IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.
Released: 6th September
Seen: 9th September
The Boy Scouts Of America was founded in 1910 with the intention of teaching the young men of the US skills that they might need to survive. From knot tying to starting a fire to first aid lessons, being a Boy Scout was a sign that you wanted to be a contributing member of your community and its leaders were in positions of trust that gave them some form of societal power. Sadly, it should not be a shock that when this much power is placed in the hands of a group of adults who have access to children without anyone around them, it’s almost inevitable that this would lead to some serious issues and the movie Scouts Honor: The Secret Files Of The Boy Scouts Of America details one of the worst cover-ups in history, one that should’ve probably destroyed the Scouts.
Scouts Honor: The Secret Files Of The Boy Scouts Of America specifically talks about sexual abuse and how the people running the organisation not only knew about it but did nothing substantively to stop it from happening. As a result, there were at least 90,000 reported cases of abuse that went unresolved for years, it’s comparable to the evil cover-up that was done by the Catholic Church in order to protect the rapists and make the victims stay silent.
Throughout Scouts Honor: The Secret Files Of The Boy Scouts Of America, via interviews with former and current Scout Leaders and several brave victims who have been willing to put their stories out there, the audience is told not only details about how rampant the abuse was but how much went into trying to keep it quiet. Every horrifying detail is laid bare, carefully explained and backed up with evidence and confessions from the Scouts themselves to make sure it’s clear how this evil came to be and how it grew over many years.
Not only does Scouts Honor: The Secret Files Of The Boy Scouts Of America go to great lengths to ensure that the stories of the victims are heard, it also puts them into much-needed context. It’s often forgotten that abuse cases like this are about power and not sexuality so the documentary makes sure it’s very clear that this wasn’t just a bunch of gay people sneaking in and doing something evil, in fact it rejects that notion outright which it absolutely should. It also points out how the homophobia that was literally part of the Scouts platform created a barrier for people to report what happened to them, making sure both those ideas are made clear in a way that helps the viewer understand.
Possibly the best thing that Scouts Honor: The Secret Files Of The Boy Scouts Of America does is that it holds the feet of the people representing the current Scouts to the fire, refusing to allow them to spin the situation in a way that might resolve them of culpability. If the person being interviewed says something that’s false, either the interviewer will call them out in the moment or the film cuts to a whistleblower who just says “Yeah, that’s a lie, here’s the facts” and then backs up those facts as much as possible.
Scouts Honor: The Secret Files Of The Boy Scouts Of America is a documentary that knows it’s important to let the accused have a moment to say something but isn’t going to let them lie without someone calling it out, meaning that the film doesn’t play both sides as equally valid (Because, as it is most of the time, both sides aren’t actually equally valid… especially when one side is covering up rampant sex crimes).
There’s a point of view here, an important message being sent out and every chance that Scouts Honor: The Secret Files Of The Boy Scouts Of America can hammer it home it absolutely will. It’s certainly an intense message, they do not shy away from any element of it or handle it with kid gloves. There’s no point in using euphemisms or dancing around with carefully chosen language, it’s blunt and it’s honest and that gives the documentary an undeniable amount of power.
Scouts Honor: The Secret Files Of The Boy Scouts Of America is a dark but essential bit of documentation regarding the abuses of a gigantic organisation that would love it so much if everyone would forget about it. We shouldn’t forget, we should remember it forever and let it remain as a large stain on the company’s reputation, this documentary and these stories should be the first thing that pops up whenever you google Boy Scouts because it should never be forgotten what they did to thousands upon thousands of young victims. It’s a heartbreaking but essential film that everyone who is even thinking about going near the Scouts should see as soon as they can.
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