‘Scout’s Honor’ Review: Uncovering a History of Abuse

Almost three years in the past, forward of a chapter courtroom deadline, greater than 82,000 folks got here ahead with sexual abuse claims towards the Boy Scouts of America. The principally male survivors had been of all ages and got here from each state. Some of them had saved mum for many years.

“Scouts Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America,” directed by Brian Knappenberger and streaming on Netflix, is actually a walk-through of the monumental case. A stable chunk of its working time is spent with Michael Johnson, a former director on the Boy Scouts who has since turn into an outspoken critic of its youth safety practices. As the movie tracks the group’s historical past of abuse and cover-ups, Johnson recounts hitting brick partitions throughout his efforts to reform the system.

News-based passages remind viewers in regards to the group’s healthful picture, in addition to its hyperlinks to the Catholic and Mormon Churches. Bland archival footage helps the historical past lesson, and the movie pans throughout sufficient headlines to populate a Sunday paper.

Knappenberger does, fortunately, make area for survivors to share their very own accounts, and their vulnerability lends authority to an in any other case nameless movie. At one level, a middle-aged man laments not having the prospect to inform his late mom in regards to the abuse he endured as a baby. These are heart-wrenching moments. Unfortunately, the movie fails to construct on them, leaving the tradition of disgrace and stigma that muzzled these males to hover within the air, unexplored.

Scout’s Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes. Watch on Netflix.