FILM REVIEW: The Profit. Exec producer Bob Minton
This one is not for the faint of heart where computers are concerned. I downloaded it as a 4.5Gbyte torrent. That took about a week of midnight to 8am free download time.The file format is .ISO which means you could burn it directly to a DVD. Unfortunately it also makes it harder to play. Windows Media Player 11, for example won't play it directly. I think there is a CODEC you can get to play ISO files on the media player, but I opted for a player that would just play it directly.
I downloaded VLC media player, which at 15Mbytes isn't a small download. That played it and I watched the whole thing on that player. Big mistake. For some reason the VLC player gives sound cutouts every 30 seconds, which is not a big deal for speech, but really spoils the great music sound track.
After finishing the film I thought I would check out other options. I found a freeware DVD copying program DVD Shrink 3.2. This has a preview window which can go full screen and gives no sound cutouts.
There were also smaller versions of the film available in more convenient formats, and this might be a better choice.
This 2001 film was apparently banned by the Co$ and therefore has to be worthy of interest. It is a parody of Scientology using a hell of a lot of actual events. There is other stuff which I haven't heard about and which may not be true, but then again some of the characters may be "synthetic", having been taken from things that happened to other people over the years.
Questionable events include the initial discovery of the Tech, where the central character L.Conrad Powers discovers a researcher working on (Dianetics) therapy. He steals her work and hypnotises her to forget that she had it stolen.
There is the (factual) episode with the public unveiling of the first Clear, and the disaster that followed. This story has plants in the audience to ask rehearsed questions (invented?) and she subsequently gets fair gamed and kills herself (invented?).
The film is two hours long as there is a lot of story to tell. It is a well made, high budget production, and I think a lot of Exes will enjoy it, especially with the sound track.For those who haven't read some of the early "entheta" (=true) stories about LRH, you might be surprised about how much is true in this film. The parody of the e-meter with finger electrodes and triangular cases is funny, especially with the high pitched ethereal whining sounds. :D The Sea Ogre look-alike uniforms are very well done (=high budget).
How relevant this is to non-scientologists is hard to say. I think they would enjoy it on a different level to us, not getting the "in" jokes. Watch out for a brief appearance by Stacy Brooks as a nurse. Bob Minton is also in it, although I don't know him by sight so I missed his appearance.
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