I was hoping for a good documentary here. It started off well: Jamie Johnson, one of the heirs to the Johnson and Johnson empire, discovered that his father in his youth made a documentary on poverty in Africa, yet his father was quiet about it. For a number of reasons, Jamie wondered why.
He starts to explore that question, and brings up a subject matter that I was previously unfamiliar with – the sugar “cartel” in Florida and how it was a totally rigged game and pretty much a f@scist sham from the start.
Where does Jamie Johnson go from there, however? In my opinion, nowhere.
Here’s a “Trustafarian” (as his father calls him), who’s had nothing but a silver spoon in his mouth from day one biting the hand that feeds yet refusing to let go of the silver spoon.
If he’s so passionate about his subject, where’s his detachment from the family money? At least in the documentary, it doesn’t exist. According to Wikipedia, when he was interviewed about the film he was asked this same thing, and Jamie Johnson simply dodged it with, “We’re not here to talk about that.”
My assessment? He’s a spoiled, lazy little rich kid who’s simply trying to gain attention and bite the hand that feeds in order to assert himself and try to feel significant. In fact, he was so lazy he even chose the easiest way to way to do it – pick up a camera and invade peoples’ privacy trying to play “gotcha”. On top of “spoiled”, I think he’s also a whiner, a freeloader, and a hypocrite.
Don’t see this movie – it’s a waste of time. “Born Rich” is a much better movie about why I think many trust fund babies need their heads slapped and asses kicked.
He’s a spoiled, lazy little rich kid who’s simply trying to gain attention and bite the hand that feeds in order to assert himself and try to feel significant.
I think there is significant guilt in some of these kids of the rich. They know they didn’t earn it and, if put in the place of their father who DID earn, couldn’t.
So, not only do they have the burden of inherited wealth but they have the knowledge that they don’t deserve it.
I wonder if it’s less guilt and more inadequacy. They have to assert themselves somehow so they either choose to be idiots with it (Paris Hilton), or sit there and say they don’t want it or they hate it while they keep enjoying all the spoils of it because they’re too insecure to live without it. Amazing.
Dad: “Hey kid, I made sure we didn’t lose our company to P&G and that not just you, but the next 5 generations after you never had to work a day in your life.”
Kid: “How dare you, Dad? You took away all of my male rites of passage and so therefore I’m going to try and hurt you in the only way that I can – rejection – in order to establish my rank and territory.
Um… I’ll need some of your money to do that, though. Can I have some? Cameras are expensive and so’s the gas for the car you bought me and so’s food when I have to run around and eat all day in between takes.”