217:, they are forced to wear uniforms, wake up at all hours, engage in strenuous physical activities, and chug beers on demand. In his voiceover, Phillips reveals that some frat members have grown uncomfortable with outsiders filming their exploits. Phillips decides to take a risk and shows up to a skeptical frat house unannounced. When he and his crew arrive, they discover pledges being blindfolded and tricked into believing they'll be branded with a hot iron. Shortly after witnessing this, Phillips and company are kicked out and told they can no longer film at the frat house. Blossom tells Phillips it's best if the film crew leaves town and ceases production. Some frat members then trash the crew's production van, painting the word "Die" on its side. When Phillips calls Blossom for an explanation, Blossom threatens to kill him.
210:, Phillips and co-director Andrew Gurland meet a fraternity brother of Beta Chi who goes by the name of Blossom. Blossom tells the cameras that hazing is "like having the power of a god," and that one of his frat's hazing rituals includes biting the head off a rat. The film shows a candlelit initiation ceremony where new pledges are taught the fraternal code. In voiceover, Phillips says the point of this is to make the pledges feel like they already belong and that good times are ahead. However, the formalities are intended to motivate the pledges to endure the imminent process of hazing.
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290:. Then there were allegations that we'd paid people to participate in the film which was not true, though it's done all the time, and if we had, I would proudly admit it. And they said it was staged, which it was not." Phillips later admitted that some of the participants were inebriated when they signed their release forms.
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Phillips, "When you actually go through the hazing, you sort of understand why they do it. It really does increase the bonding with your fellow pledges, like going through a war. That's really what they're trying to do. They're not trying to lock people in trunks and kill them. They're trying to
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Phillips said it was not his or
Gurland's intention as filmmakers to make a "sweeping about fraternities or that they should be outlawed." He said, "The movie is about hazing and rituals and the things men go through to belong. Everybody's so afraid of standing out in this world that they will even
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Phillips denied that scenes were redone multiple times, explaining, "What people don't understand about good documentary filmmaking is, it's screenwriting. You write the movie before you show up. And you manipulate everybody in the room to say exactly what you want them to say. That, I'm guilty of.
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criticized the documentary for including scenes that it contends were staged, saying, "This was promoted as a documentary. Clearly, it is fiction. The scenes were staged, and people were paid to act out scenes." Among the allegations was that the humiliated "pledges" in the film were actually Alpha
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acquired the distribution rights and planned to air it that year, but after subsequent allegations that some of the film's content was staged for the camera, as well as concerns from fraternity members about their depiction in the film, HBO cancelled the airing. The film never received an official
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in 2023, Jonathan
Norcross said that while the documentary's veracity and the level of the filmmakers' complicity remains unclear, its exploration of fraternity culture and the need to belong is disturbingly "thought-provoking". He added "there is something appealing about not knowing", and when
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filmmaking has gone out the window, because people are too aware of the power of the camera. To me, documentaries are now about manipulation. It's sad but true. You go in knowing exactly what you want and you come out with exactly what you want. That's just manipulation, and that I'm guilty of."
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Muhlenberg student involved in the filming claimed, " told us exactly what to do. They’d call and say, ‘We’re coming in, like, two hours; think of some stuff we could do.' When it came out as a documentary, I was shocked because was all staged. They would retake scenes and everything." HBO
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get beat up and peed on and thrown up on just to be part of a group, which is pathetic." Phillips said the intention was for viewers to come away with a better understanding of why people would put themselves through the mental and physical anguish of hazing in order to belong.
313:. I think if I ran into them in a group and they were drunk, I might have a problem, but when I bump into one of them on the street, they'll say something like, 'Bones, dude, Blossom's looking for you, man, he wants to kill you.'
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Phillips added "the parents complained that a lot of the boys were drunk or stoned in the film and got worried about how that would affect their futures -- and argued that they hadn't known what they were doing when they signed
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I also hear that the film circulates through frat houses at colleges all over the country, and people tell me that this college or that one makes the pledges watch the film and recite lines from it while they're hazing them.
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Beta Chi, which at the time of filming was an unrecognized fraternity in
Oneonta, was kicked off the Oneonta campus after reports of severe hazing emerged. In January 2018, the fraternity became recognized by SUNY Oneonta.
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I'm not saying that's a good thing at all, but apparently they don't see the damage in it. That's just part of life's great art.
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premiered at the
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documentaries engage in " with fiction". Norcross concluded, "It’s easy to see in
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This article is about the 1998 documentary. For the campus housing facility, see
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After giving up on filming at Blossom's fraternity, Phillips and Gurland go to
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might be a great comedy but it avoids all the deeper questions asked by
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and meet with a second fraternity. When they explain to the brothers of
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release, though bootleg versions have occasionally circulated online.
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the darker, more cynical origins of Phillips' later work in the
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Rapkin, Mickey (October 15, 1998). "Burning Down The House".
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speaks to the entirety of Phillips’ body of work. Without
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That is how I make documentaries. Because you know what?
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is a 1998 documentary that explores the darker side of
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538:. Vol. 466. pp. 19–20
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902:As producer
764:As director
701:(tied with
435:"Rush Hour"
311:Wall Street
50:Directed by
1359:1998 films
1353:Categories
1321:The Exiles
1306:Boys State
1121:Frat House
1039:H-2 Worker
993:Style Wars
879:Frat House
780:Old School
660:Frat House
649:Frat House
528:Frat House
386:References
380:Frat House
376:Frat House
372:Frat House
368:Frat House
363:Old School
346:Frat House
254:Frat House
236:Background
145:fraternity
140:Frat House
129:1998-01-21
86:Production
44:Title card
32:Frat House
1258:Rich Hill
1001:Seventeen
918:Project X
772:Road Trip
755:Films by
301:Aftermath
215:Hell Week
192:HBO Films
147:life and
91:Producers
1228:Restrepo
836:War Dogs
812:Due Date
705:The Farm
590:Collider
351:Hangover
340:Collider
288:releases
199:Synopsis
62:Music by
678:Awards
249:Release
127: (
122:Release
112:60 mins
81:English
1339:(2024)
1331:(2023)
1323:(2022)
1317:(2021)
1309:(2020)
1301:(2019)
1293:(2018)
1285:(2017)
1277:(2016)
1274:Weiner
1269:(2015)
1261:(2014)
1253:(2013)
1247:(2012)
1239:(2011)
1231:(2010)
1223:(2009)
1215:(2008)
1207:(2007)
1199:(2006)
1191:(2005)
1183:(2004)
1175:(2003)
1167:(2002)
1159:(2001)
1151:(2000)
1132:(1999)
1124:(1998)
1110:(1997)
1102:(1996)
1094:(1995)
1086:(1994)
1078:(1993)
1070:(1992)
1062:(1991)
1048:(1990)
1034:(1989)
1026:(1988)
1018:(1987)
1010:(1986)
1004:(1985)
996:(1984)
988:(1982)
929:(2018)
921:(2012)
913:(2006)
890:(2000)
882:(1998)
874:(1993)
855:(2024)
847:(2019)
839:(2016)
831:(2013)
823:(2011)
815:(2010)
807:(2009)
799:(2006)
791:(2004)
783:(2003)
775:(2000)
149:hazing
101:Editor
1091:Crumb
844:Joker
357:Joker
1282:Dina
1180:Dig!
699:1998
654:IMDb
597:2023
544:2023
448:2023
663:at
652:at
258:HBO
224:in
206:At
175:in
163:in
1355::
709:)
628:.
588:.
572:^
560:.
532:.
506:^
496:.
476:.
456:^
437:.
417:^
403:.
360:.
190:.
179:.
1118:/
1056:/
1042:/
962:e
955:t
948:v
748:e
741:t
734:v
620:.
599:.
546:.
526:"
500:.
482:.
450:.
131:)
23:.
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