Just Ask My Children (2001) (TV)

Director:

Arvin Brown

Writer (WGA):

Deborah Serra (written by)

Release Date:

10 September 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Pedophile Witchhunt

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Virginia Madsen	...	Brenda Kniffen
Jeffrey Nordling	...	Scott Kniffen
Graham Beckel	...	Denver Dunn
Robert Joy	...	Sam Bennis
Barbara Tarbuck	...	Marilyn Kniffen
Casey Biggs	...	Michael Snedeker
John Billingsley	...	Andrew Gindes
Adrian Sparks	...	Dick Kniffen
Scott Paulin	...	Kevin Conway
Maree Cheatham	...	Corene Oliver
Ryan Wilson	...	Brian Kniffen (Age 6)
Cody Dorkin	...	Brandon Kniffen (Age 9)
Dan Byrd	...	Brian Kniffen (Age 9-12)
Scott Bailey	...	Brandon Kniffen (Age 15-21)
Gregory Smith	...	Brian Kniffen (Age 16-18)

Also Known As:

Best Intentions (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

Brazil:91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:18

Company:

Firebrand Productions

Quotes:

Brenda Kniffen: There is no force or pressure or bribe or price that would ever make me say I did that to my children. I would rather die here alone than ever have them think I did such a thing.

This is not a conservative/liberal issue

One reviewer here had the gall (not to mention the ignorance) to confuse this hysteria with conservative politics. For one thing, the whole fear of pedophilia has been drilled into the minds of ordinary people by the hysteria-provoking media. It is also driven by the politics of the left as well as the right. The left's guilt in this is the constant drumbeat about "the children." According to the left, "the children" are always in peril. The right is complicit in being stone-faced and relentless in the pursuit of imaginary miscreants who have done nothing wrong. They are too willing to believe the worst. But the left set the stage with one simple idea: 'children don't lie.' This one concept drove the legal issue in most of these cases which took place in the '80's.

The idea of total innocence in children is not a conservative idea at all. Quite the opposite. Conservatives believe that right and wrong have to be explained, and doing right is a process of learning. It is not innate. This is the bedrock of conservative philosophy. But in the case of the McMartins and the Amiraults and many other cases, the children were deliberately manipulated by people - "facilitators" - whose agenda had nothing to do with politics and everything to do with power and the limelight.

This film is one of the best ever made about this sad chapter. A power-hungry DA more than willing to prosecute, and women, for the most part, more than willing to harass and intimidate children into saying things that they knew were wrong. Many of these women had absolutely no formal training and had no degrees in child psychology. Yet they were entrusted with the job of indoctrination on the lowest most vile level. This film enraged me all over again at the towering injustice done this and many other families. What the prosecution did was the real child abuse here.