Latest / The Whitfield Report / TWR Monday | Critics Miss The Mark on Michael Jackson Biopic

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TWR Monday | Critics Miss The Mark on Michael Jackson Biopic · The Whitfield Report

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  The right to offend is not some pesky little part of freedom of
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  speech that we have to put up with.
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  It is the heart and soul and lungs of freedom of speech.
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  It is the coursing lifeblood of human process.
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  It is the instigator of liberty and modernity and science and
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  understanding. What a laughingstock today's
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  student leaders are that they can so casually dismiss the
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  right to be offensive without realizing that their lovely,
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  enlightened lives are the gifts of individuals who gave offence.
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  Offensiveness is not just something we have to
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  begrudgingly accept. Offensiveness is the motor of
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  human progress. Now broadcasting from the Right
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  to Offend media studios in sunny South Florida, bringing you the
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  latest in politics, current events, art and pop culture.
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  This is the Whitfield Report live with Sam Whitfield.
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  But giving offense is good. In fact, it's essential.
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  Well, hello there everyone, and welcome to Monday's edition of
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  the Whitfield Report. I am host Sam Whitfield
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  recording here at Right to Friend Media Studios and may the
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  fourth be with you all. It is that day of the year, but
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  today we'll be doing something a little different from what we
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  usually do for the Monday show. Usually I have a guest or an
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  interview, but I actually am going to jump on the trip on the
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  YouTube trending train right now reviewing the Michael Jackson
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  biopic titled Michael, which I saw over the weekend.
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  I actually saw it yesterday with my folks and I have some
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  thoughts because if there was a movie that had like a bigger,
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  you know, this movie has a giant chasm between what the critics
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  think and what the audience thinks.
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  This movie is currently sitting at like a 38% Run Tomatoes
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  review the last time I checked it.
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  The rating and the audience critic score seems to be around
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  97%, which is a staggering disparity.
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  And I have a few, you know, theories as to why that is.
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  So this disparity, initially, I wasn't going to go see, you
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  know, this movie in theaters. I was going to wait until it
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  came out on, you know, streaming or, you know, Blu-ray or
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  whatever and then see it then. But the audience versus critic
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  disparity, really, it almost fascinated me to be honest.
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  And so I looked at some of the, you know, early critical reviews
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  of it to see what they were saying.
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  And then I kind of wanted to go see it myself just, you know, to
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  make up my own opinions. So overall, I thought the film
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  was really well done. The most consistent critique
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  that I saw from like Variety in Hollywood Reporter and all these
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  other, you know, Hollywood movie trade outlets, so to speak, is
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  that the movie had no substance, right?
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  They said that this was a giant MTV.
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  And to that, I would have to say we're we've been watching the
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  same movie because yes, I will say that this movie did a
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  fantastic job of the choreography for all of the
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  music videos that they did show being shot.
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  They did a great job in this movie of basically like a shot
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  for shot, you know, recreation of, you know, the throne music
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  video off the wall. Some of the stuff regarding that
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  they, they did a shot for shot remake basically of Michael
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  Jackson's Billie Jean performance at the Motown 25
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  performance in 82. Because I, I recently watched
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  that performance that was on that was televised back in the
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  80s. And then I saw this movie and it
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  was it was a one for one shot basically like everything from
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  the video, you know, in Michael's performance.
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  And then basically the audience reaction was basically a shot
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  for shot take. So the filmography was great,
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  the cinematography was great and the music was great.
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  I'll get into Jafar Jackson's performance here in a little bit
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  because I really do think it is worth noting.
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  He did a fantastic job overall. But I also want to address this
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  claim that the movie had no substance and it was just a
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  flashy, you know, MTV fanservice movie because this very much has
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  substance. I thought it showed Michael's
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  beginning with the Jackson 5. It showed his tumultuous
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  relationship with his father, Joseph Jackson.
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  They kind of painted Joe to be somewhat of, I guess the the of
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  this movie to a certain extent. I wouldn't say cartoonishly.
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  He wasn't like cartoonishly evil or anything, but he was just
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  depicted as being very selfish, which depending on who you talk
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  to, Michael Jackson during his lifetime in various interviews
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  said his father could be selfish and could be abusive.
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  I believe Janet Jackson said much the thing the same thing in
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  interviews. Other of his siblings said that
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  dad, you know, wasn't that abusive or anything like that.
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  So, you know, again, there's disparity and there also, of
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  course, may have been some, you know, Hollywood creativity
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  regarding, you know, the movie. But overall, I thought, you
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  know, that they handled the Michael and Joe, our
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  relationship real well. And then they also really
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  showcased the relationship between Michael Jackson and his
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  mother. And you can clearly see that
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  Michael's personality and his overall demeanor, he really got
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  that from his mother. And you know, they, they showed,
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  they showed the relationship with his brothers a little bit.
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  You would kind of get the impression that outside of the
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  performing that they weren't really that close.
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  Not that they were really antagonistic, but just outside
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  of the music vision business, they really didn't spend that
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  much time together, especially once they were grown, which, you
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  know, that happens among siblings as you get older.
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  So, you know, Hollywood versus reality.
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  I suppose that's one of the things that you'll have to
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  decide for yourself if you do see the move, Jafar.
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  Now let's get you Jafar Jackson because this was his first movie
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  that I'm aware of. This was his on screen debut.
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  That's Michael's nephew and I believe that's Jermaine
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  Jackson's son if I read correctly, and he really knocked
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  out of the park. He literally looks and sounds
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  like Michael on screen. And from what I understand, he
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  did a lot of the singing himself on the tracks.
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  They they did dub in some of Michael's original tracking for
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  some of the, you know, like live performances.
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  And that was fairly apparent, you know, in a few spots.
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  But hey, why, you know, why have Jafar seeing those parts
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  entirely when you can just, you know, track have the original as
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  part of the soundtrack, But in the parts that you did sing, he
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  really knocked it out out of the park.
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  You could have blindfolded me and I would have thought that
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  was Michael Jackson singing. And they also really showed
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  Michael's creative process. You know, how he wrote songs,
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  how I was always thinking musically and whatnot.
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  So I, I really don't get this notion that the critics have
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  that this movie was lacking in substance because it seemed very
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  substantive. And Roy showed Mike was
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  introspective and a deep thinker and also the fact that he was a
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  very caring person and very caring towards children,
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  particularly those with, you know, chronic illness and, you
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  know, turn on childhood cancer. Not to spoil the movie too much,
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  but they showed Michael, you know, visiting sick children in
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  hospitals, which is, you know, reportedly something that he
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  actually did a lot in his, you know, life.
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  And he never wanted, you know, that as like a photo op session
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  or anything like that. He just did that in private.
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  At least that's how it was depicted, you know, in the
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  movie. Now, one of the things that this
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  movie, The critics are being really critical on that I think
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  is really almost dumb. The critics are complaining that
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  none of the controversies Michael in Michael Jackson's
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  life are covered in this movie. And I think that that's a really
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  dumb thing to criticize this movie in particular for, because
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  this movie is Part 1 of Part 2, which we'll get to here towards
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  the end of the review. But the critics want to you kind
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  of lampoon this movie and criticize it for not covering
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  the controversies in Michael Jackson's life, specifically
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  with the allegations against him.
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  And that really wouldn't work in this movie because this movie
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  covers Michael's Jackson 5 era up through the bad era, 1987.
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  So there are about 25 years covered here going from the 60s
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  to the late 80s. And the allegations weren't
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  really around until the 90s. So there's no reason in this
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  film to cover any of those controverse virtual things to
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  begin with. Second of all was this movie in
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  the kind of the tone that that they went for here was mostly
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  all about Michael's, you know, performances and his creative
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  process and how he thought of music and what his musical
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  vision was. So because of that, there was
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  really no reason to dive into those controversial moments.
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  It wouldn't have added anything to the story.
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  I thought this was really a celebration of Michael as an
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  artist and as a performance. So it really wasn't needed here.
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  In all honesty. I think it would have detracted
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  from some things. And in fact, I guess that that
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  was one of the movie. That was one of the reasons why
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  this movie has been split into parts.
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  This was a Part 1. And then I guess sometime next
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  year in 2027, we'll be getting Part 2, which will focus on his
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  later career in life, which may cover, you know, more of those
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  controversies and what not, and some of his relationships with
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  Lisa Marie Presley and things like that.
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  But overall, I, I thought that this movie was a slam dunk.
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  It's a feel good movie and the and this just goes to show that
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  professional movie critics and the movie trades like The
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  Hollywood Reporter and Variety are more or less useless and out
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  of touch and that they've been out of touch.
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  Of course, we we've known that for, you know, the past decade
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  plus. These are, you know, the same
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  people who will who will raise a movie like cuties on Netflix.
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  And yet, you know, I'm bathed Michael movie because it didn't
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  cover his, you know, pedophilia accurizations enough, which by
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  the way, razor fist has a great video kind of debunking all of
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  that and kind of all the, you know, hubbub surrounding that.
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  And I'm he actually did a whole video series on it that is worth
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  watching. He also did a Michael Jackson
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  retrospective on the discography, which I thought was
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  real done. I'm not going to go play the
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  entirety of that video, but I did want to play for you guys at
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  least some of razor fist initial rant against media and some of
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  the you know, allegations that they foisted upon Michael
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  Jackson. It was from about like 10 years
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  ago now, but I think it's, you know, worth watching.
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  And again, this is a shortened version of kind of Razor fist
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  debunking of the Michael Jackson Neverland documentary that came
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  out in 2014. But Even so, I thought that this
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  was kind of well worth watching to kind of address those
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  allegations that the media is upset that this movie doesn't
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  address. So let's see.
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  Cut #2 All right. So I think regarding the, I
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  think regarding the controversy, that kind of sums up, you know,
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  everything that I need to know about, you know, what happened.
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  And the man is dead to Michael Jackson, unfortunately, so he
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  can't even defend himself from these accusations anymore.
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  And that Fighting Neverland documentary also has been
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  debunked more or less by his family.
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  And that came out in 2014, well after his death in 2009.
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  So again, you know, the media what loves to go after people
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  who aren't around to defend themselves anymore, just like
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  they did with, you know, let me from Motörhead and also Hugh
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  Hefner and other people. But yet they won't go after
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  Roman Polanski. The only one that they kind of
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  went after after being forced to is Harvey Weinstein after the
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  allegations were so, you know, overwhelming.
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  But aside from that, you know, aside from the lack of, you
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  know, coverage of the controversial, let me put it
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  this way. I'm glad that they didn't focus
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  on the controversy at all for this movie because like I said,
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  I don't think it would have added anything to this movie.
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  I think it would have been a distraction.
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  And yeah, the critics can complain that, oh, this movie
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  was just fan service for the fans.
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  Well, isn't that what a biopic of, you know, an artist is
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  supposed to be? I mean, we, we got that 10 years
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  ago with the Freddie Mercury biopic.
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  We got that with an Elton John, you know, biopic, which I saw on
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  the scene. But I've heard that's good too,
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  that The Rocket Man biopic. They even did that with, you
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  know, Elvis too. So why is they never covered
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  any, you know, converses with those figures?
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  So why then is the media fixated that they didn't focus on any of
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  the controversies with Michael Jackson for this movie?
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  I don't understand. But again, this goes to show how
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  there's just no overwhelming disparity between what critics
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  think and what actual audiences think.
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  So, you know, in conclusion, I would definitely recommend
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  seeing this movie and seeing in theaters if you can,
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  particularly because hearing, you know, the the movie
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  soundtrack and Michael's songs, you know, with theatrical
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  speakers, like that's the best, you know, way to experience this
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  movie. I, I think I'm not one of these
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  people who thinks that every movie needs to be experienced in
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  some grand movie theater, but this one definitely is because I
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  think the, you know, performance and I think the cinematography
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  and, and the soundscape really deserves to be experienced in
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  theater. So that's my review of the
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  Michael Jackson biopic, Michael Part 1.
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  I thoroughly enjoyed it. Again, I thought Jafar Jackson
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  did a really good job portraying his uncle.
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  And overall, I'm, you know, I have no complaints regarding
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  this film and I recommend people see it.
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  Now, supposedly Part 2 is in production, which will focus on
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  Michael's later life and kind of the time leading up to his
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  death. But that's all we know pretty
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  much at this point. There's really no information
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  out there regarding this movie other than it's in production
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  and we should be seeing it sometime next year.
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  So that just about does for today's episode.
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  Again, I would highly recommend it.
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  Probably going to be my film of the year, at least so far.
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  You know we have, we have a few other movies like The Avengers
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  coming out this year and I think we have a think we have a Star
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  Wars movie coming out, but I could be mistaken on as well.
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  Anyway, hope everyone has a great Monday again, may the
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  fourth be with you all and I will see you back here Wednesday
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  night with Max and Morpheus for the live show at 9:00 PM
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  Eastern. Thanks everyone for tuning in
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  and I will talk with you all down the road.
• 21:43
  The right to offend is not some pesky little part of freedom of
• 21:47
  speech that we have to put up with.
• 21:49
  It is the heart and soul and lungs of freedom of speech.
• 21:53
  It is the coursing lifeblood of human progress.
• 21:56
  It is the instigator of liberty and modernity and science and
• 22:00
  understanding. What a laughing stock today's
• 22:04
  student leaders are that they can so casually dismiss the
• 22:08
  right to be offensive without realizing that their lovely,
• 22:12
  enlightened lives are the gifts of individuals who gave offence.
• 22:18
  Offensiveness is not just something we have to
• 22:20
  begrudgingly accept. Offensiveness is the motor of
• 22:24
  human progress. Thank you for watching the
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  Whitfield Report live on The Right to Offend Media Network.
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  Make sure to check out Sam's books on Amazon, Audible, and
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  Kindle. You can follow Sam on X at Sam W
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  under score, NGC and the Right to Offend Media Network at RTO
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  Media. Like, comment, subscribe and
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  share with your friends. And until next time, God bless.
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  God save this great nation. God, freedom, legacy, in that
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  order.