Untouchable
By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Weinstein's alleged sex crimes explored; language, violence.
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What's the Story?
The documentary UNTOUCHABLE describes alleged sexual abuse from as early as 1978 by Harvey Weinstein, the famed Hollywood producer who would go on to distribute such cult classics as sex lies and videotape, Cinema Paradiso, My Left Foot, and Pulp Fiction. One woman alleges she was pressured to have sex against her will when she was a student at University of Buffalo and Weinstein was a young concert promoter. Director Ursula Macfarlane references numerous well-known actors and others not so well known. Among the more famous are Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd, Salma Hayek, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Rosanna Arquette describes her ordeal on camera. Some continued to maintain work relationships with him for fear of career-threatening retribution. Interviews with men who had worked for Weinstein add physical violence to his alleged misconduct. Men and women alike who have worked with him describe him as both "charming" and "a monster you wouldn't want to cross…vicious." One male Miramax executive called Weinstein "an equal opportunity abuser." Ronan Farrow, author of a long investigative expose about Weinstein published in The New Yorker, reports that while gathering information for the piece, he received threatening phone calls, was followed, and otherwise harassed by Weinstein minions. So wide-reaching was Weinstein's power and influence that, although The New Yorker writer Ken Auletta had the story a decade earlier than Farrow, the magazine feared publishing without more corroboration.
Is It Any Good?
This documentary is a sobering, restrained, and astutely-constructed recounting of allegations against Harvey Weinstein, starting with charges made long before he even got into the movie business. Allegations are presented clearly as they have been in numerous news stories and in the indictment that led to his arrest. What feels strongest in Untouchable are interviews with men and women who worked with him for years. One man feels guilty that he didn't leave Weinstein sooner. One woman learned of an attack against a young woman and wrote a memo about it (it would later be leaked to the press) and then resigned. A niggling criticism is that interviewee identifications are made only once and for faces unfamiliar to the public, the viewer can find it difficult to recall the significance of some talking heads when they reappear in the story.
There's optimism here in that exposing Weinstein may someday result in punishment equal to his alleged misdeeds, and that the aftermath of his story, the Bill Cosby conviction, as well as allegations against Louis CK and others, is now part of a national conversation that spawned the #MeToo movement. But realists point out that abuse continues in Hollywood, in Silicon Valley, in government, in health care, in car dealerships, advertising agencies, and just about anywhere that people work together in boss-underling situations, and that, for the foreseeable future, we can expect powerful people to continue to try to get away with it.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how money and power seem to have helped Weinstein cover up alleged crimes for decades. Do stories like this make it seem as if the wealthy can get away with misdeeds that put poor people in prison?
What's wrong with people in a position of power asking their employees for sexual favors? Does Untouchable show how difficult it can be for low-level employees to say no when solicited by bosses?
What do you think people who have been victims of sexual harassment, abuse, or assault should do? Confront employers? Tell the police? Why do you think victims might be reluctant to come forward?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: September 2, 2019
- Cast: Rosanna Arquette
- Director: Ursula Macfarlane
- Studio: Hulu
- Genre: Documentary
- Run time: 98 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: September 22, 2023
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