Elizabeth Smart, Kidnappée à 14 ans

This film seems like a Charles Manson story clone. Very slow to watch if it was on the Cinema I would demand my money back. These film are either great or pathetically poor. I get no buzz from this at all.

Okay, maybe I'm a bit opinionated on this because Smart keeps justifying her non-action toward her captors, but I really can't appreciate this movie. There is no value. I'm glad she got lucky to be alive but none of her actions (or inaction as the case may be) is worth making into a movie. I've seen documentaries of girls her age, abducted and raped actively trying to get away and successfully doing so. They did not move when they know it could be harmful and did so when the opportunity arose. Mis Smart is actually the perfect victim. And if not for the lucky break of being noticed by policemen, she would still be a kidnap victim.

Elizabeth Smart is a truly remarkable woman, and for her to have the courage to detail her story in this manner is nothing short of incredible. No detail is left out, on purpose I'd assume. Her message shows that she is not guilty of what happened to her and those who share similar abuse stories should not be ashamed. For her to agree to do such a detailed and accurate rendition of her story is amazing, and I can not recommend you watch this film enough (and her book, "My Story"), if anything for the lessons of resilience and courage.

The fact that Elisabeth is alive and telling her nightmare is unbelievable in its own right. It's extremely likely that if she did anything it would mean death added to the already unspeakable torture both physically and mentally that she endured. It's akso extremely unlikely that a survivor has the guts or stamina to share that time period in her life. MOST survivors go into a self absorbed, protective mode that makes them unable or unwilling to tell her/his story to the world in fear of being blamed by society. For Elizabeth Smart to tour the free world telling her facts and helping save countless lives from doing it is absolutely remarkable. She is in my book a true hero and a extremely beautiful soul.

The movie itself while not the best put together cinematic piece it is, IMO a must watch.

It's great to have the context from Elizabeth Smart herself in this movie. It's also really good to appreciate a bit more what she went through and how miraculous it was that she not only survived, but is mentally fine after all that abuse. Obviously, since Elizabeth herself is narrating the film, you can be sure that everything in the movie happened and nothing was needlessly dramatized.

However, from a filmmaker's standpoint, it could have been a bit better. They could have skipped back and forth between her point of view and that of her parents' to show their efforts in trying to find her and the developments that were going on outside her campsite. They didn't even explain how the police knew to find her (her sister remembered the voice of the suspect and they tracked him down).

I also don't like how through narration Elizabeth seems to try and justify all her actions throughout the piece. Does anyone doubt that she wanted to stop being abused? The film almost seems like a reply video to a bunch of people that question why she didn't yell for help. I dunno. To me, it's obvious and was forced a bit much, but maybe that's the audience Elizabeth was wanting to address in particular.

Overall, a great documentary of the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart. Cinematically, it could have been improved, but it did the job for the purpose it was filmed for.