Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief

Based on Lawrence Wright's titular 2013 book, Alex Gibney's high-profile HBO-aired exposé excoriates the “religion” of Scientology, which was founded by prolific pulp/sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard. With worldwide real-estate holdings built on fortunes bilked from adherents, Scientology is here charged with the ability and propensity to bully anyone who dares leave its tightly controlled membership (stated to be declining). Hubbard is slammed as a pretend war hero and virtual psychopath who established the cult as a strictly money-earning venture, erected on a B-grade mythology about space emperors and lost souls that was hastily grafted onto Hubbard's gobbledygook-filled 1950 self-help tome Dianetics. Hubbard was dead by the time Scientology finally (and rather amazingly) bulldozed the IRS into granting it tax-exempt status in 1993. David Miscavige, Hubbard's successor, is portrayed as gangster-level sinister, going to extremes to keep celeb Scientologists such as John Travolta and Tom Cruise happy in the church. No voices defending Scientology are heard, making this a rather one-sided takedown. Still, testimony by ex-Scientologists and escapees, including filmmaker Paul Haggis and former elite member Hana Eltringham Whitfield, effectively condemn the sect, as do the cult's own hysterically kitschy, internally produced promo videos and media. Highly recommended. (C. Cassady)