Short Film: The Strange Thing About The Johnsons
If you’ve already seen this, feel free to start the discussion. If you haven’t, here’s a brief introduction of what you’ll be getting yourself into (courtesy of IMDb).
The Johnsons are an attractive, well-to-do, upper-middle class family. Sidney, husband and father, is a famous poet, known and adored for his kindness and sensitivity. Joan, wife and mother, is a dutiful housewife, an obsessive homemaker and the life of every party. Their son, Isaiah, is a charismatic young man who has just gotten married to an equally appealing young woman. In fact, there is only one thing that separates the Johnsons from their charming friends and neighbors: Isaiah, the son, has been molesting Sidney, the father, since he was twelve years old.
With that being said, this is sick, this is disturbing, this is unexpected, bold and in your face. Don’t say I didn’t warn you…
Read the blurb. Can’t watch the film.
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Wait… the son’s the one doing the molesting?
KDaddy23 recently posted..Overdosed on L-tryptophan?
Exactly! A definite twist. Some of the other excerpts I’ve read about the movie say the son is in love with his father. I can definitely see that as a possibility. Either way it’s still perverted…
Okay, Alix, hang on for a moment. I went to iMDB and read the thingy for myself, as well as what someone said about it. I’ll avoid using the words “sick” and “disgusting” but will point out that this particular thing is something that’s been going on like forever – never heard of it in the reverse like this – but also something that we all look the other way on. We are quick to use words like predator and prey in these things and it’s so… sordid that no one ever wants to bother getting to the root cause of such things because it makes us have to look at stuff we’d rather not look at.
This gets my attention because the family in this film is Black – but such things take place regardless of race, color, and creed. I don’t condone it… but I’m also not going to act like it never happens, either. It pisses in the face of our collective morality… but this is a facet of human behavior we all wish we didn’t know. Indeed, that whole bonding process that’s an integral part of being a family is what makes this possible, if you can stop being shocked long enough to examine the dynamic.
I could go on for days about this…
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When I use the words sick and disgusting, I am describing the acts committed in the this film. If you haven’t watched it, you can’t really speak on it. I do believe that the film brings to light things that happen too often, which is why I described it as “in your face.”
More films like this should be made to give us a reason to discuss the reality that brought these films to light.
Well, I am trying to get a look at it and once I do I’ll be able to comment better. And, yeah, discussing the reality of it all should take place instead of sticking our heads in the sand and acting as if it doesn’t happen.
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Did I mention how much I HATE buffering? Jeez…
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After I re-read & saw the film. I felt the story was brilliantly from a different perspective. Thank you for post the film.
Thought provoking yet completely Psychotic…
I don’t even know what to say about this…but I would have never seen it had you not posted it. It’s jarring…thank you?
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I actually enjoyed the video. I thought the idea behind it all was very insightful. More often we hear about a daughter being in love with a father, but this was a little whoa. Many people need to see this because it is a reality.
Alix, I’ve watched it – well, as much as I could before it inexplicably got stuck. But now that I’ve seen it, yeah, it can happen like that. I’m gonna come right out and say it: What “disturbed” me the most wasn’t the son giving the father a blowjob; it was the mother seeing it, digesting what she saw, then walking away as if she never saw it. You see the shock and horror on her face, see her think about it – then she smiles and walks away and, to me, that’s the greater crime in this – she chose to remain silent when it was in her power to do something.
The father is equally guilty because even if you want to assume that the son “didn’t know better” – and I don’t believe this – he should have been adult enough to shut this down before the first act ever took place – but he didn’t. I can even understand why he didn’t; he got caught up between wanting the “best” for his son and the moral implications. He wrote the book; maybe it helped clear his mind but it’s evidence if the police ever got their hands on it if called to investigate. The son obviously knew this and gave his old man some shit about it, threatening him and all that.
Then, the father steps out in front of a speeding truck, opting to end his life (if he did – this is where it got stuck for me) and if this is what happened, well, it takes him out of the equation… but doesn’t really make the problem go away. As films go, this was just as shocking; the moment I saw him go out the door and saw the truck, I knew what he was going to do and I thought, “I understand… but that solves nothing.”
And, yeah, Alix is right in that we cannot keep turning a blind eye to such things and more so if we know and believe that this severely undermines our morality. So, now, I’m gonna see if I can get this unstuck and finish the last nine minutes…
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My mouth hung open when it was made obvious that the mother knew and didn’t act on it. That made me feel ill.
We often say in situations where the child is the one being molested that possibly the molester was re-enacting behavior that he has learned. Watching this makes me wonder what the son had experienced at twelve that would lead him to believe that was appropriate to love his father in that way… And I do believe he loved him, based on his reaction to being confronted by his mother.
Oh, I can easily guess how this got started and the short version is that it’s not about what’s appropriate and what isn’t – it’s about feelings that the logic of appropriateness cannot compete with. But, it’s not that the boy got this going – his father allowed it, his mother turned a blind eye to it and, I got the film going so I could see the ending.
1. Didn’t surprise me that she blamed her son for the death when (1) he committed suicide due to his own actions and culpability in this and (2) she didn’t do jack when she could have before the fact.
2. She killed her son; still doesn’t excuse her implied complicity.
3. She destroyed the existing evidence and in doing that, prevents any future occurrences from being, at best, deterred if not eliminated. And, what happened to the copy he was holding in his hand when the truck slammed into him? I’m betting it was removed from the scene before the police arrived – again, part of the cover-up perpetrated by the mother, I think.
Did the mother do something to sexually alienate the husband and, thus, added some impetus to his decision to become a victim? This is artfully left to the imagination, as is how this got started to begin with.
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This is just so I can do what I didn’t do before – make sure I’m really subscribed!
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Wanted you to know I give you full “credit” for posting this first; I did it on my blog for the people who follow me – but don’t follow you; wasn’t hijacking you at all.
I know! I checked out your post right after you posted
Wait… I’m so confused! Not really but, really.
I’m so disturbed right now! WTH just happened? You really can’t prepare anyone for what I just saw. WOW. I think the son’s wife suspected that there was something about the closeness although the film only depicted her reaction to her husbands ‘odd’ behavior once after the NYE party. Everyone knew or suspected but were too afraid or in denial to say anything. This mimics reality in an astounding way.. I remind people when they witness something ‘questionable’ especially involving a child, bring it to someones attention because how would you like it if someone else turned a blind eye to your child in trouble.
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This film bitch-slaps us… but not really. That the “Johnsons” were Black makes the whole thing even more disturbing… and not so much. The very nature of it outrages us but makes us want to look away.
I asked myself what I would have done had I walked up and saw something like that and it wasn’t easy because my thoughts now would be to break up the party so “divorcing” myself from my current mindset was difficult. Indeed, I had to take my mind back a lot of years to those occasion when I really did walk into something like that, either brother and sister or even parent and child.
I know that then, I saw it, recognized it… and didn’t say shit to anyone about it – and I have no idea why I didn’t, say, go tell my parents what I saw. So, when I saw the mother’s reaction to seeing what had obviously going on for a while, I both understood it but didn’t, if that makes sense.
I think the key to her “silence” was not what her son was doing – it was the look on her husband’s face; this wasn’t the “usual” parent victimizing a child – it was the other way around. I got to thinking that she “readjusted” and walked away with that smile because her child wasn’t the victim… and maybe her feelings about her husband had something to do with it.
We see, at the end of the film, that she knew – not suspected – what had happened coming home from the prom and why her husband locked himself in the bathroom and cried his heart out… and even though she never said anything to her son until that moment, she also never went to her husband and demanded to know what the fuck the problem was and, then, what she could do to help him.
The whole thing begs a question in that if the child is a victim, we know what has to be done… but what happens when the adult is the victim? Is the adult “on their own” because they should know how to get out of the mess they’ve allowed to happen?
How does the wife go to the authorities and say, “My husband is an incest victim because our son is molesting him!” Maybe they believe her but, more likely, they probably wouldn’t… because we believe that such a thing just ain’t possible. And, if they did, would the father fess up… or protect his son?
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uhmm ok! this is unlike anything Ive seen before. It was like a full length Law and Order SVU episode.
I have no words. As someone who was molested when she was younger by three different “men” and was threatened to not say anything it pisses me off that the mother just turned her head and back to it. The father… Does he have some mental illness or what does the son have over the father. He looks completely embarrassed and depressed. Good shed of light though..
I am so uncomfortable right now. Disturbed is not even the word. But i can’t seem to form too many other coherent words to describe what I felt while watching, And because of this, I would say that this is one of the more successful shorts i’ve seen in a long while.
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Wow! I started watching this at work and have to continue at home! I am already intrigued although this is a story I’ve never seen told before. I’ll update you when I finish it!
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I feel like the son has to have something over his father. Did his father initiate the first act? Or did the father create an environment where it seemed okay to engage in such acts? Was there any reciprocation? Is that why the son felt as if he could get away with it? He has a sense of entitlement and haughtiness that seems aligned with having a damaging secret that would paint his father as the victimizer. Sigh. So many questions and conflicted emotions.
Chanel recently posted..Happiness = Fiction ?
This is crazy. I was disgusted. I am thinking about sharing, still thinking though.
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Wow…that sound crazy…I mean what would have a child molest their own parent?
I can’t view the video tho…sad face.
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This movie was brilliantly done… It captivated me from the moment it started until the twisted ending. I loved it, and I have never seen anything like it. Very powerful.
this was a well done movie…but the content was sick and disturbing. the boy should have been in a mental ward.
What a disturbing movie, the last movie I watched which is confession was a bit disturbing like this one. This one is not suitable fr young audiences.
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I thought the idea behind it all was very insightful. I went to iMDB and read the thingy for myself, as well as what someone said about it. I felt the story was brilliantly from a different perspective.
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Great film. Brilliantly done. Offered Different perspective. Thought provoking, but totally unbelievable.
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As an actress and as a black female, I’m more disturbed that all the individuals behind the film and why a all black cast was chosen? I believe most black people looking at this are in shock of this film because this mental behavior is not all natural to us as black people. If it was an all white cast I dont think this would have so much attention. But its such a shock to see black people acting this way. Also the offense is added because it adds another negative notch to the image of black people.
What I’m saying is when you hear about someone shooting up a whole school general population does not think, black you pretty much know from past events, someone white must have done that.
As an actor i understand we want to always show range but sometimes we have to step back and look at the bigger picture and saw how playing roles will affect out people.
Hey what do I know, but thats some sick shit
But its such a shock to see black people acting this way. That made me feel ill.
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