everything you have heard about this movie is true.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

This movie overall was very interesting. Before watching it, I knew very little about the Amish customs and their beliefs. The movie starts out showing how the Amish live their lives, which are in very simple, small, close knit communities and they all are very strict on religion. The Amish faith believes that they should let their teenagers be able to choose if they want to follow the Amish faith by letting them go free into the "English" world and see what life is like there. Through that Rite-of-Passage, they would hope that the teenagers will then be able to go and choose if they want to live in that type of lifestyle with technology and innovations, or if they want to come back and live a very simple life with no power or any things that would separate you from the family life. What I personally thought was very interesting is the struggle the kids had to go through when they decided on which faith they wanted to follow. Many wanted to live the English lifestyle and have cars, television, and stuff to do, but the thing they struggled with the most is being shunned from their community if they decided to leave and many couldn't live with the thought that if they were to leave, they would lose all of their friends and family in which they grew up with. Overall very interesting theme and story behind the movie. I thought it was a very interesting documentary.

What a godforsaken waste of a brilliant subject for a documentary! Commenting on the conflict between tradition and modern trends, Lucy Walker's The Devil's Playground is about Amish teenagers who get into drugs, drinking, and hardcore partying. And would you believe me if I told you that it is one of the most gutless and incompetent documentaries I have ever seen? All I can say is, the fear of seeing a movie this terrible ever again brings me one step closer to wanting to join a culture devoid of the presence of the media. This film is so muddled that it randomly examines a handful of characters while cutting to an old Amish man yapping about teenagers and peer pressure; when it gets bored with the old man, it goes back to one of the teenagers and when it gets bored with that teenager, it jumps to another one. There is no sense of emotional flow, pacing, or structure. Lucy Walker can't even engage us moment-by-moment, constantly adding corny music like a documentary-soap-opera. She is so technically incompetent that she goes for a moment of (cheap) emotional impact with a character while a gargantuan locomotive blasts by a hundred feet behind him.Sometimes the material is engaging despite Walker but that is rare… Oh, and then there's Faron-I can't wait to talk about Faron. Faron is a moronic Amish teenager who is bewildered as to whether he should move back to the family farm and live the Amish or if he should continue living in a trailer and have constant parties. Faron is a drug addict whose life is a mess of small ups and big downs. However, Lucy Walker must be dumber than Faron if she doesn't realize what a mess his life is and treats every up and down like an exciting new story development: Faron is in deep trouble with drug dealers for ratting on his friend and his girlfriend leaves him! (Sad music.) Faron skips town, plans to become Amish again, gets a job working for his father, and gets a new girlfriend! (Happy music.) Faron's girlfriend dumps him, his father fires him, and he moves back into his old trailer and starts getting drunk regularly! (Sad music) Faron goes to find ex-girlfriend to get back together with her and gets a new job! (Happy music) Faron crashes his car on his way to work and loses his job! (Sad music) Faron gets a job as a parking lot attendant and has some vague plans of going back to farm someday! Every single one of these plot revelations is treated melodramatically. And then the film just ends on an up-note (the great parking lot gig) without even considering the possibility that things will go badly later on. What about the guy that Faron ratted on? When he gets out of prison, won't he be angry? All he'll have to do to find out where Faron-the-moron is hiding is to watch The Devil's Playground. But that will prove to be an unbearable task indeed. Footnote: In this mess of a film there is one compelling facet: it is able to explain why a teenager would want to be Amish-an incredibly impressive achievement in the middle of an incredibly horrendous disaster.

This is a fascinating look at the world of the Amish and the temptation of the outside world. This follows Amish teenagers as they go through a path of initiation by going out into the outside world. There, they decide whether or not to join the Amish church and be baptized. It's an interesting dilemna that they are facing. This documentary is better than most hollywood movies out there.

Contains Spoilers... in fact, not just the best documentary i have ever seen, but one of the best movies i've ever seen. Maybe THE best movie I've ever seen. It cuts through all prejudice and cliche to the human heart of the story, and it's the most compelling narrative story you'll ever find - but this masterpiece is constructed out of the plain documentary truth about a bunch of teenagers. I'm haunted by these kids, and by the power of the images. Try to see it on a big screen because the shots are unbelievable. The beauty and simplicity - and austerity - of Amish life. Forget Witness, now you can see it for real for the first time - I don't think anybody filmed Amish people ever before, and this film is only Amish people. And then there are the scenes of crazy sex drugs and hiphop... with Amish kids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have you ever see Amish girls in traditional white bonnets and frilly dresses double-fisting Coors Lights and screaming for more more more at an Amish hoedown? You'll see why they say that "Amish kids got the best parties" - and don't tell me you knew that already. You couldn't make this stuff up. I wouldn't buy it in a fiction movie. I don't know how Amish people who have never before let themselves be filmed let this filmmaker film them doing things that they would most want to hide... it's some feat. It's not just the shocking revelation that Amish kids are kids too and have problems, it's that these kids have such an incredibly tough decision (to be or not to be Amish) at such a dramatic age, and they see the world through such unique bifocal lenses (Amish and "English") - and the film lets us FEEL that with them. I wanted to invite all of the featured characters over to my house - they each have such a heart-breaking story with so many ups and downs and twists and turns. It's wild that a film lets you be totally sympathetic with a drug dealer, not least a drug dealer who turns out to be a narcotics informer - the person you would LEAST expect to EVER sympathize with. A narc dealer should be hated by about everybody alive. But this kid is mesmerizing. I lost count of how many times a shiver went down my spine. There but for the grace of god go I. My only complaint is that I wanted it to be longer and that I can't wait for them to make a follow-up.