I Know My First Name Is Steven

What an incredible TV movie,it left me speechless and disturbed for days. Corin Nemek was amazing and very real as Steven,I have seen many of his film and was a Parker Lewis fan when I was little but this was one was his best performance. I think it's very hard to give this film a critic because I don't think this film was made to entertain us ,it was made to educate us on the subject of Child abduction,I don't know about you but as soon as I have kids,the first thing I'll teach them is "NEVER talk to strangers" Parnell is the devil impersonated , how can you take a sweet little boy and strip him of his innocence? I hope he wont get away with it this time(He has been locked up again last year). That scene(The most disturbing scene in the movie if you ask me) were you see Steven at age 9 , smoking a cigarette while watching TV made me very sad because you just knew that it wasn't the same boy,all his childhood was destroyed and he was a child no more.

People need to see this movie,it's an important life lesson.

God bless the late Steven Stayner.

This film revolves around the true story that begins in 1972 with the abduction of seven-year-old Steven Stayner, who was snatched on his way home from school by a known paedophile Kenneth Parnell. Steven was then kept as the man's son for seven years and forced for endure systematical sexual abuse at the hands of his kidnapper. He finally managed to escape when Parnell abducted a five-year-old boy whom Steven was determined would not suffer as he had. However, upon his return to his real family-- who never gave up that he would be reunited with them one day-- Steven found it hard to adjust as he had no understanding of what it was to be part of a loving family. I have since read that he was killed in a car accident when he was twenty-nine, tragically snatched away from his family for good this time.

I first watched this when I was about ten so the abuse went right over my head but even then, at that age, I was saddened by how this boy suffered when he was torn from his family only to be reunited after the damage has been done to his mind and soul. When I watched the film again as a teenage, my sadness was mixed with disgust and anger that the perverted monster that was Parnell was allowed to wander around unchecked despite having a criminal record for offences against children. It was also horrifying to see what little was actually done to either help Steven, as not only when he did try to tell a teacher of his abduction, he was accused of lying and being ungrateful but Parnell was able to freely go from town-to-town with a child who was not his own and with no-one challenging this. This film depicts both the trauma Steven faces as he grew up in such horrifying circumstances and the grief of the parents he left behind but it also shows the courage of the Stayners, who all remained strong through everything.

As true stories go, I think this has to be one of the best films out there and I recommend it to everyone. Do be prepared for your blood pressure to soar though when it is revealed that, infuriatingly, Parnell was let off with a light sentence for kidnapping and abusing Steven. It certainly shattered my illusions that the US has a great criminal justice system that the terribly lax system in the UK should take lessons from. This is one piece of filth who surely deserved a trip on 'Old Sparky' to fry for those vile acts to a little boy who almost loved him as a father to some degree.

I first saw this movie around 1994. At the time, my sons were ages 6,5, and 3. It was a holiday and my husband took all three boys out of town to visit his mother. So all alone I pulled up a chair in front of the television and became completely engrossed in this movie. I sat there in my chair and absolutely cried so much my face was swolen afterwards.It is now 2002 and I have seen that movie at least 9 times. Throughout the years, I have taught all three of my boys to never to go with strangers, they know their address, and phone number. A few years after this movie, I was reminding my oldest son about what to do if a stranger approached. He angrily said " I know ! I know !" Because I had told him repeatedly what to do after watching that movie. So I grabbed his shoulders and replied " GOOD, then you will know what to do if it happens to you!" I truly felt that if I ever would meet Kenneth Parnell that I would want to kill him. I want to assure you that I would never do anything like that, but the anger that I felt towards him was justified at the time. How can this kind of thing happen? It is now 2002 and Steven Stayner is still in my thoughts. I think every parent should see this movie and cry their hearts out and feel the pain that Dell and his wife went through. I know not to give away the ending of the movie, but I want to say that I was relieved when I heard what happened to Steven. I knew then that he would never have to suffer any longer. In closing, I want to say, peace to you Steven,your wife, children and family. I also want to say that the casting of the movie was perfect. LOVE MELZ

I first watched this TV movie when I was 9 or 10, and it haunted me for a long time afterwards. Many years later I came across the book, and although this fills in a lot of the gaps that the movie leaves out, the movie does a better job of dramatising the situation without the over emphasis on the goodness of Steven's family, and the evil of his kidnapper that the book gives. It's a shame that all the details could not have been included in the dramatisation, as the full story would have made the story even more tragic, and that bit more realistic. A 5 hour movie would not be that practical though I fear.

The abuse of Steven is left up to the imagination in the TV adaptation, which is tactful to the family of Steven, but does gloss over the point that Steven was severely sexually abused and raped, and that Steven was okay with his friends suffering the same fate when they visited. These little details and many others like them make for a more frightening and even more gripping one than was produced. This is a shame, but understandable for a low budget US TV movie.

Generally, this is well worth a watch, though the book is better factually; but I'd probably give it a miss if you have young children.

I read a book on Stevens ordeal and the author said that the Stayner's of Merced were as cursed as the Kennedys of Massachusetts. I cannot believe that so much horror could happen in one family. Steven was abducted for seven years and came home maimed mentally for life and died at 24 in a terrible accident. I think in a way death was kind to him and then in the last few years his brother Cary was convicted of murdering four women in Yosemite National Park. What got me is that Cary tried to use Stevens disappearance as an excuse. He said he was so traumatized by it.