Louis Theroux spends some time with the eccentric broadcaster and charity fundraiser Sir Jimmy Savile and attempts to get behind the public persona.Louis Theroux spends some time with the eccentric broadcaster and charity fundraiser Sir Jimmy Savile and attempts to get behind the public persona.Louis Theroux spends some time with the eccentric broadcaster and charity fundraiser Sir Jimmy Savile and attempts to get behind the public persona.
Photos
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- Self
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- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- GoofsJimmy Savile's mother died in 1972, not 1973 as Theroux stated.
- Quotes
Louis Theroux: So, why do you say in interviews that you hate children when I've seen you with kids and you clearly enjoy their company and you have a good rapport with them?
Jimmy Savile: Right, obviously I don't hate 'em. That's number one.
Louis Theroux: Yeah. So why would you say that then?
Jimmy Savile: Because we live in a very funny world. And it's easier for me, as a single man, to say "I don't like children" because that puts a lot of salacious tabloid people off the hunt.
Louis Theroux: Are you basically saying that so tabloids don't, you know, pursue this whole 'Is he/isn't he a paedophile?' line, basically?
Jimmy Savile: Yes, yes, yes. Oh, aye. How do they know whether I am or not? How does anybody know whether I am? Nobody knows whether I am or not. I know I'm not, so I can tell you from experience that the easy way of doing it when they're saying "Oh, you have all them children on Jim'll Fix It", say "Yeah, I hate 'em."
Louis Theroux: Yeah. To me that sounds more, sort of, suspicious in a way though, because it seems so implausible.
Jimmy Savile: Well, that's my policy, that's the way it goes. That's what I do. And it's worked a dream.
Louis Theroux: Has it worked?
Jimmy Savile: A dream.
- ConnectionsEdited into Louis Theroux: Savile (2016)
Even with that bias in my head, I tried to watch this documentary objectively and it becomes immediately clear that Savile is a dark and depraved character merely from watching his actions in the documentary. His public personality was a mere front.
This inner darkness is obvious from the moment Theroux begins talking to him. He speaks in bizarre riddles, none of which are particularly amusing or witty, obfuscating any real details about his personal life behind his "humour". When asked if he has relationships, he immediately begins complaining that women specialise in "brain damage", repeating this misogynistic mantra as if it should be hilarious, to the clear discomfort of Theroux.
Things get worse as the documentary goes on. Theroux politely says that "reality isn't always positive" when Savile begins saying that TV programmes should show things in a good light.
Savile responds with a thinly veiled icy threat that Theroux seems to awkwardly mistake for a joke: "Make it as negative as you like. I'll take you to court, take your money. Money has no conscience."
The way he talks so casually about legal action and these threats, framing himself as "The Godfather", discussing "his boys", saying "I can get anything" and "I have everything under control." ...it frames a picture of a man nothing less than a psychopath.
If you have the stomach to observe such a wretched man behaving in such an unnerving and unpleasant manner, this is a reflective expose of a man who in only a short decade would become publicly reviled.
- mkm-hermanjnr
- Oct 30, 2018
- Permalink
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Луи встречает: Джимми Сэйвил
- Filming locations
- Allt na Reigh, Glen Coe, Highland, Scotland, UK(Jimmy Savile's cottage in Glen Coe)
- See more company credits at IMDbPro