Directed by: Amy Berg.
Written by: Amy Berg.
Director
Amy Berg has spent her career so far making documentaries about the abuse of
children. Her excellent debut, Deliver Us From Evil (still her best),
interviews one of (far too many) priests who rapes and abused children for
years, and pretty much got away with it. She has also made the West of Memphis
– about the famed West Memphis Three, the trio of teenagers convicted of murdering
three younger boys, even though there was no real evidence of wrongdoing as
well as An Open Secret (unseen by me), a film about the abuses of child actors
in Hollywood. Prophet’s Prey falls in line with the rest of them – as it
documents the crimes of Warren Jeffs – the head of the Fundamental Church of Latter
Day Saints (FLDS), a polygamist sect where he used his power – first as the son
of the “Prophet” and then as the Prophet himself, to abuse and rape countless
underage girls – marrying and impregnating many of them when they are little
more than children. Eventually, Jeffs would rise all the way to number 2 on the
FBI’s Most Wanted List – right after Osama Bin Laden – and now he’s serving a
life sentence in jail. Yet, as the film makes clear, he is still running things
from prison – and many of his “followers” still very much believe in him.
Berg
packs a lot of material into Prophet’s Prey – including a brief history of the
Mormon Church dating back to its founder Joseph Smith, and then a history of
Jeffs and his father, the original Prophet. Berg has two outsiders – author Jon
Krakhauer (who wrote the excellent Under the Banner of Heaven about Jeffs) and
Private Investigator Sam Brouwer (who also wrote a book – that this movie is
“based on”). It lays out the case against Jeffs in all its revolting details –
especially sickening are the audio tapes we hear throughout the film, of Jeff’s
flat voice “preaching” all sorts of disturbing things that his followers
seemingly do not question, or another tape documenting Jeff’s consummation of
marriage with one of his many underage brides. There’s much more – and most of
it is disturbing as hell.
Berg
has assembled an impressive number of talking heads for Prophet’s Prey –
perhaps even too many, as the constant stream of interviews and information
doesn’t really allow Berg to do anything all that interesting cinematically
with the doc – it’s a standard point and shoot affair – well done as far as it
goes. Berg has interviews with some of Jeff’s family members, and others who
were once members of the FLDS who have since fled the church, and Jeff’s
control.
There
is a little bit of a hole in Prophet’s Prey however – and perhaps it is an
unavoidable one. One of the things that made Deliver Us From Evil Berg’s best doc
is the fact it had such access to the abusive Priest, who damned himself with
his own words. Jeffs clearly isn’t interested in talking to Berg – or anyone in
the press – so the doc ends up making him into an all-consuming boogieman with
the way he is described by many. It would have helped to have more interviews
with some of Jeffs’ wives – the one who is interviewed, who left the FLDS, is
among the doc’s most memorable interviews – as she talks not only about the
abuse, but about the struggles she has had since leaving the Church – which
also included leaving her family, who stayed loyal to Jeffs. This community –
which fled Salt Lake City, and now lives a secluded life where they control
everything (the Church owns everything, and has its members hand over all of
their money, and then “provides” for them – trapping even those who want to
leave, because how can they leave if they have no money? The Church controls
their businesses as well). They are secretive in the extreme, so they are not
talking. It’s not Berg’s fault she could not get more of them on camera – but
it certainly does hurt the documentary a little bit.
Prophet’s
Prey is disturbing in the extreme – and that’s just the way it should be. While
Berg still hasn’t quite matched her excellent debut film – she is continuing on
an honorable crusade to shine a light on abuse that so many knew was happening,
and did nothing to stop.
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