Michael: Do Not Let History Be Rewritten

What seems like every year since the surprise success of Bohemian Rhapsody, a new musical biopic has come out. The Beatles are still cooking, Bruce Springstein, David Bowie, Elvis and Bob Dylan have all been done; this years by-the-numbers milquetoast musical biopic is none other than Michael Jackson. 

This will not be a film review — I refuse to watch it. Even if the critical consensus wasn’t scathing (which it thankfully is), I would refuse to watch it. That’s because Michael Jackson is a fucking paedophile. 

Yes, I know, David Bowie, Elvis and The Beatles have all had problematic allegations — Elvis’s history of paedophilia and abuse was well portrayed in Sophia Coppola’s Priscilla. But they’re all different, and we know full well that they’re all different. None of the above systematically groomed several children from as young as aged seven. To date over nine people have come out and said that Jackson sexually abused them when they were a minor. They were groomed so effectively, that it took others speaking out and entire HBO documentaries for the Cascio siblings to realise it was an issue in the first place. Even a cursory glimpse at the details is harrowing, one can only imagine the trauma that these poor people have gone through. 

This trauma is surely only being magnified now. With the release of Michael, people are focusing on the good times — remember Thriller? Remember Smooth Criminal? Good times, right! Michael Jackson has given the world so much good music, that we don’t even have to think about his heinous crimes. It doesn’t matter that, even if there was genuinely no sexual assault happening, that this was a grown ass man who admitted to sharing a bed with children, whilst he had fucking NAMBLA books locked up in the same room. Who cares though, Billie Jean is just such a fucking banger. 

If history is written by “the winners,” we’re currently letting it be re-written by a bunch of paedophile enablers. Michael appears to be a Hagiographic retelling of his story where Jackson is treated like a saint. He’s the ultimate victim (which he definitely was, I’d never belittle the actions of his abusive father Joe Jackson), who never did anything wrong in his life ever. The movie ends in 1988, conveniently before any abuse allegations came to light. Rumour has it, the planned third act did feature the allegations from then 13 year old Jordan Chandler, but instead of treating them with any reverence, they portray the Chandler family as a money grubbing bunch of vultures. Thankfully this segment was cut and reshot — not because they realised how evil that was, but because the lawsuit settlement stipulated that public statements from either side were not to be made. 

Following Jackson's death in 2009, any discussion of his obvious paedophilia was practically banned. A man who made a lot of music that meant a lot to a lot of people had just died, and as a society we’re not to speak ill of the dead. The release of Leaving Neverland, the bombshell HBO documentary that detailed the extent of his abuse towards minors, seemed to break that dam — it seemed like the culture finally realised that we’d all be duped, and that we’d been deifying an honest to god monster for the past decade. 

Five years later however, it seems like no one cares. “Thriller” is still played on regular rotation throughout Halloween, MJ the Music ran on the West End for two years with no major uproar, and now the Michael movie is set to be the highest grossing music biopic ever. Meanwhile, Leaving Neverland has been scrubbed from HBO servers following pressure from the Jackson estate. 

“People just don’t care,” said Leaving Neverland director Dan Reed in a recent interview. “it’s the definition of an inconvenient truth — that your idol, who did the soundtrack of your wedding, your teenage years, whatever it might be, happens to be this monster. I think most people who will go and see the movie just literally don’t care.” 

It’s important to care. I’m not saying you have to burn your copy of Off The Wall, but as you listen, do not accept the sanitised version of history. Harvey Weinstein did a lot for independent cinema, but his name is still synonymous with sex pest. Jimmy Saville did a lot for charity, but his name is still synonymous with massive paedophile. And the same should be of Michael Jackson — yes he gave us “Thriller”, but he also has several credible accusations of child sexual abuse, and we should not let history be rewritten.