I never even knew Henry Darger existed until, out of curiosity, I added this video to my Netflix instant streaming queue. I was captivated the entire time. What an amazing (and at times, heartbreaking) story about such a wonderfully strange and enigmatic individual. The mix of historical photos, Darger's own drawings and words, and interviews with people who actually knew him weave together to form a compelling story that serves to remind us that, no matter how far we may try to pull away from the world around us, we still leave our mark on this world and may very well affect the lives of those around us.I highly recommend this documentary to anyone who has an imagination. Simply... unreal.

This "documentary" is a blatant attempt to contribute to and fester the 'myth' of Henry Darger, a reclusive, backward man who concocted a trite and repetitive story (18,000 pages) filled with extreme inconsistencies (his "Christian" army is involved in bloody warfare - tenets of Christ were those of a pacifist, etc) and sadomasochistic tendencies. It seems he lived in his own sullied world, formed mostly by an extreme fascination with children and the sufferings of Christ (he had upon his wall 13,000 representations of crucifixes). His landlords found his room after he died, stuffed with innumerable articles of junk, stacks of wet papers, hairballs, empty bottles and yet, being artists and entrepreneurs themselves, they hatched a theme to create Henry Darger as a genius of 'outsider art', their attempts succeeded, Darger's immature works, mostly traced drawings, slapped on with some vivid color schemata, in every sense lacking any cohesive aesthetic, have sold for millions now.The room itself was photographed, cataloged and inducted into the 'folk art' hall of fame. Darger was seemingly a lunatic, at odds with his warped Christian conditioning and society itself, he would hide in his room for hours on end, lusting after children and cut out articles and trace faces onto pieces of toilet paper (he was poor). There's no doubt that he holds some fascination for us, mainly because of his weirdness but eventually even that is usurped by the painstaking tediousness and forcefulness of accepting such unworthy levels of art into our consciousness, as this documentary begs us to do.Since he is dead, he can not speak for himself, and thus, his 'myth' is assured, bringing the curious to worship at his feet and sell his works for staggering prices.

Maybe it is just because I have to do an assignment on Oliver Twist and I was extremely stressed over it while watching this movie, but was it just me who thought their lives were very similar? Maybe not completely, just the first few years of his life. He also mentioned Dickens quite a bit in the movie. I am definitely using this film as a means of entertainment for my assignment. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish the movie so I'm not really sure if there was anymore similarities between the two, would someone care to tell me. But from what I did see I thought it was an incredible movie, even the way they showed it was amazing. Maybe some of you could put your input on this.

I believe, upon seeing this film, that Henry Darger was an autistic savant, and that his life and artistic work stand as a monument to understanding the condition of the autistic personality, particularly the personality of the autistic savant.An autistic person suffers from a certain amount of confusion in the thought process. They usually have some problems communicating with others. Sometimes they say or do things that they don't mean. They might get work orders confused, and not know it. They might suddenly change subjects during conversation without warning and be unaware of it. The problem is that they are completely unaware that they did something other than what they thought they did, or that they changed the subject of conversation without knowing it.When this confusion arises, arguments follow, because the autistic person is so often unaware of the problem he or she is having (Henry got into arguments with his Nun employers at the hospital, where he was a janitor, over chores he was assigned which he may have failed to complete through an autistic mental lapse, while thinking he had completed them.) Temper tantrums arise due to the process of frustration that occurs when these mental lapses or episodes of confusion happen. The autistic person isn't really being "tempermental". The autistic person is truly being surprised by these events of their own misunderstanding, and may sincerely feel mistreated by those who complain about them.A self-activated tape recorder may help autistic people understand how others are perceiving their conversation and behavior.Autistic people do not always find it easy to communicate with others. Henry Darger spent a lot of time alone, creating a fantasy world out of his wishes to communicate. The phenomenon of the savant has been described as what sometimes develops when an autistic person can focus all their mental energy on a single well of thought and perception. In such cases, it is believed that the whole activity of the brain centers on a single slice of life. This phenomenon is well marked in cases of musical prodigies who have severe autism, so that they could not have been taught music, but learned it spontaneously when circumstance provided them with the proper combination of tools, such as access to both a radio - and a piano.Henry Darger was not terribly abnormal. His was a rather mild case of autism. But he was truly a savant, I believe. There are many people who have mild cases of autism. Some of them may be savants too. Thanks to Henry Darger and this film, their circumstances may more easily come to light, and be better understood.