Wild Wild Country (2018)
This is a retroactive review of a great documentary that honestly still brings forth a lot of thought, emotion, and contemplation. While I normally avoid retroactive reviews of things not recently watched, I think this is one is pretty deserving to be talked about. Wild Wild Country truly is in my opinion one of the greatest documentaries I have ever seen. I honestly still get chills at times thinking about it, so Iâm going to try my best to express my thoughts onto this page.
What continues to intrigue me so much about this documentary is the duality at the heart of the story, a duality thatâs easy to overlook if you only focus on the sensational headlines. The Rajneeshpuram experiment, built around the teachings of Bhagwan Rajneesh, ultimately collapsed into spiritual disillusionment, corruption, and violence. Many followers became bitter, lost, or even outright dangerous. I mean, poisoning entire town is so crazy itâs almost impressive. In the end, even Bhagwan himself drifted into what I can only describe as an antiâspiritual numbness, using substances to escape the very experience of life he once preached about.
And yet, the community also produced genuine spiritual experiences for many who lived there. As the city unraveled, the camera captures the unmistakable grief in the faces of followers forced to leave. That kind of sorrow doesnât come from delusion alone. It comes from having tasted joy, however fleeting or flawed.
Many people are going to understandably dismiss Rajneeshpuram as nothing more than a violent, comical, brainwashed farce. Others might defend it as a misunderstood spiritual refuge. I find myself somewhere in the middle. I think Wild Wild Country forces us to confront an uncomfortable truth: spirituality can be both corrupted and deeply meaningful at the same time. All of us are complicated, contradictory creatures, and our spiritual journeys reflect that messiness. We encounter hypocrites, we become hypocrites, we stumble, we search, and sometimes we find peace in places that later fall apart.
In the end, the documentary becomes a portrait of humanityâs reach for purpose, the beauty of that reach, the failures it can unleash, the resentment it provokes, and the bittersweet nostalgia that remains after the dust settles. Itâs a reminder that even failed âutopiasâ can leave behind moments of real grace.
I couldnât wrap up this review without acknowledging Brocker Wayâs soundtrack. The music is soulful and perfectly attuned to the emotion of the story. I still listen to it today, and it captures the tragedy of Rajneeshee experience in a way words rarely can.
Wild Wild Country is a 5âoutâofâ5âstars documentary for me. Not because it offers easy answers, but because it refuses to (one of my favorite things a movie or documentary can do). Despite not finding any relevance to what Bhagwan teaches or that I donât find the members obviously a bit crazy, I have sympathy for those who make genuine attempts to find their spiritual side and in fact experiencing them. The documentary captures the tension, the beauty, and the contradictions of the human search for something higher. I hope you give it a watch, and I hope it stays with you the way it has stayed with me.