The Most Hated Family in America
Dir: Geoffrey O'Connor
2007
****
Fred Phelps and his family/followers of the Westboro Baptist Church are quite a scary bunch of people. Fred Phelps is frighteningly powerful in the fact he has brainwashed people into a sense of hatred and believes all the nonsense he preaches. His followers are scary due to their total lack of thought and how easily they are lead into a certain way of thinking without any doubt. They kind of go against everything that makes us human and what makes us as a race progress. Louis Theroux looked uncomfortable for most of it but I think that he was more worried he wouldn't get the footage he wanted - this is the (Jewish) guy who had dinner with neo-Nazis who invited him to rally with them, he's hard core. He brought the world's attention to the Westboro Baptist Church in a big way but the biggest shame in this film is that Theroux didn't know their big secret. A month after this was released, Keith Allen made a film about the Westboro Baptist Church called 'Keith Allen Will Burn in Hell' where he revealed that Fred Phelps's daughter who is high up in the group has an illegitimate son. His arguments were a little raged but listening to this women defend her double standards and therefore undo everything they stand for made for more satisfying viewing. Still, nobody does Documentaries like Louis Theroux.