Devil's Playground

Educational, but for the most part not terribly interesting (the commentary track on the DVD is actually more educational than the film itself). At first I was thrilled to hear some of my favorite Aphex Twin songs in this movie... by the 3rd or 4th time I was considerably less thrilled.

Quite an eye-opener for an aspect of Amish culture I admittedly knew nothing about. It was very surprising to hear Amish youth say how they get wasted and high as they leave the Amish community and embrance the "English world". Brutually honest as it shows those who return to Amish culture, those who don't and even one who returned and then left again only to be shunned by her entire family. It's not incredible but still quite interesting.

I find this subject and the Amish in general to be pretty interesting. However, as a documentary, this wasn't the greatest. It just felt a bit repetitive and directionless. Still, it was fairly interesting and I'd recommend it especially to those who know little about the Amish.

This is one of the best Amish documentaries I have seen. It puts the troubles faced by Amish teens up front and avoids the romanticism other Amish documentaries embrace.

I'd choose to be Amish.

Amish, unlike many other Christians, do no baptise their kids. The kids have to choose to join the church themselves (Free Will). This film tells the story of some kids who are in doubt whether to join the church and live a secluded life from the outside world or continue to enjoy it with all its ups and downs. It is interesting that those who do not join the church do not necessarily lose faith in their church or in faith in general, the biggest shortcoming is this lack of exploration of faith.

Maybe more interesting to me since I was 17 in 2002 and also living in Indiana when this was released so I can somewhat relate to being a teen at the time in that location. They were a bit more extreme than I was, but that's understandable considering I was exposed to things like movies, television, and music in my "English" family of heathens.

Not as interesting as I'd hoped/expected

Agreed that the documentary was a little meandering & lacking structure. It was a little disappointing that there wasn’t more in depth discussion of the Ordnung, but I guess the director had to work with what she got? None of the interviewed participants were particularly erudite or articulate & their lack of focus/self-awareness limited their ability to share their own thoughts/feelings in a compelling way. Still, several of the stories have stuck with me for a decade, so it was memorable.

Excellent movie documentary about the Amish, particularly the teens experiencing 'Rumspringa'.