Customer Reviews

Banking on Heaven

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an eye opening documentary. It goes into detail of the abuse that women and children go through who are stuck living in the life of polygamy. It includes interviews with escapees, including Carolyn Jessop. It also uncovers a truth that many outsiders are unaware of, "Bleeding the Beast". The men in FLDS believe in robbing American taxpayers because they are considered evil. America spends $300,000,000 a year supporting the polygamist sect in Colorado City AZ. The women are considered unwed, so they receive welfare, food stamps, etc. They are forced to turn the money over to their husbands. The husbands turn the money over to the prophet while their multiple wives and children starve and are deprived of basic necessities. As if the physical and mental abuse that they are forced to endure wasn't enough! This is a must-see DVD. The United States government needs to take a stand and put an end to this horrible way of life!

Having been born five miles south of Colorado City and living here on and off most of my life, I must say that the realism and truth of the town that is reflected in this film is quite amazing. These people have ever been the most close-mouthed and anti-social that I have EVER seen. Under orders, they have never been allowed to speak to outsiders. I never thought I would actually see this town exposed, but this film did a darned good job of it!!!

This film takes the viewer into Colorado City, where the largest known Polygramy group in America reside.

The photrographer was amazing in filming the area that is closed to outsiders, and shows viewers a town that is owned by the FLDS where women are treated like breeding cattle and children are denied basic education, food and clothing.

While the FLDS "religious" group becomes richer and richer, the women and children are forced to live under barbaric rules and regulations while surviving on government issued food stamps and disability payments. Women and children are taught that outsiders are evil, and cannot be trusted under any circumstances. The only education that takes place within this city is what the Profit and leaders allow, which is their way of brainwashing.

Girls are traded, sold and forced to marry whomever their fathers and/or church leaders tell them to. They are married as young as 12, and often to very old men who rule with an iron fist. Every visitor is watched and followed by the police force which is part of the leadership. The producer was able to film being stopped several times by their "police," and showed actual women who were brave enough speak out on camera.

In addition to the women, the sad story of boys who are killed or kicked out for minor offenses and sent into a world they are not ready for is mentioned, and groups to help those who escape are mentioned and shown.

Finally, the real story about the polygamists in Colorado City, AZ. This new documentary, the only film to get inside the cult, features, among others, Carolyn Jessop. Carolyn's book, "Escape", just hit the NYT Bestseller list. "Banking on Heaven" reinforces the horrors Ms. Jessop so clearly describes.

"Banking on Heaven" [...] will shock and sicken the viewer. How can it be possible to have the Taliban in our own back yard?

This is a real documentary from someone who has lived it. It's a very rare glimpse into the secretive world that few experience. Laurie Alan is a surviver and her film BANKING ON HEAVEN is a testimant to what she herself has lived and escaped. Polyamy is still alive throughout the new west today and this film shows the harsh truth of what happens on the inside. It is an honest and eye opening work, and an inspiring piece of filmmaking.

In North America, the widely-held impression of the Third World includes the idea that women's rights are non-existent and the treatment of women and children are abhorrent. Well, this film repatriates those notions, and shows that women's rights are not always so assured in Canada or the US.

The film is a wake-up call, and also a celebration of several heroines in the struggle for the recognition and equality of women throughout our society. The film may bring you to tears, but it leaves you with a profound sense of hope.

This is a very well done, seemingly unbiased presentation of the FLSD community. It certainly raises many issues: women's rights, child abuse, state law vs. relious belief, and the ever popular -- American Way -- aka milking the system at the expense of others.

AFter watching it twice now, I'm going to donate it to my local library in the hopes that the tragedy occurring in the FLDS camps might end and women and children will not be subjected to torture that they've been told is divine love. The saddest part is that the generations raised in the FLDS community -- under such tight restrictions -- have no idea it seems (for the most part, except for Ruth) that they are being abused, manipulated and used. They only know what they were born into and are told from a very young age that if you're LUCKY, you'll be chosen to be assigned to marriage, and if you're really LUCKY, it'll be to one of the honorable men in the hierarchy and if you're LUCKY, you'll have thousands of babies because that's the ticket into heaven. If this is all you know, why wouldn't you want that?

People will obvisously do anything to get to heaven. It's also interesting to note that many of the things that go on in the FLDS community also exist in the modern, civilized world. (Women having babies to milk the welfare system, immigrants crossing the boarder to give bith to their "anchor" babies and then milking the system, healthy middle-class, able-bodied workers collecting permanent disability and milking the system. It seems that American is the land of opportunity to milk the system. THe American dream has become "milk the system." Every young girl in a poor urban neighborhood knows that the welfare check grows with each baby. THe illegal immigrant day workers have a great deal -- $10/hour, a ride to and from work, no need to speak the language, no performance measurements and they get a hot lunch to boot.

So it was most interesting that what started out for me as a real sorrow for the women and children (and even the men who are coerced and brainwashed like cattle), it turned into more of a political issue for me to observe this as yet another example of people milking the system. Unfortunately, (and this is the same everywhere) the small handful of "leaders" enjoy the benefits brought on the backs of the masses of people who are subjugated.

I hope to see those people break away and free themselves. HOpefully the situation at the Zion ranch will give the FLDS followers some time in the real world and realize the devil has been taking their money all these generations.

This is not a polished publication. Much of the film has an amateur feel to it. There are a handful of scenes and images that are used over and over again whenever the narrator is talking about something for which they don't have specific footage. However, this wasn't meant to be an entertaining movie so I, personally, had no problem with the quality of the footage.

There is one woman in particular who lives on the outskirts of the community in hopes of keeping track of her daughter. Her story was particularly moving. It is obvious from her speech that she has very little education. If you look past that you begin to see a practical, intelligent and strong woman who had no chance to flourish.

Another interesting figure in the documentary is Carolyn Jessop. It was interesting to hear her take on various different things that occurred before she left the community. (I highly recommend her recently published book. She's been actively working to provide information and support for those who choose to leave the FLDS organization.)

I recommend this particularly to those who are interested in learning about the challenges faced by those who are or have been members of the FLDS organization. (So many people don't realize how many young men are chased out in their early teens with no understanding of the outside world!) It is a good starting point towards gaining and understanding.

Banking on Heaven

I have just watched Dot Reidelbach's and Laurie Allen's documentary on the FLDS sect in Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah with shock and outrage. I thought I had seen everything when I read Jon Krakauer's "Under the Banner of Heaven" and Carolyn Jessop's "Escape", but they pale in comparison to the cruelty and abuse women right here in America are enduring at the hands of misguided and, in cases, perverted men.

Interviews with escapees, exiles, lost boys, women who have been victims of incest, who have lost their children and have endured tragedy at which we recoil in horror, makes this must viewing. Here you will discover abuse in the name of religion, elected officials turning their backs on these women's cries for help, the Mormon Church profiting from payoffs by the very well-heeled FLDS sect.

Film footage takes the viewer on a journey to northern Arizona where polygamist men live like potentates in houses worth millions, but whose wives and children lack the bare necessities of life and who are made to go on welfare at the taxpayers' expense. Here, young teenage boys are thrust out into the world to fend for themselves with only the clothes on their backs. Why? Because there are not enough young women to go around for the older men who have been taught they need a minimum of three wives to attain heaven.

Banking on Heaven reveals the corruption in the FLDS, a corruption that extends to a polygamous law enforcement and higher.

This film will anger you, disturb you, maybe make you cry, but it should be required viewing so more people can see a tragedy occurring right here in the United States.

A surprising look at a surprisingly pervasive phenomenon, FLDS is more than a church, it is a political movement. An intelligent overview of a culture which, when abroad, is viewed as dangerous, but when within our borders, as a first amendment issue.