Fascinating documentary series about extraordinary movement of people, interested in finding the meaning in spiritual teachings of Indian Guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (who adopted name Osho at the end of his life). I have not read anything he was teaching, but it is apparent his "magical" presence made people fell in love with him. His Oregon-based community was a mixture of a post-hippie ideals of love and freedom and on the other hand, a power-hungry fraction within, which wanted to rule, take-over, dominate, even if it involved crossing the line of law and breaching the utmost ethical principles. The power dynamic and the cash flow is not fully apparent, but the documentary still goes deep. Obviously, there is a lot of fog and grey area, esp. in regard to possibly shady conduct within the community life, as well as on the side of the state, determined to bring the community down, which at times resembled more of a war on beliefs and way on life than solely the enforcement of the law. There are, however, covered many facts and first-hand accounts and the involved individuals uncover their personalities very thoroughly.
The vision of building a different and better community was interesting as well as the the enormous power and workforce this group had.
As the story unveils, one would expect that American people would be generally interested foremost in enforcing justice while upholding the constitution and principles of freedom, it's not a case at all, at least not there and then. Long before any actual concerns appeared, the attempt to block, expel or destroy this community was fueled by a simple bigotry, hatred and jealousy - mostly due to practices of "free love" and wealth this group had accumulated. Regardless of anything else, this strange interest of traditionalist, small-town Christians in other people's sex lives is truly repulsive and despicable, but well-known nowadays and throughout the history. But this is by far not only about that. Even though I loved the series, I believe it could be little more factual. I've spent long hours researching the matters and events afterwards, and learnt so much more, which was not included in the documentary. But the personal accounts of the people involved, which this series is based upon, are indeed very valuable and interesting.
Review of Wild Wild Country
