Hollywood Road

The outside world continues to expose various scandals committed by Catholicism in the United States. With Gal Gadot staring at the developments in this area, Murphy is very relieved and can devote all his energy to the script writing of the new project. It is not easy for a film with a clear theme and goal to be brilliant in the end.

First of all, Murphy confirmed the title of the project, which is "Focus" at the press conference.

For him, this is a carefully selected film in a special social environment, and as early as when planning a trip to the Olympics for the movie "Diego-Ros", he was basically sure to shoot "Focus".

The film is deeply affected by social environmental factors, and there is no better social situation for this film than it is now.

Not to mention the Hollywood interior that was stimulated by the Catholic attack, even most of the media are applauding this film.

"Murphy Stanton's new film "Focus" will become a classic film that interprets press freedom and demonstrates the power of the media!"

The mainstream media headed by the "New York Times" began to sing the praises of Murphy before the film was officially approved.

To a large extent, mainstream media basically represents the voice of mainstream society. Although Catholicism has considerable power in the United States, the continuous appearance of a series of exposed scandals has made them offend the impossibility of mainstream American society. Touch the sensitive bottom line-protection of children and minors.

Even the "Washington Post", which has never liked Murphy very much, stood on the opposite side of Catholicism this time, urging the Washington authorities to launch a thorough investigation into this series of scandals.

Of course, it is not easy for these things to go into the judicial process. Just as the Kennedy family are devout Catholic believers and represent the interests of Catholicism, Catholicism still has a considerable influence in the political landscape of the United States.

In today's social situation, it may be an exaggeration to say that Murphy's new film is highly anticipated, but it is a fact that it is highly anticipated.

This is a good thing, but it also has a downside. The higher the expectation value, the lower the fault tolerance rate in the production of the film, especially for a film that is based on real people and real things with extremely serious themes and content. , Low-level errors are absolutely not allowed!

Therefore, before Murphy writes the script, he must first clarify the ins and outs of the Catholic ** scandal reported by the "Focus" column team.

Since he has a plan, he will definitely make preparations in advance. Bill Rossis has collected a lot of information before, and he has established a smooth communication channel with Robbie Robinson who actually led and participated in news investigations. Both are conducive to the writing of scripts and reduce the chance of making mistakes.

Although I have seen a few movies in the past, Murphy flew to Boston before writing the outline of the screenplay, communicated with Robbie Robinson and others for a few days, and then began to browse through a large amount of information after returning.

Facts are the basis for the existence of this movie.

First of all, Murphy specifically checked a survey on the Catholic Church. Seeing the statistics above, I also understood why the Archbishop Marquez Costello was so eager and powerful to expand the influence of the Catholic Church.

Because according to survey statistics, in the United States today, more than 50% of people who have believed in Catholicism since childhood will stay away from Catholicism in adulthood!

What is this concept? At least half of those who grew up in Catholic families or with Catholicism eventually ceased to be Catholics.

It is no exaggeration to say that this is a very scary ratio, and it has been expanding in recent years.

As for what caused these people to leave the Catholic Church, there is a saying that the proportion is very high-I grew up in the Catholic Church. When I was very young, I was shuddered by the hypocrisy and dogma of the Catholic Church.

Then, Murphy began to look at the specific information about the news incidents that year. This news investigation can be described in one sentence. From 2001 to 2002, a column group called "Focus" in the "Boston Globe" insulted priests. A series of reports on the child incident exposed the scandal of sexual assault on children committed by Catholic priests in the United States.

At first glance, this matter seems to be no big deal. It is not much better than what Murphy once did in "Diego Rose", but this kind of thing is a completely different concept in Los Angeles and Boston.

The power of Catholicism is very different in these two cities!

Catholicism is the largest church in Boston. It has a great influence on the local political arena and often puts pressure on various institutions. The Kennedy family is the most famous Catholic political family in Boston. The reason why a large-scale priest sexually assaulted children occurred in Boston. , Has a great relationship with the local law enforcement agency under the pressure of Catholicism to lighten the punishment and not report it.

Before Murphy wrote the script, he must first figure out the cause and effect of the whole thing.

At the end of July 2001, Matti Baron, a member of the "New York Times" group, had just switched from the group's "Miami Herald" to the "Boston Globe". He was still a newcomer to the newspaper. He noticed the previous article in the legal column. The report of “the pastor is suspected of being involved in a sexual assault scandal”, when he was preparing to conduct a more in-depth investigation, he was told that the judge had sealed the court records. This was undoubtedly preventing the pastor’s personal files from being made public. Marty Barron I immediately realized that what he was facing would be a real big news!

He mobilized a "focus" team headed by Robbie Robinson and began to investigate Father John Jorgen.

The results of the investigation were shocking: This Catholic priest sexually assaulted more than 130 boys during his 6-year career as a priest! What is even more surprising is that his affairs have not been exposed, but he has continued to retain his original priesthood for 30 years after being exposed and molested the young church members.

The "Focus" team compiled the investigation of Father John Jorgen into a report entitled "The Catholic Church allows pastors to abuse children for many years." This report made a sensation in Massachusetts, but this is only the tip of the iceberg of the entire Boston Catholic sexual assault scandal.

At first, the reporters of the "Focus" team thought that about 15 to 20 pastors had done the same incident of molestation, but after investigation, they found that there were nearly 250 in Boston in the past few decades. The pastor has done the molestation of children.

What’s even more irritating is that in order to prevent the incident from being exposed, the church shuffled the clergy from this diocese to that diocese. These clergy continued to commit child molestation in the new diocese, which made more and more Many people become victims.

It is worth mentioning that during the investigation, a pastor named Ronald Paquin personally admitted what he did in an interview.

This is of great significance to the entire incident, because although the results of the investigation were known at the time, no clergy involved in the case had directly confessed to the crimes they committed. Almost all clergy kept secrets about this matter, Ronald P. It is self-evident that Father Quinn’s public confession caused much repercussions among the people.

He said he had molested the boy until 1989, before the bishop of the diocese transferred him from Boston. This incident lasted for 15 years and experienced two different church members.

But he said, "Indeed, I am so stupid, but I have never raped anyone and I have never felt happy in this matter myself."

In addition, Ronald Paquin also revealed that he was raped by a Catholic priest when he was a teenager.

The scandal finally came to light. From January 6, 2002 to December 14 of that year, the "Boston Globe" published nearly 600 series of reports on "the sexual abuse of children by clergymen" and won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Journalism. The report touched more victims to stand up bravely. In the end, 249 priests and priests of the Archdiocese of Boston were publicly accused, and the number of living victims exceeded 1,000.

It is worth mentioning that the original source of news, Father John Jorgen, under the cover of three cardinals and many church bishops, has committed crimes for 34 years, but he was beaten in prison in 2003. shoot.

"The truth that everyone knows but has not been announced, the dissuasion from friends in the religious circles, and even the resistance from the family... Until the final report that shocked the world was finally released, "Focus" undoubtedly demonstrated the professionalism of journalists in this process. Perseverance."

This is the Pulitzer Prize's comment on this news incident that year.

Murphy has worked in a similar profession. In today's society, most reporters are chasing news and explosive news. It can be said that he has no bottom line at all, but it is undeniable that there are still some reporters who are quite just. Sense and social responsibility.

In any case, these reporters can be said to be courageous. After all, it was not now more than a decade ago.

At that time, the new century had just entered, and the power of the church was much stronger than it is now. For the American society that advertises "freedom", the freedom of public opinion is naturally an important part. You can report government scandals, you can criticize official corruption, you It is possible to blame public figures for their gaffes, but to challenge the church is another matter.

The “Focus” group of four challenged not only one or two priests who were criminals, but also the protection of the entire church system of these tainted priests. Therefore, it is not difficult for Murphy to understand that the publication of the report that year caused such a huge issue. Response.

It is a pity that the original church power, especially in the northeastern part of the United States, was quite strong. After the brief sensation of the incident, it was suppressed by Catholic ideas, and it has been gradually forgotten.

"The destruction of the body is far inferior to the destruction of the mind."

At the beginning of the script outline, Murphy deliberately added a sentence to be used at the beginning of the film, "The so-called media should not become a medium of praise, but should become the eyes of justice, insight and disclosure of the evils of this world!"