedroom house in a suburb. (I was in such an arrangement in my teens; although my situation worked like it was supposed to work with ultra-clean efficiency like at Bethel, it still was a pressure-cooker of pent-up frustrations and outward egos.) Can you imagine it ending in the discovery of such a "den" of pedophiles in this type of arrangement masquerading as clean-cut "all-American" young brothers who Pioneer or aspire Bethel service?

    It would be interesting to see various Hollywood actors play the roles of these staunch and unfeeling elders who sit on various judicial committees, victimizing these youth and children who are victims of molestation.

    Derrick, I don't know if I like your scenario at all !
    The cases we hear about are not about molestation of kids met in the door to door work, it's about JW kids whose parents are too blind and too naive to protect their own children from abusers, or fathers who abuse their own children....
    It is a good idea however.
    More like an "Erin Brokowich" story....
    If this movie were produced like Erin Brokovich then of course it would not use fictionalization to add drama. Rather, it would be more along the line of a dramatized documentary, as was Erin Brokovich. However, if it was to get fictionalized and Brian DePalma (as an example) were to get hold of the script, it could blossom into a "worse case scenario" type of fictionalization that could show what eventually might happen if left unchecked. That was really my point in adding the door to door work scenes. Do we really know if the public is safe until we make sure these pedophiles no longer have the privilege of representing Jehovah at the door? Also, it just takes one pedophile to blossom into a full-fledged psycho-manic serial rapist/killer, just one. It's happened before, a pedophile "graduates" to torture and then to murder of his victims to get even a greater "high" from the adrenalin or whatever. ;-(

    Hollywood is great in painting the worst possible picture based on real-life events.

    Derrick

    To see a World in a Grain of Sand
    And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
    Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
    And Eternity in an hour.

    -- William Blake (Auguries of Innocence)

  • Norm
    Norm

    Don't you think it should be a "historically correct" film, Rick?
    You know like "Prince of Egypt"?

    Norm

  • plmkrzy
    plmkrzy

    Many many people in Hollywood, who carry a
    large amount of weight, have JW friends and family.
    I would consider walking cautiously.

  • SUSCARRA
    SUSCARRA

    Anthony Hopkins! What a talented man. I think all the actors mentioned on this post, could really deliver the message,as well as, draw many viewers.

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit