Leaving Neverland
There are a lot of unforgettable words said in the documentary, “Leaving Neverland,” but the most unforgettable image the four-hour film had was Michael Jackson’s eyes. In particular, his eyes during a taped message at Neverland Ranch where he denied the allegations of child molestation he faced in 1993, and described the humiliation he felt of being photographed without his clothes for evidence. His words say one thing, and his tone is frail, but his eyes are cold, without much of the emotion he is trying to convey. At that moment, the image he spent his life cultivating of himself disappears, and the one Wade Robson and Jimmy Safechuck and their families have painted of him in the two hours prior to that clip comes into focus. And like many still are today, we were too blinded by his celebrity to admit it to ourselves, as a society, at the time.
I believe Wade and Jimmy when they describe the horrific things Michael Jackson did to them while they were kids in his orbit at the height of his powers and fame, and how it impacted them as adults, as Jackson would call on them as character witnesses against other allegations. I also believe Corey Feldman and Macauley Culkin when they say that they were not abused by the King of Pop. But, if one pair is telling the truth, surely the other pair is lying, right? I don’t necessarily think so. You see, Feldman and Culkin were famous on their own merits when they found their way into Jackson’s life and affections, Robson and Safechuck were not. (In addition, Feldman has been plenty outspoken about the sexual abuse he endured as a Hollywood kid. If Jackson had abused him, I do not see him being shy about admitting it now, a decade after Jackson’s death.) “Leaving Neverland” makes a compelling case for Wade and Jimmy, and their families, being easily seduced by the lifestyle Jackson lived because of the image he had made for himself as the ultimate “kid at heart,” who had a soft spot for children, and the innocence of their lives, that he was unable to indulge during his own showbiz childhood. Hell, when I was a kid, I probably would have been seduced by it, as well. I think my mother would have drawn the line that Wade and Jimmy’s let Jackson cross, though, when they allowed their children to sleep in the same bedroom, unsupervised, as the King of Pop.
Dan Reed’s documentary is, formally, an investigative piece more than a sensationalist work of tabloid journalism, so it’s a bit dry, and relies on a few too many overhead drone shots. And yet, I could not take my eyes off of it, as he allows Robson and Safechuck, and family members, to narrate their stories, and how they came into contact with Michael Jackson. Wade was a young dance prodigy from Brisbane in Australia when he won a dance competition, and a chance to meet the King of Pop; Jimmy had just been pushed into commercial acting when he won an audition for one of Jackson’s most famous Pepsi commercials. With the blessings, and company, of their families, Wade and Jimmy find themselves as centerpieces of Jackson’s world. He claims loneliness and acts like a child to gain their trust and loyalty, and get them to accompany him through his travels and experiences. When the abuse starts, it’s after the seeds of trust have bloomed, the family has found him a benevolent and generous friend, and helping their children realize their dreams. As Wade and Jimmy tell it, we are alarmed, and horrified by the explicit details with which they describe their intimate relationships with Michael, and the callous way he moves on when someone else comes along that fits the same mold.
I think Michael Jackson was, quite possibly, one of the greatest entertainers of not just our lifetime, but of all-time. His appeal on stage was universal, and his music was indelible. I think Michael Jackson was also someone with not just serious emotional and mental issues, many of which can be traced to his upbringing and his lifetime, since childhood, in the spotlight, but also a need to be loved that meant needing people around him who would tell him what he wanted to hear rather than help him in the ways he needed help. As a result, he is a tragic figure, but also one capable of profound manipulation, if it meant getting the adoration he needed like an emotional drug. Children were the easiest way to get that adoration- after all, he gave that to the world in his childhood- and he catered to that in every way of his public life, while manipulating it in private that would lead to victims like Wade and Jimmy, and Jordan Chandler- his 1993 accuser, with whom he settled out of court- and Gavin Arvizo- his 2003 accuser, whose accusations he was acquitted of, in part because of testimony given by Robson and Culkin in his defense- “Leaving Neverland” is more interested in uncovering the manipulation and ways he victimized young lives, and destroyed families, than celebrating his art, and that is the only approach that would work for a documentary like this. Yes, it means a one-sided discussion that makes the void of Jackson being “unable to defend himself” feel bigger than it maybe needed to be, but Reed has made no bones that that was his intent, and good on him. For too long, victims like Wade and Jimmy have been marginalized as a way to paint Jackson as a victim of celebrity and a tabloid press that, in his die hard fans’s eyes, killed him as much as the dangerous mix of drugs that led to his death. This is as good of a vehicle for their voices as they, and his other victims, could hope for, and it’s an important one to make available.
I do think that the press hounded Jackson more than most celebrities, as the life that earned him the nickname, “Wacko Jacko,” built him into a mythical figure, and yes, that probably caused considerably more stress on Jackson than other celebrities would have felt. But one thing it also did was normalize Jackson’s bizarre persona, and make us complicit in accepting it, on one level, without critically asking important questions about how we would react if any other grown adult, who was not the “King of Pop,” freely admitted to unsupervised “slumber parties” with children at a place as large, and labyrinthine, as Neverland Ranch. It’s easy to see why we accepted it when listening to Wade and Jimmy’s mothers, as they describe how Jackson became a vital piece in their own lives. His behavior seemed…normal, because they got to know him, and he seemed like a child. Red flags were ignored and accepted, partially because of the celebrity, and partially because the love he showed them and their children felt real. They felt like they were doing right by their children, unaware of the destruction they were actually going through. The last hour deals with Wade and Jimmy’s truth coming to the forefront for themselves, and their families, and it hits you like a brick to the face as you listen to these lives just come crashing down to reality. Hearing them wrestle with it, even now, is heartbreaking, and realizing that, any feelings we may have of confusion with regards to Michael Jackson now are nothing compared to how Wade Robson, Jimmy Safechuck and their families still feel now. “Leaving Neverland” is catharsis, but it’s also a reckoning with what we, as a society, have allowed to happen with celebrity culture. It got out of hand with Jackson. Hopefully, we can be better in the future.
