This is the best Scientology feature film I have seen. Much better than Battlefield Earth (Travolta and Whitaker again, hmm). Not as funny as Tom Cruise addressing his fellow Church Of Scientology initiates.
It's subtle but evident if you know the messages the CoS wants to put out there. George is what the CoS would call a "clear," right down to the telekinesis. A couple of his speeches include lines that echo CoS language. (to Doc) "Lately I've been seeing things so clearly, you know?" (to the evil doctor) "What I'm talking about is the human spirit. That's the challenge. That's the voyage." L Ron Hubbard loved to go on about the human spirit and freeing it, through his program of large donations.
There's the extraterrestrial factor, although this script leaves it to the viewer to decide whether aliens are the real explanation for George's powers. There's the demonization of psychiatric medicine and the US government. There's the one-dimensional goodness of the hero characters, nice and simple like in L Ron's pulp stories.
I'm happy the CoS can't get away with stuff like this as much now, due to greater public awareness of their efforts. I wonder if it's true that they use Travolta's closeted homosexuality to compel him to do their projects.
It's subtle but evident if you know the messages the CoS wants to put out there. George is what the CoS would call a "clear," right down to the telekinesis. A couple of his speeches include lines that echo CoS language. (to Doc) "Lately I've been seeing things so clearly, you know?" (to the evil doctor) "What I'm talking about is the human spirit. That's the challenge. That's the voyage." L Ron Hubbard loved to go on about the human spirit and freeing it, through his program of large donations.
There's the extraterrestrial factor, although this script leaves it to the viewer to decide whether aliens are the real explanation for George's powers. There's the demonization of psychiatric medicine and the US government. There's the one-dimensional goodness of the hero characters, nice and simple like in L Ron's pulp stories.
I'm happy the CoS can't get away with stuff like this as much now, due to greater public awareness of their efforts. I wonder if it's true that they use Travolta's closeted homosexuality to compel him to do their projects.