The Red Pill

Feminist documentary filmmaker Cassie Jaye sets out to explore the much-maligned men's rights movement, assuming as many do that it must be a hate movement composed of men who resent the gains that women have made and wish to turn back that progress. In delving into what motivates men's rights activists, she discovers that the movement is very different from what she had originally thought it was and goes on to challenge her own prior views about gender, power, and privilege. She discusses at length the numerous legitimate grievances that many men have on issues ranging from military conscription to false rape allegations, from unfair treatment in divorce to higher rates of violent victimization--and the apathy and in many cases outright hostility shown in response by feminist activists and society at large.

This film is historic in that it marks the first time that the issues facing men and boys and the activists working to address them have ever been portrayed on the big screen. It is a breath of fresh air standing in stark contrast to most mainstream media coverage of the men's rights movement, which tends to quote the most extreme things said by the most extreme people in the movement out of context and make them out to be representative of what the entire movement stands for. It no doubt took a great deal of both courage and empathy to make the film. Every man--and every woman who sees the men in her life as something other than patriarchal oppressors--needs to see this film.

This documentary is incredibly rich in texture – and it covers a huge amount of territory. The subject, the "Men's Rights Movement," has never been dealt with before in film, so "The Red Pill" becomes the go-to introduction to the people, organizations and even ideas associated with this movement that are not only ignored in documentaries but are given zero attention in the education system as well. The greatest surprise is the story of Erin Pizzey, a pioneer for women's welfare who, because she sought to help end domestic violence in all its manifestations became a pariah to thought-leaders and workers who control the domestic violence social work industry. The clips of the bizarre protests by political agitators against academic lecturers who promote human rights (for all people) are disturbing, yet are informative and valuable in shedding light on the fanaticism of extremists. The director, Cassie Jaye, is unusually modest and fair, yet at the same time is stubbornly honest and steadfast in her search for overlooked facts, no matter how unfashionable they may be. Highly recommended. Genuinely educational.

I attended the Canadian premier viewing of The Red Pill in Edmonton, AB on October 27, 2016.

The film itself was.. at times.. very hard to watch... at times funny.. at times I could hear everyone bite their tongues.. at other times spitting out in disgust.

Cassie Jay pieced together something marvelous... serious as hell... heartbreaking at times... she captured the struggle of both hers, and likely everyone in that theatre, faced in their Red Pill Journey.

Cassie also did something brilliant... she let the hypocrites tie themselves in knots. She gave them a platform.. and put a camera on them.. asked them a straightforward question.. and let them expose their biases of their own free will.

The hard parts were not so much the interviews of the people who are hostile to men and boys.. it was the realisation of just how deep, how buried, the Red Pill perspective really is in the world. There is a desperation, and a hope.. but the struggle was the underlying connection from start to finish of this film.

Oh... and what a relief this film must be to people like Paul Elam and Tom Golden and Warren Farrell. Decades of struggling to say what this film is saying coming to life in a sceptical yet honest format.. and delivered unapologetic-ally to the world at large.

What struck me the most, as I sat there at the end of the film, was that the film existed at all. This film is not good news to feminists.. as it gets out it will shake the very foundations of the narratives they claim to be supporting. The Red Pill Movie is a direct threat to the people who profit from the feminist false threat narrative.

So expect this film to see resistance like no other. Expect this film to be ignored as long as possible... then Cassie will be slandered, portrayed as a sell-out, a liar... the typical feminist reactions.

I was both overjoyed yet deeply sad. This emotional roller-coaster of being happy for the existence of this little piece of truth in film compared to the massive task of having to coax the world to break from the hypnosis of the mainstream entertainment/programming to face something a lot of them don't want to face.

That said, it needs to get done. At the end of the film the audiences questions surrounded how to get this film out there, and others like it.

Every human on earth should see this. This is one of those films that is so timely, so vital, so critical to the progress of our civilization that it needs to get as much exposure as possible.

If you can manage to find a showing that is within travel range.. make the investment, you won't regret the experience.

As a Kickstarter backer, I received a pre-release digital copy. Overall, the documentary is nothing short of amazing. I follow the issues presented in the film with some regularity and I am the type of person who will seek out opinions of those I disagree with to learn where they're coming from. I feel that this is exactly what Cassie Jaye did in her film. She allowed both sides to make their arguments without putting in her own spin or bias...a rarity with documentary film makers and a very welcome surprise. Although I was already familiar with many of the issues presented, I still felt the heartbreak of some of the personal stories shared. For the uninitiated, some revelations will come as a shock. Imagine centuries ago when people thought the Earth was flat and the outrage that ensued when told it is actually round...in that time you were called a "heretic" or "blasphemer" for speaking truth to power while today it's overused terms like "misogynist" and "hate speech".

One small criticism I would have is that you could tell there is so much more to the stories presented but with the constraints of fitting everything into a 2 hour film, it is understandable that cuts and edits were done where they were. What I would advise anyone watching this documentary to do is to check out some of the interviews with Cassie Jaye (Youtube channels like The Rubin Report, Stefan Molyneux, etc.) and Q&A sessions done during the screenings of this film (can easily be found on Youtube by searching "The Red Pill Q&A") where you'll get to go a little deeper and more in-depth explanations on what both sides, the feminists and men's rights activists, believe and fight for. I can only hope that the special features included on DVD/Blu-Ray will fill in some of the minor gaps with more interview footage.

One of the most interesting things about this documentary is seeing filmmaker Cassie Jaye's personal struggle with having her feminist beliefs challenged through her video diaries which pop up here and there throughout the documentary. You can tell that she was genuinely having a hard time coping with having all of these statistics thrown at her that disprove what she believed in. At the end of it all, this is what makes this documentary more compelling, even more so than the heartbreaking stories and reality-shattering statistics from the men's rights activists.

If you're a feminist or simply believe women in the West don't get a fair shake compared to men, you owe it to yourself to have your views challenged and see if they stand up to scrutiny. What have you to lose? Your convictions will either be strengthened or you will come to terms with the fact that your beliefs were wrong and can take comfort in knowing that you now have the truth. Whether or not your beliefs remain the same, one thing is certain...you will be changed in some way.

Like Morpheus says to Neo in "The Matrix": I didn't say it would be easy, Neo. I just said it would be the truth...

Cassie Jaye is currently the bravest woman in Hollywood. Her new film, 'The Red Pill' has more testosterone in it than any Kathryn Bigelow movie. To call it a must-see is an understatement as she explores an area that will instantly outrage any card-carrying feminist and at a Q & A after the West Coast Premiere, Friday night, October 14, she reveals that making it cost her friendships and support from a community made up mostly of women who say they want to see more women filmmakers, but really only mean that if they're promoting material they approve of. Jaye cuts through the hypocrisy to bring us her personal experiences (a splash of narrative combined with a documentary format)when she stumbles upon a rabbit hole that swallows her up and forces her to question everything she believed in as a former feminist when searching the term 'rape culture' leads her to discover the world of the MRA. If 'The Red Pill' can't move you, your blinders are on way too tight.