The large blue building on Sunset Boulevard was basically all I had known about Scientology. Since I was a child I would pass the building and would constantly ask my parents what would happen in there. At first I thought scientists worked there, then after nagging my parents for a while, I was told Scientology was a religion. I had so many questions and no one was able to answer them. Recently, HBO released the documentary, Going Clear, and many if not all my questions were finally answered.

The Church of Scientology was discovered by L. Ron Hubbard in 1952. Hubbard a creative genius, who holds the word record for the most published books. He discovered Scientology after one of his best-selling books, Dianetics, caught fire with the public. I learned from many of the former members that the Church is basically a cult with its followers willing to die or kill on a whim’s notice. They are forced to give their deepest secrets in sessions called “audits.” These audits make leaving the Church very difficult as executives of Scientology are willing to blackmail you with your secrets.

Probably one of the most interesting parts of the film is the conflict that the Church faced with the IRS in 1993. For over 30 years, Scientology had evaded paying taxes that totalled to more than a billion dollars. At the time, the total net assets of the Church was about a quarter of a billion dollars. The only solution was to be recognized as a non-profit religion.

As the IRS refused to grant them the approval, the Scientologists “went to war” with the IRS. They literally annoyed the heck out of the IRS. Within one week, they had filed over 2000 lawsuits against the agency. Not only the entity itself, but even executives and low-level accountants themselves. Some of the lawsuits did not even have anything to do with Scientology, but instead with “Joe Taxpayer.”

It was simply genius. To get out of all the lawsuits, the IRS only had to make Scientology an official religion in the United States of America. They did, and today the Church of Scientology makes billions upon billions of dollars untaxed.

The documentary is primarily from the point of view of former Scientologists who at some point finally came to their senses about the horrible tyranny of Scientology. Former scientologists featured in the film include screenwriter Paul Haggis, former Scientologist Senior Executives Mike Rinder and Marty Rathbun, and actor Jason Beghe. The movie itself is based on the book written by Lawrence Wright. Alex Gibney, director and writer, of the film did a really good job in making an exciting and enlightening documentary about a religion.

Gibney though throughout the film decides to take the approach of attacking the Church unlike book it was based on written by Wright. Gibney’s method is useful as the the movie was very interesting and exciting, though some could say it was a bit biased. Wright whose book is more about learning what Scientology really is, is featured minimally in the movie.

This is a wonderful film. I learned a lot about something that is relatively unknown. Although the documentary can be dry at times, and hard to follow, I still think it is worth watching. Two thumbs up from this high school student!