“The Bridge to Total Freedom”
Directed By:
Todd Haynes
Written By:
Todd Haynes, based on the New Yorker article “The Apostate: Paul Haggis vs. the Church of Scientology” by Lawrence Wright
Executive Producer:
Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein
Producers:
Todd Haynes
Music by:
Alexandre Desplat
Director of Photography:
Edward Lachmann
Editor:
Jay Rabinowitz
Production Designer:
David Wasco
Art Director:
Austin Gorg
Cast:
Paul Haggis: Woody Harrelson
Young Paul Haggis: Aaron Paul
Diane Gettes: Evan Rachel Wood
Katy Haggis: Zoe Kazan
Jim Logan: Jackie Earle Haley
L. Ron Hubbard: Tom Wilkinson
Tommy Davis: Josh Hartnett
David Miscavige: Greg Kinnear
Plot Summary:
Paul Haggis (Woody Harrelson) is in a bad place. The multiple Oscar-winning screenwriter and producer had recently announced his resignation from the Church of Scientology. After all of his letters asking Church spokesman Tommy Davis (Josh Hartnett) to denounce the San Diego branch for supporting Proposition 8 were ignored, long-time churchgoer Haggis decided to break one of the central guidelines of Scientology and do research on the religion from independent sources. He is horrified by what he sees. He had already knew the Church had a not-too-hidden anti-gay sentiment (his own daughter was a target of anti-gay bullying), but he finds documents and videos of Tommy Davis denying not only this, but also the practice of “disconnection”, where Scientologists are forced to break all contact from non-Scientology family members. Haggis knows disconnection is a Scientology practice: his own wife was forced to disconnect from her parents after they resigned from the Church. Seeing these public denials was truly the last straw for Haggis: in his own words, “To see you lie so easily, I am afraid I had to ask myself: what else are you lying about?”
Haggis remembers when he first found the Church living in Canada in his early 20s. As a young man, Haggis (Aaron Paul) was troubled boy, rebellious and prone to criminal activity. He is exposed to the church first when he talks to a spokesperson named Jim Logan (Jackie Earle Haley) while in a bookstore. Remembering a friend telling him that Scientology was a cult, the naturally curious and contrary Haggis asks Logan to bring him to the nearest church. They explain to him Scientology is not a religion in the strictest sense of the world, but instead “applied philosophy” that could be used to strengthen one’s relationships with others. Haggis, who had been having arguments with his girlfriend Diane (Evan Rachel Wood), decides to sign them both up for a crash-course.
Time goes by and Haggis relocates to California to follow his dream of becoming a writer while he and Diane advance further and further into the hierarchy of the church. When the church faced controversy over their role in the death of Lisa McPherson in 1995, Haggis simply chose not to learn the details, and besides, he was still doing heavy coursework so he could advance further, including having to write essays about all of the benefits and successes coursework was doing for him. When he expressed doubts over the Church’s views of Earth’s origins in what is known as O.T. III material (said to be able to kill anybody who isn’t properly prepared for the revelation), he is told to keep reading it until it makes sense.
These scenes are intercut with the story of L. Ron Hubbard (Tom Wilkinson). We first see him lying on a cot in a Naval hospital during WWII, blinded and nearly crippled with hip and back injuries. Over a long time-lapse, we watch him, seemingly through the power of his own mind, heal himself. Soon after, he is recruited by the Office of Naval Intelligence to infiltrate and dissolve a cult of black magic practitioners in Pasadena, California. Working undercover and observing their hedonistic “sex magick” rituals. Though he was never taken in by the beliefs, being so close to the mysticism gave him the inspiration to write down the practices he used to heal himself in the hospital, calling the system “Dianetics”. When he tries to present his finding to the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association, they turn him down flat. As a result, he denounces modern psychology in his book, saying if psychologsits “had the power to torture and kill everyone they would do so.” The book becomes a bestseller and Hubbard uses his charisma to raise a group of followers, first at “Dianetics Centers” and later as the Church of Scientology. Acquiring a fleet of ships, he sails with a large group of followers (many of them teenagers) so they could better study Dianetics in a “Distraction-free environment” and perhaps find treasure that had been buried by members in past lifetimes. This would later grow into a core group Scientology called the “Sea Org.”
As the church grows, so does the controversy. Following one infamous incident where the same O.T. III documents that had earlier baffled Haggis had been leaked to the Los Angeles Times (despite Hubbard sending fifteen hundred Scientologists to crowd into a courthouse to block access) he calls upon Paul Haggis to rewrite a screenplay he wrote and intended to direct about his philosophies called “Influencing the Planet”. Haggis can tell the material is dreck at first glance, but nevertheless tries his best to form it into something tangible. The movie was never made.
Hubbard died in 1986, leaving his self-appointed successor David Miscavige (Greg Kinnear) to take up the reins, and he was possibly more dogmatic and intolerant of dissent than Hubbard himself. Operating out of a desert compound called the Gold Base, Miscavige was a serial physical abuser, regularly beating and attacking his co-workers and at one point forcing a group of people to play a cutthroat game of musical chairs, where only the victor would be allowed to remain in the Church. This fear of expulsion is how Miscavige was able to keep his followers in line despite the abuse they suffered at his hands, because he “holds the power of eternal life and death over you”. He (like Hubbard earlier) also drafted teenagers as workers in the Sea Org, forcing them to sign billion-year contracts of manual labor and preventing them for having any further education while at sea.
Back in 2009, Haggis finds a large group of his Scientologist friends standing on his lawn when he comes home from work. They confront him over the damage his public resignation could do to the organization. He reminds them that he had been a stringent practitioner of Scientology for close to forty years, and that he was horrified by the accusations made by people against the Church, saying that “if only a fraction of these accusations are true, we are talking about serious, indefensible human and civil-rights violations.” and that he refuses to be affiliated with a dishonest and abusive cult. They leave him be, though Haggis can’t help but wonder if he hasn’t seen the last of the Church of Scientology.
Awards Campaign
Todd Haynes, after looking at the life of Karen Carpenter in Superstar, David Bowie in Velvet Goldmine, and Bob Dylan in I’m Not There, proves himself once again a virtuoso at unconventional biopics with The Bridge to Total Freedom, a multifaceted look at one of the most controversial organizations of the modern world: the Church of Scientology. Haynes uses the ground shaking story of screenwriter Paul Haggis’s public break from the Church as a basis to create a story that encompasses the foundation, development, and controversy of it, told through multiple points of view.
Of course, it’s nearly impossible to tell a story like this and claim complete objectivity, but Haynes is smart enough to know this and deal with it upfront: the intricate flashback structure (inspired, as was Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine, by Citizen Kane) gives slightly different styles to the segments to distinguish whether they are being told from the POV of Haggis, the Church’s official record, or from the accounts of church “defectors” and critics. This collage style creates a film that is equal parts engaging, challenging, and entertaining.
Woody Harrelson and Aaron Paul play Haggis at different ages, and the way their two performances both differentiate and meld is fascinating: Paul plays Haggis as a confused young man who uses the organization to give his life direction, despite knowing the controversy they’ve had, and Harrelson as a conflicted man who can hardly believe he was duped into joining them in the first place. It can be hard at times to believe they’re playing the same character, but as their two storylines meld and develop, we can see how they connect. Harrelson’s performance is the heart of the movie, a good man who remains bitter over his failed marriage and has dealt with the pain by throwing himself into his filmmaking and charitable work. When he hears about the Scientology group’s sponsorship of Proposition 8, he remembers the troubles faced by his lesbian daughter Katy (Zoe Kazan, in a small but important performance), and seems to think if he can bring them closer if he can get the Church to denounce the support (Haggis was never close emotionally with his wife or children).
Dominating the flashbacks, though, is the great Tom Wilkinson’s performance as L. Ron Hubbard. He brings to the controversial leader a charisma and confidence that allows you to understand why so many people follow his writings. Due to the purposefully fragmented nature of the narrative, you could almost say Wilkinson plays multiple roles in the different POVs, one flashback may play him as a visionary genius, another as a manipulative schemer, and yet another as a misunderstood philosopher. It would be very easy to turn any of these into a stereotypical villain performance, but Wilkinson goes far beyond caricature and give his Hubbard a full three dimensions, regardless of who is telling his story. The other Scientology heads portrayed by Greg Kinnear and Josh Hartnett might be as complex or multidimensional, but still give satisfying villain performances nonetheless.
Equal parts biopic, character study, and thriller, The Bridge to Total Freedom is a compulsively watchable movie that asks important questions about trust, religion, and even the nature of family. And by taking its controversial subject matter head-on, it is sure to inflame discussion about those and many other subjects.
FYC
Best Picture
Best Director -
Todd Haynes
Best Actor -
Woody Harrelson
Best Supporting Actor -
Tom Wilkinson
Best Supporting Actor -
Aaron Paul
Best Supporting Actor -
Greg Kinnear
Best Supporting Actress -
Evan Rachel Wood
Best Supporting Actress -
Zoe Kazan
Best Adapted Screenplay
Directed By:
Todd Haynes
Written By:
Todd Haynes, based on the New Yorker article “The Apostate: Paul Haggis vs. the Church of Scientology” by Lawrence Wright
Executive Producer:
Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein
Producers:
Todd Haynes
Music by:
Alexandre Desplat
Director of Photography:
Edward Lachmann
Editor:
Jay Rabinowitz
Production Designer:
David Wasco
Art Director:
Austin Gorg
Cast:
Paul Haggis: Woody Harrelson
Young Paul Haggis: Aaron Paul
Diane Gettes: Evan Rachel Wood
Katy Haggis: Zoe Kazan
Jim Logan: Jackie Earle Haley
L. Ron Hubbard: Tom Wilkinson
Tommy Davis: Josh Hartnett
David Miscavige: Greg Kinnear
Plot Summary:
Paul Haggis (Woody Harrelson) is in a bad place. The multiple Oscar-winning screenwriter and producer had recently announced his resignation from the Church of Scientology. After all of his letters asking Church spokesman Tommy Davis (Josh Hartnett) to denounce the San Diego branch for supporting Proposition 8 were ignored, long-time churchgoer Haggis decided to break one of the central guidelines of Scientology and do research on the religion from independent sources. He is horrified by what he sees. He had already knew the Church had a not-too-hidden anti-gay sentiment (his own daughter was a target of anti-gay bullying), but he finds documents and videos of Tommy Davis denying not only this, but also the practice of “disconnection”, where Scientologists are forced to break all contact from non-Scientology family members. Haggis knows disconnection is a Scientology practice: his own wife was forced to disconnect from her parents after they resigned from the Church. Seeing these public denials was truly the last straw for Haggis: in his own words, “To see you lie so easily, I am afraid I had to ask myself: what else are you lying about?”
Haggis remembers when he first found the Church living in Canada in his early 20s. As a young man, Haggis (Aaron Paul) was troubled boy, rebellious and prone to criminal activity. He is exposed to the church first when he talks to a spokesperson named Jim Logan (Jackie Earle Haley) while in a bookstore. Remembering a friend telling him that Scientology was a cult, the naturally curious and contrary Haggis asks Logan to bring him to the nearest church. They explain to him Scientology is not a religion in the strictest sense of the world, but instead “applied philosophy” that could be used to strengthen one’s relationships with others. Haggis, who had been having arguments with his girlfriend Diane (Evan Rachel Wood), decides to sign them both up for a crash-course.
Time goes by and Haggis relocates to California to follow his dream of becoming a writer while he and Diane advance further and further into the hierarchy of the church. When the church faced controversy over their role in the death of Lisa McPherson in 1995, Haggis simply chose not to learn the details, and besides, he was still doing heavy coursework so he could advance further, including having to write essays about all of the benefits and successes coursework was doing for him. When he expressed doubts over the Church’s views of Earth’s origins in what is known as O.T. III material (said to be able to kill anybody who isn’t properly prepared for the revelation), he is told to keep reading it until it makes sense.
These scenes are intercut with the story of L. Ron Hubbard (Tom Wilkinson). We first see him lying on a cot in a Naval hospital during WWII, blinded and nearly crippled with hip and back injuries. Over a long time-lapse, we watch him, seemingly through the power of his own mind, heal himself. Soon after, he is recruited by the Office of Naval Intelligence to infiltrate and dissolve a cult of black magic practitioners in Pasadena, California. Working undercover and observing their hedonistic “sex magick” rituals. Though he was never taken in by the beliefs, being so close to the mysticism gave him the inspiration to write down the practices he used to heal himself in the hospital, calling the system “Dianetics”. When he tries to present his finding to the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association, they turn him down flat. As a result, he denounces modern psychology in his book, saying if psychologsits “had the power to torture and kill everyone they would do so.” The book becomes a bestseller and Hubbard uses his charisma to raise a group of followers, first at “Dianetics Centers” and later as the Church of Scientology. Acquiring a fleet of ships, he sails with a large group of followers (many of them teenagers) so they could better study Dianetics in a “Distraction-free environment” and perhaps find treasure that had been buried by members in past lifetimes. This would later grow into a core group Scientology called the “Sea Org.”
As the church grows, so does the controversy. Following one infamous incident where the same O.T. III documents that had earlier baffled Haggis had been leaked to the Los Angeles Times (despite Hubbard sending fifteen hundred Scientologists to crowd into a courthouse to block access) he calls upon Paul Haggis to rewrite a screenplay he wrote and intended to direct about his philosophies called “Influencing the Planet”. Haggis can tell the material is dreck at first glance, but nevertheless tries his best to form it into something tangible. The movie was never made.
Hubbard died in 1986, leaving his self-appointed successor David Miscavige (Greg Kinnear) to take up the reins, and he was possibly more dogmatic and intolerant of dissent than Hubbard himself. Operating out of a desert compound called the Gold Base, Miscavige was a serial physical abuser, regularly beating and attacking his co-workers and at one point forcing a group of people to play a cutthroat game of musical chairs, where only the victor would be allowed to remain in the Church. This fear of expulsion is how Miscavige was able to keep his followers in line despite the abuse they suffered at his hands, because he “holds the power of eternal life and death over you”. He (like Hubbard earlier) also drafted teenagers as workers in the Sea Org, forcing them to sign billion-year contracts of manual labor and preventing them for having any further education while at sea.
Back in 2009, Haggis finds a large group of his Scientologist friends standing on his lawn when he comes home from work. They confront him over the damage his public resignation could do to the organization. He reminds them that he had been a stringent practitioner of Scientology for close to forty years, and that he was horrified by the accusations made by people against the Church, saying that “if only a fraction of these accusations are true, we are talking about serious, indefensible human and civil-rights violations.” and that he refuses to be affiliated with a dishonest and abusive cult. They leave him be, though Haggis can’t help but wonder if he hasn’t seen the last of the Church of Scientology.
Awards Campaign
Todd Haynes, after looking at the life of Karen Carpenter in Superstar, David Bowie in Velvet Goldmine, and Bob Dylan in I’m Not There, proves himself once again a virtuoso at unconventional biopics with The Bridge to Total Freedom, a multifaceted look at one of the most controversial organizations of the modern world: the Church of Scientology. Haynes uses the ground shaking story of screenwriter Paul Haggis’s public break from the Church as a basis to create a story that encompasses the foundation, development, and controversy of it, told through multiple points of view.
Of course, it’s nearly impossible to tell a story like this and claim complete objectivity, but Haynes is smart enough to know this and deal with it upfront: the intricate flashback structure (inspired, as was Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine, by Citizen Kane) gives slightly different styles to the segments to distinguish whether they are being told from the POV of Haggis, the Church’s official record, or from the accounts of church “defectors” and critics. This collage style creates a film that is equal parts engaging, challenging, and entertaining.
Woody Harrelson and Aaron Paul play Haggis at different ages, and the way their two performances both differentiate and meld is fascinating: Paul plays Haggis as a confused young man who uses the organization to give his life direction, despite knowing the controversy they’ve had, and Harrelson as a conflicted man who can hardly believe he was duped into joining them in the first place. It can be hard at times to believe they’re playing the same character, but as their two storylines meld and develop, we can see how they connect. Harrelson’s performance is the heart of the movie, a good man who remains bitter over his failed marriage and has dealt with the pain by throwing himself into his filmmaking and charitable work. When he hears about the Scientology group’s sponsorship of Proposition 8, he remembers the troubles faced by his lesbian daughter Katy (Zoe Kazan, in a small but important performance), and seems to think if he can bring them closer if he can get the Church to denounce the support (Haggis was never close emotionally with his wife or children).
Dominating the flashbacks, though, is the great Tom Wilkinson’s performance as L. Ron Hubbard. He brings to the controversial leader a charisma and confidence that allows you to understand why so many people follow his writings. Due to the purposefully fragmented nature of the narrative, you could almost say Wilkinson plays multiple roles in the different POVs, one flashback may play him as a visionary genius, another as a manipulative schemer, and yet another as a misunderstood philosopher. It would be very easy to turn any of these into a stereotypical villain performance, but Wilkinson goes far beyond caricature and give his Hubbard a full three dimensions, regardless of who is telling his story. The other Scientology heads portrayed by Greg Kinnear and Josh Hartnett might be as complex or multidimensional, but still give satisfying villain performances nonetheless.
Equal parts biopic, character study, and thriller, The Bridge to Total Freedom is a compulsively watchable movie that asks important questions about trust, religion, and even the nature of family. And by taking its controversial subject matter head-on, it is sure to inflame discussion about those and many other subjects.
FYC
Best Picture
Best Director -
Todd Haynes
Best Actor -
Woody Harrelson
Best Supporting Actor -
Tom Wilkinson
Best Supporting Actor -
Aaron Paul
Best Supporting Actor -
Greg Kinnear
Best Supporting Actress -
Evan Rachel Wood
Best Supporting Actress -
Zoe Kazan
Best Adapted Screenplay