Feeling fooled...
thinking this was based on a true story - only to find out it has been proven fiction.
I like to think I'm always right :-)
Any justification for money is justified. That's the society, world actually, we live in.
shareBut it would seem the motive for writing the book was not money. Given that it was written by a Mormon religious freak posing as a teenage girl writing a diary, trying to scare young people away from having sex and using drugs.
shareI'm sure that if the author was at all troubled by their conscience, they'd tell themselves that they were doing the Lord's work in scaring kids away from sex and drugs with a pack of lies.
And that all the money they made was a reward for being such a wonderful human being.
It's not a pack of lies, but the awful truth; not for everyone who misuses drugs as a teen, of course, but for many. I've known friends, for instance, who became addicts, died after an overdose, committed suicide, ran away or ended up in prison.
Whether the story really was based on a real diary or not is irrelevant because the movie cogently reveals the awful truth of a teen girl converting to the drug culture of the early 70s. The director and writers really grasped what it was like and this is conveyed in many ways in the film.
The movie condenses heavy real-life issues into a mere 74 minutes and divulges numerous truths: peer pressure to drink & do drugs, being stoned while the parents are oblivious (but the little brother KNOWS something's not right), the social divide between druggies and non-druggies, peddling, mental illness, getting clean, going straight, relapses, running away, homelessness, sexual promiscuity, prostitution and the desperation to get help.
"Go Ask Alice" conveys the awful truth of SOME youths who got addicted to drugs in the late 60s and 70s; and is still relevant in many ways to this day (e.g. the meth and heroin epidemics). The movie never suggests that EVERYONE who experiences the drug culture becomes addicted and ruins their lives.
Okay, I'm as anti-drug as anyone. I work in the helping professions, and see what horrific things addiction or even casual "partying" can do.
That said "Go Ask Alice" is still a pack of lies! It's fiction, a middle-aged adult's idea of what the drug culture of the seventies might be like, and as fiction all it really accomplished was to make its author rich. FYI I went to high school before the author was unmasked, and most of my classmates were calling it "made up bullshit" back in the day.
While the book was promoted as the diary of a real teenage girl, albeit edited, over time people have come to the conclusion that it's a fake memoir by Beatrice Sparks, a therapist, (with Linda Glovach possibly co-authoring), although many still believe it's based on an authentic teen diary. If it is phony, Sparks obviously wrote it based on the real-life accounts she experienced or encountered in her practice.
Whether it's a fictional story or not, the director & writers really grasped what it was like to be a teen in the late 60s and 70s experimenting with the drug culture and this is illustrated in many ways in the movie. For instance, the challenge of going to a new school at 15 and the self-consciousness thereof. The opening with "White Rabbit" by Grace Slick & Jefferson Airplane rings true and is unforgettable. There's another scene of the teens high with "Dear Mr. Fantasy" by Traffic that's just as effective.
What about all the examples I cited in my previous post, are they fictional or true-to-life? What about the potent climax where Alice escapes the drug abuse lifestyle and is happily on the right path and -- WHAM -- we learn she has a relapse, overdoses and is wiped off the face of the planet? Do you know people who had a relapse like this and died? I do.
You may not like the movie and it may be based on fake diary (or not), but it's not a pack of lies. It shows the awful truth and does so pretty effectively for a 74-minute TV flick from 1972 (when it was shot).
I respect you and your opinion, Otter; I just disagree that it's a bunch of bullshit.