Does anyone have any favorite examples of films or television programs which attempt to portray in a fictional setting the cult experience?

My favorite such film is "Ticket to Heaven" [www.imdb.com]

it's a great canadian production from 1981 involving a moonie-like group...i highly recommend it.

has anyone seen "Split Image" or "Holy Smoke"? i found those on the imdb page, but am otherwise unfamiliar with them.

as for tv, well, there have been some great "south park" episodes--
-one where a mormon family (i realize labeling mormons a cult is certainly subject to dispute) moves into town-- the treatment of the origin of the LDS in this episode is hilarious

-another where a cult is organized around magician david blaine, called "Blainelology"

-and the not-to-be-missed "The Passion of the Jew" episode, which deals with fundamentalism/evangelicalism/fanaticism, as well as anti-semitism...all in connection with mel gibson's recent film. brilliant.

then there was a 'simpsons' episode a few years back in which the family (and pretty much the entire town) gets swept up into a cult. it's funny, at the end they show "The Leader" and he bears a definite resemblance to lronhubbard. kinda surprised me, since one of the main voice actors on the show (the woman who does bart's voice) is an elrononlogist, if i'm not mistaken.

as well there was a 'king of the hill' episode in which luanne thinks she is being invited to join a college sorority, but it turns out to be a cult. a joke shared by both the simpsons and king of the hill episodes, is that both homer simpson and luanne seem to be immune to being brainwashed (initially, anyway) because of their lack of brains...

last year or so there was a very funny episode of 'everyone loves raymond' in which raymond's brother joins a new age/human potential type cult. there is a lot of humor derived from the use of lgat-type jargon...

and lastly, i remember an episode of the seventies sitcom 'what's happenin!' in which the character re-run joins a group with some similarites to iskcon-- he wears a saffron robe, shaves his head, chants, and shakes a tambourine

as far as non-fictional portrayals, i guess that there is okay stuff on a&e sometimes, for instance on 'american justice'. i think it was a&e which did one on jonestown which surprisingly even explored the mysterious connections between jones and the cia

Holy Smoke/s was a funny, entertaining movie, but IMO, it had two fatal flaws--both of which pandered to sensationalism, and propagated misleading information about the way exit counseling is done.

1) HS depicted a very outdated method of exit counselling--namely kidnapping the person in the group, then having the counselor (Harry Keitel) use the same methods of authoritarian indoctrination to 'free the person' that had been used by the cult to trap her. These coercive methods are not helpful and have been thoroughly discredited. No ethical exit counselor would do this today. Holy Smokes did the equivalent of showing contemporary surgeons doing an operation without using anesthesia and without washing their hands.

2) Then the exit counselor and the counselee fall into bed and screw. In real life, this would be considered an outrageous violation of professional ethics. But the idiots who created this film succumbed to Hollywood convention that gratuitous sex [i:c48772d2fe]has [/i:c48772d2fe]to be dragged into the plot, even if it means dumbing down the story. and giving the public a completely misleading impression of how exit counseling is done.

Actually for a fascinating film that is thought provoking, entertaining, and respects its subjects, go and try renting the documentary [i:c48772d2fe]Trekkies[/i:c48772d2fe].

It will blow your mind. Leonard Nimoy describes going to his first Star Trek convention and how shocked he was to be on the receiving end of all the projected adoration the fans had for Mr. Spock. Makes you wonder how any guru can stay sane when adored that way, 24-7.

Others became sexually obsessed with some of the characters, and even created erotic art. The film shows some of that art and ---it sizzled on the page.

The way people activated their own latent talents in relation to the fictional Star Trek story line is amazing. I wont spoil the film by giving specific details. You HAVE to find a way to see it. Its worth driving to another town to see, if thats the only way you can get a glimpse.

If you get to NYC, check out the current musical "Wicked".

It's GREAT political satire, and also about cult phenomenon. Two college roommates visit the Wizard for help. One figures out what he's a farce; she becomes blacklisted as the "Wicked Witch". The other well heeled roommate plays the party line and is "The Good Witch." Dorothy and entrouge drop in, and are manipulated into publicity against the "Wicked Witch."

If you can't see the show, the soundtrak is available on CD. Follow the songs & you'll recognize cult seduction, promises, revelations and betrayal. A great sing along in the car!

The book is a different, more convulted story than the musical. Both are worthwhile (the book is more dark, the musical more fun).

"Downfall" is a German flick, w/ English subtitles, currently playing in independent cinemas.

It's based on three books, first person accounts, of the final days of Hitler's inner circle.

The movie depicts the charming, charismatic man who kept people devoted through fear, manipulation. The closer followers depend upon Hitler's continued inspiration, while their world crumbled around them. The truly devout could not bear to live with their loss of meaning.

Following is the synopsis from 'fandango'. The synopsis does not touch the movie's true content, IMHO:

In the dead of a November night in 1942, a group of young women are escorted by SS officers through the woods to Wolf's Lair, Hitler's headquarters in Eastern Prussia. They are candidates for the post of personal secretary to the Fuehrer. Among them is 22year old Traudl Junge (ALEXANDRA MARIA LARA) a fresh faced girl from Munich. The women are ushered into the waiting room outside Hitler's private office, each eager to make a good impression.

If anyone is interested-I just completed a first draft of a one-act play based loosely on my cult experience, working title "The Burden of Desire." It's not a completed work yet; I have a reading scheduled for later in the month and a workshop performance planned for the summer. It might be expanded into a full-length play depending on how things progress. As it turns out, it's actually a comedy. If you want to be updated on the progress or see a performance of it, pm me and I'll keep you posted.

Now, didn't Rick Ross himself act as a consultant for Holy Smoke? If so, did he try to steer them away from the whole kidnapping tactics used in the movie?

Who can forget the movie about Jim Jones ('course, I forgot the actual name of the movie) starring Powers Booth in the role of Jim Jones himself. That movie freaked me out as a kid.

"9 1/2 weeks" with Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke was classic cultic relationship (of two, with mickey in the guru role).

And, I would argue that "The Piano", which I loved, was probably a good case of a cult of two as well, although, it's hard to say which pairing, that of sam neil and holly hunter or Harvey Keitel (there he is again!) and Holly Hunter, was the stronger cult.

How about "Devil's Advocate"? Okay, so Al Pacino is the devil himself, but the whole process of Keanu's character falling in with a group whose true nature slowly reveals itself is really creepy and quite familiar.

well I kinda remember some made for TV movie in the early 80's but the name slips me now

Quote
ScrewEst
well I kinda remember some made for TV movie in the early 80's but the name slips me now

Could the 80’s film you are referring to possibly have been the television movie [i:3f6f63a64b]Blinded by the Light[/i:3f6f63a64b] starring Jimmy and Kristy McNichol?

I remember watching that movie as a youngster while living in the heart of the “Bible Belt.” My viewing of the film took place during the time when public fears about being recruited by “Moonies” was at a fever pitch. (And to top it all off, I actually encountered some real “Moonies” on the street not long after seeing the movie, but that is a story for another time).

As I remember it, the movie was a bit sensationalistic and relied heavily on what was known about cult recruiting/programming techniques at the time. And one episode of [i:3f6f63a64b]The Simpsons[/i:3f6f63a64b] about a religious cult that Home and family get drawn into was probably based heavily on [i:3f6f63a64b]Blinded by the Light[/i:3f6f63a64b].

Law and Order had a show about a cult leader, forget the details, someone just told me about it and said it was a good one.

Ther Sci-Fi show Sliders also dealt with Mind Control a lot, many of those shows dealt with cult like groups and leaders.

I don`t really see anything funny in the movie called Holy Smoke. It was weird but not funny. It started out fine but I was dissapointed how the movie ended.