with his family largely to be under the wing of Jackson, who was helping his dancing career. The Australian Robson was 5 when he met Jackson after winning a talent contest by performing tracks off “Bad” - the prize was a meet and greet. It’s a sad, compelling image - one of many in the documentary. Safechuck shows the ring on camera now, and it’s so small it doesn’t fit over his first knuckle. Jackson even staged a secret, mock marriage, claims Safecuck, complete with a diamond-encrusted ring. Safechuck said the sexual advances started early on, as did Jackson’s proclamations that he loved him. Gradually, the parents let their guard down, allowing their son to spend more and more time with Jackson alone, including going on tour with the singer, and allowing him to sleep in the same hotel bed with him. “He was like my son,” said Safechuck’s mother of Jackson.
#Leaving neverland documentary hbo movie#
The singer took a shine to the child actor, inviting him and his family to his Encino estate and eventually visiting their modest San Fernando home for dinners and movie night.
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The film starts with Safechuck recalling meeting Jackson at the age of 9 on the set during a Pepsi commercial shoot in Los Angeles. Although there are pacing issues here and the filmmaker could have used a few more sources to widen the story, it’s a compelling look at childhood trauma, fame and the mechanics of pedophilia. “Leaving Neverland” is heartbreaking and hard to watch for many reasons, among them that Jackson is such a part of our collective history. Both say they loved him.įor viewers, the film is uncomfortable and troubling, but it’s impossible to look away even while it’s clear this tale has a tragic end or, at best, a life’s worth of psychological damage. Yet even now they struggle with their emotions regarding Jackson. The men, both of whom are now fathers, said they were compelled to finally come forward to help other victims of childhood sexual abuse, and it’s likely the #MeToo movement helped bolster their willingness to speak. Leaders of the Jackson estate, who declined to appear in the film, deny all the criminal allegations, and the estate is now suing the film’s producer and director, Dan Reed.
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They met Jackson years apart and on different continents, but both men offer disturbingly similar accounts that chronicle the manipulative process of a pedophile, the queasy emotional and physical intimacy between victim and abuser and how celebrity trumped accountability and common sense at most every turn. This powerful documentary chronicles their never-before-told firsthand accounts of how he endeared himself to the boys, how their families fell in love with Jackson, and how he allegedly got away with sexually molesting them for decades.