It’s a movie starring his nephew in the lead role, approved by his estate, and by all accounts it just feels like an attempt to whitewash him. This is a man who was accused of being a serial child molester, settled with a family out of court for $25 million just to avoid a trial (Chandler), and openly admitted he slept in the same bed as kids while he was an adult (Bashir interview), among other things. I don’t really see what there is to debate.
Anything pointing this out gets backlash on movie-related subreddits, which I find wild. It makes me wonder, if Epstein could sing and dance, would he have gotten a biopic too? Would people be defending him like this?
I’ve been around for the whole ride, and all I can say is anyone (other than alleged victims) who says they definitively know what happened is lying.
It’s a fact that MJ suffered abuse as a child and that turned him into a weird adult. It’s a fact that he had problematic behavior towards children.
I’ve always felt that his closeness to children was more about trying to be a child than fuck one, but my opinion is just that and carries no particular weight. I was never a super fan of his, and hated his ubiquity while I was growing up so I don’t think I’m biased towards being charitable with him.
A part of me laments the loss of childhood innocence that was present in the seventies. Sure, it was against a backdrop of unspoken abuse and exploitation, but there really was a time when children could be naked together or around certain adults and it wasn’t weird or gross or creepy. I grew up showering with other boys in gym and sports and swimming and bathing naked in lakes and rivers.
The world is different now with cameras everywhere. That time is lost to us. It would be creepy as fuck to try to recreate that. But it colors my perception of what was clear warning signs then vs now. There are people in this thread post arguing about whether a kid ever saw his penis, but I’m telling you there was a time that wouldn’t have been as weird as it is today. Because there was casual, innocent nudity, it wasn’t all sexualized the way it is today.
That all being said, there was a lot of really bad looking behavior and at some point where there’s smoke there’s fire. You’d have to think he would have the self-awareness of the perception that he was being creepy and inappropriate, and why wouldn’t a person change their behavior?
At the end of the day I treat him like a likely predator. I wouldn’t let my kids go near him if he were alive today. But he is someone I’m not comfortable saying was definitely as sick and twisted as some insist. He might have been. He probably was. But he might credibly also have been a really fucked up person who wanted the childhood that was stolen from him back and he couldn’t have it no matter now much money he spent.