In his first public interview in more than a decade, pop culture icon of the 1970s and 80s, Werner Erhard breaks his long silence about his ideas, his life and his controversial program "est... Read allIn his first public interview in more than a decade, pop culture icon of the 1970s and 80s, Werner Erhard breaks his long silence about his ideas, his life and his controversial program "est"that became "the thing" to do among celebrities and middle America and fueled today's mul... Read allIn his first public interview in more than a decade, pop culture icon of the 1970s and 80s, Werner Erhard breaks his long silence about his ideas, his life and his controversial program "est"that became "the thing" to do among celebrities and middle America and fueled today's multi-billion dollar personal growth industry. With exclusive and rare footage, you'll step i... Read all
Photos
- Self - est Graduate
- (archive footage)
- Self - est Graduate
- (archive footage)
- est Trainer
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- (as R. Buckminster Fuller)
- Self - Emmy Awards
- (archive footage)
- Self - est Graduate
- (archive footage)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- Quotes
Randy McNamara: People had no idea what the course was going to do for them, none. And most people were very very very uptight.
- ConnectionsFeatures 60 Minutes (1968)
Shown at the Atlanta Film Festival, Transformation: The Life and Legacy of Werner Erhard, a documentary by two-time Emmy Award winner Robyn Symons looks at est and its creator, showing rare clips from inside the training as well as interviews with est graduates and staff members. Symons brings the story up-to-date, interviewing Werner, now aged 70, talking about the infamous "60 Minutes" broadcast of 1991, his reconciliation with his family thirteen years after he had abandoned them in his twenties, and his activities during the last fifteen years. For those who participated in either the est training or est's successor, The Landmark Forum, the film will be a validation of the contribution that Werner has made and will restore some balance in the public mind as to how his legacy is perceived. Unfortunately however, because it is so limited in its time (62 minutes), and lacking in fuller exploration and depth of its topics, it may have limited appeal to those who know little or nothing about est or Werner's history.
The film traces the beginnings of est to an epiphany Werner had while driving over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco when he realized that, contrary to all that he had been taught, the individual is responsible for the content and decisions that make up his or her life. While est in the seventies engendered a strong positive reaction from the majority of people who finished the course, it also became a source of controversy. Stories circulated about fainting, peeing, vomiting, and sobbing, painting a scene that, taken out of context, seemed frightening. However, the meaning and purpose of the training was lost in these horror stories and Werner's attempt to explain est to the media was singularly unsuccessful. It also spurred a negative reaction from the psychiatric and academic establishment, unwilling to believe that people could alter the quality of their life in the space of sixty hours, contrary to the deeply ingrained notion that progress had to take months, years, and even decades to be achieved. Consequently, est was labeled "pop psychology", "brainwashing", and "a boot-camp approach to psychology".
Werner's reputation also took a hit in 1991 with an "expose" on "60 Minutes" in which associates and family members accused him of unsavory acts, all of which were later denied and subsequently recanted by the accusers. Werner, however, left the U.S. shortly thereafter, claiming on a Larry King broadcast that he was being targeted by Scientology. He has not returned in the last fifteen years and, though he has carried on his work abroad, has become largely forgotten in the U.S. While the film attempts to set the record straight about his life and about common misconceptions about the training, the film does very little to clarify the methodology or the true purpose of the training.
Also some clips from inside the training, may actually reinforce the notion in some people's minds that trainees were being victimized. For example, the film shows a young woman being told by Werner that her experience in foster homes was simply her "story" and her "racket". In the context of a sixty-hour training, these labels are precisely defined and have a great deal of meaning, and were intended to allow the young woman to realize that her experiences, as painful as they were, do not have to define her life. Outside of that context, however, their meaning is not clear and Werner's tone comes across as being less than compassionate.
While the film does add perspective to his recent trials, it has a "stagy" quality that doesn't truly capture the excitement and inspiration of those early days when it looked as if est could one day be incorporated into public education. While spokespersons for Werner in the film (mostly former est staff members) are articulate in supporting the goals of the training, the film could have benefited greatly from the comments of those who were outside the organization, perhaps insights from psychologists as to why the training was able to produce the kind of results it did in a short period of time. In spite of the film's shortcomings, however, it is an important first step in acquainting the world with the contributions of this man who dedicated his life to making others great.
Words and phrases such as "transformation", "empowerment", "making a difference", "getting it" and so forth have become part of the vocabulary of the culture, even to the extent that they have been pre-empted by advertising agencies who seek to use them to make a profit. Werner did not write books or go out on the lecture circuit to great applause from true believers and functioned in an atmosphere of non-agreement and non-acceptance. His genius did not lie in any concepts or ideas but in the enormous contribution his programs made to people's lives (including my own). Although the training, now The Landmark Forum, in recent years has moved away from the fringes and closer to the mainstream, Werner's programs, in my view, are still extremely valuable tools to deepen our self-awareness and Symon's film Transformation is a fitting beginning to the acknowledgment of his true greatness.
- howard.schumann
- Sep 10, 2006
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Трансформация: Жизнь и наследие Вернера Эрхарда
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $300,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $49,919
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $25,460
- Jul 29, 2007
- Gross worldwide
- $49,919