Piggy-backing on Wing Commander's review, here are some of my observations. I had more patience with this one than with the highly irritating 'Prodigal Son.'
Yes, the house, furnishings and grounds are what only RICH people could afford and maintain - not those in mere middle management positions.
2.) 1:54 - Jobs are described as an unnecessary distraction from family and religion. Hey WatchTower, not everyone can live in a tent or in opulence like you guys in the ivory towers!
The message I got was that the parents were too caught up in their own careers/making money to have meaningful time with their kids, even though there was one family vacation photo on display. The kids were doing their own thing. The father himself said he didn't know what was going on with his kids. Even the 'worldly' fathers in the video were refusing overtime to spend time with their kids (Little League - 'sorry, you know I never miss a game'). Aside from the JW slant, this was a dysfunctional, fragmented family that needed to reevaluate its priorities.
5.) 3:13 - Get a load of this kitchen! Has to cost at least $50,000.00 USD. Since when do normal JW's live in this kind of home? I am STUNNED.
Yep!
7.) 4:25 - I like this kid, his expression and reaction was much the same as me growing up. I hated this mind-numbingly boring shit, and would have wished my parents did something fun with me instead of this crap. Who can blame us? Typical bible-thumping tyrant father using the bible to bash over the kids heads in a vain attempt at guilt.
He didn't come across as a Bible-thumping, tyrant father to me. I liked him. He was, in many respects, a sympathetic character, despite some of the black-and-white thinking he expressed at key moments. He was trying to get the family working together again. It was just that he thought a weekly dose of 'Family Worship' (less 'worship' and more 'family activity with a biblical twist') was the way to go about it.
8.) 5:33 - Mother says, "These teenagers are out of control." Wow, seriously? They look normal and healthy to me. WTF planet are these people on?
No way has he seen 'out of control' with these kids! LOL. Bad attitude, absolutely.
9.) 8:55 - Working on your car in meeting clothes with Elder? Give me a break!
He was in smart-casual wear (not an overall or oil stain in sight either!). Still unrealistic. The elder was in business wear.
10.) 9:28 - Look behind Thomas. There stands a built-in 2-door stainless steel refrigerator, in the GARAGE! Being JW's must be really HARD for this family! This is NOT representative of 99% of the JW's I knew. This house is incredible!
Yep!
11.) 10:15 - Dressed up Elder with no house and no kids (kids left, probably left the Lie as well), has the balls to tell Thomas, "Now who's making excuses?" This is where I would have told this moocher to get the hell off of my property. The audacity of this asshole! Typical Elder mentality though; to talk out of your ass about something you wouldn't know anything about.
The kids are referred to. They helped build the model ark later, remember? The movie makers obviously didn't want any more actors in the cast.
12.) 11:10 - Elder's wife suggesting they mooch of Thomas' family. How typical! What a bunch of freeloaders! Let your own home go, and mooch off the successful, hard-working Witness family. Jehovah provides again! Incredible. The balls these people have.
They didn't mooch. Thomas suggested they could live there rent-free.
13.) 11:22 - Daughter Rebecca has a 2-door convertible Mazda Miata, and pretty new as well. Not exactly a Pioneer-mobile. This daughter is out of control! Satan must be proud. We can also see Dad's $60,000 Volvo SUV in the driveway. These people are WELL-off for sure. No wonder the Elder is hanging around. If they were dirt-poor in a trailer park, this Elder would be nowhere to be found, unless he lived there himself. lol.
My jaw was on the floor seeing the daughter's car too.
15.) 16:15 - Elder tells Thomas, "Think of Family Worship Night as the central fountain of life that your families life depends upon." Wow....just wow. Here, all this time, I thought JESUS was bringing forth life's water free? Here, this WT propaganda video tells me it's Family Worship Night. Shut my mouth!
I hadn't picked that one up. You're right.
19.) 19:30 - Worldy boy speaks of acceptance and tolerance, 2 things the JW.Org knows absolutely nothing about. Then, he is standing in front of a series of books in the library titled, "Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics." Oh, the irony! Has anyone in the Ivory Towers ever read them I wonder?
Well spotted LOL!
22.) 22:05 - I just KNEW that fly hip-hop mongul was going to drop a $500.00 bag of pot right on the counter, boo-yah, Boooyeeeee! Next stop for the Eldest Son: Gold chains, bitches, and ho's! This kid looks like he just stepped out of J. Crew, yet he's hanging with hip-hop producers? Get a clue! This is hi-larious! I think that bag of pot came from the Governing Body's meeting room, cause they gotta be smoking some powerful shit to dream this crap up!
Yeah, I didn't think this scenario worked either :-D
23.) 23:00 - At least the reaction to the ultra-lame new Song Book is spot on!
Hell yes.
24.) 27:30 – Rebecca is made to feel inferior and guilty for even talking to a boy. What century are we living in again? Sickening guilt trip by the father. Rebecca flat out tells her father that the worldly boy is nicer and more open-minded then the boys at the Hall. Bingo! The youth are leaving in droves because the Halls are filled with self-righteous, pompous, self-centered narcissists!
The father had already prejudged the boy because he wasn't JW. I didn't get it. If he really wanted to get the measure of him, MEET HIM!
32.) 43:15 – When lecturing the son of his talents, the father states, “Why lend your talents to what you know is wrong?” You mean, like the WTBTS investing its member’s contributions into stocks of military and tobacco companies? Also, Hedge Funds? The audacity!
There is no middle ground. There's no, 'Hey son, you have a great talent, but I'm worried about this group you're hanging out with. Aren't there other artists/labels you could work with?'
33.) 45:00 – The ultimatum by the father. Incredible. What he failed to mention, is that if after 6 months the son doesn’t want to continue on in the religion, he’ll be disfellowshipped and promptly kicked to the curb by his family. Some “choice.” Pretty sly to leave THAT little nugget of “truth” out of this video.
I was expecting the father to say his son had to leave home if he didn't comply. I was surprised.
34.) 46:00 – No son, you can’t live your life how you want, make your own mistakes, because it affects US. Screw your own desires and life’s ambitions; you are to serve Mother Org. F’ you, Dad! This video is become sadistic with its underlying messages
It's true that your mistakes affect others. There's nothing wrong with that message. You cannot live just for self. But it shouldn't be desires/life's ambitions versus spirituality/morality. Again, a middle ground was excluded.
35.) 48:00 – Here we find out about Thomas’ little brother, who he killed in a car wreck due to his own youthful stupidity, and that of his parents for letting a 16-yr old have a 1969 Camaro 302. What this has to do with Thomas’ son growing up and joining a controlling cult, I have no idea, but it sure is good emotional filler. Ugh. I recall reading somewhere that, “the sins of the father are passed onto the son.”
This was the blatant emotional blackmail part.
38.) 55:50 – No JW girl would say this to a guy. She’d lie, make up something….anything…..to avoid bringing up God in school. She would be the laughing stock of the entire school once it got out if she dumped a guy like this. I don’t know how the actors did this with a straight face.
It didn't ring true. Before that, in the dinner date scene, I agree with the poster (other thread) who said the guy wouldn't have said (paraphrasing in my own words) he had a string of girlfriends and that this relationship was just a stepping stone to better relationships. I guess it was to let the audience know his tolerant attitude was more an 'anything goes,' 'hedonistic' stance. I don't understand why the girl just let the comment about his other girlfriends go.
40.) 58:25 – Wife talks about trusting Jehovah and putting spiritual things first. Then they talk about cutting back, cutting things out of their lives to simplify. Kind of like building that new 5-yr plan up at Headquarters, huh? Those tennis courts, bowling alleys, and Olympic sized swimming pools are putting “spiritual things first & simplifying”, huh? The hypocrisy is astounding. The writers of this video live in a fantasyland. ...
Yep. It killed me when he said, if his wife was unfulfilled because of sacrificing her full-time career to go part-time, she could always do more FS. I was laughing and barfing at the same time!
42.) 1:04 – Hey Marcus, get ready to start your new career in the custodial arts! You are going places, Bro!
None of his misgivings about God's existence or creation were addressed. Somehow Family Worship and throwing himself into 'theocratic routine' would be the magic wand to make all those doubts magically disappear.
What struck me was, at the beginning we were shown a lively, chaotic family; even with all its faults and dysfunction, the family had personality. By the end, the family had become bland; a 'happy ending' commercial caricature which had lost its fire. But then I was always more into 'Roseanne' than 'Cosby.'
