Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell operated what a grand jury would later describe as a “baby charnel house.”
His clinic hadn’t been inspected for 17 years for political reasons. The perpetrator of a grisly catalog of horrors was convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of three infants. Investigators also discovered that over the course of 30 years, he repeatedly violated Pennsylvania’s 24-week time limit on abortions.
The media looked the other way, virtually ignoring the sensational case for fear of stigmatizing abortion and Planned Parenthood’s selling of baby parts.
Phelim McAleer’s film “Gosnell” is about a man who was dubbed “America’s biggest serial killer.” The film focuses on the Gosnell investigation and how he was allowed to keep practicing. It also looks at the heroes who put him behind bars.
A gripping, well-acted movie about one of the most contentious and divisive issues in America today should be a talking point.
Mainstream media reviewers have mostly ignored the film, which was directed by and also features a performance by “Justified” and “The Shape of Water” star Nick Searcy. It doesn’t fit the narrative, and the powers that be—i.e., the mainstream media—don’t want people to see the film.
Despite the media “blackout,” the crowdsourced movie has defied expectations and opened as a top-10 box-office performer, despite the lack of support from a petulant, pernicious Hollywood.
“We should be promoting dialogue and understanding, not division and identity politics,” actor Dean Cain, who plays a detective in the film, told me in an interview this month.
So why would he choose to do a movie that Hollywood and an overwhelmingly pro-choice media would shun? Cain says it’s time for a spotlight to be shone on the practices that are happening in abortion clinics across the country.
“The movie came right to me. I read the script. I knew some of the people involved. It was a well-written, very compelling script, and it is an important issue,” Cain said.
“We fought every step of the way to get people to pay attention to the movie, to screen it—it wasn’t even screened in New York—to review it, to advertise it. The $2.4 million budget to make it was raised through the crowdfunding site Indiegogo.”
Against the odds, “Gosnell” has been screened in hundreds of theaters nationwide and currently has a 99 percent audience score on viewer-review website Rotten Tomatoes, based on more than 1,200 user ratings.
The movie is a gripping courtroom drama about a man so detached from reality that he could kill live babies without remorse. One of the telling lines in the movie is, “My, this baby is so big, it could walk me to the bus stop.”
“This movie proves that in Hollywood, ideology is more important than money,“ producer Ann McElhinney said. ”They don’t want the truth out there, and they’ll do anything, including throw away money, to stop us [from] telling this shocking true story.”
She said she had to come to terms with the horrors associated with Gosnell’s clinic, such as Gosnell’s fridge filled with trash bags of fetuses and dozens of babies’ feet found in bottles.
Superman With a Smile
Earlier this month, Cain was in New York City with Teri Hatcher for the “Lois and Clark” 25th-anniversary reunion at the New York Comic Con. He said he'd like to revisit his role as Superman.“I’d like to find out what Lois and Clark’s relationship is now, as parents, as a couple, no longer in their 20s,” he said.
Watching Cain onstage, good-naturedly fielding questions and being as charming as a sunbeam in a tinsel factory, I notice there is something quintessentially Clark Kentish about him. Cain has an earnestness and a goodness about him. He is Superman played with a smile and a wink.
In his den in Malibu, he has far more gravitas.
We talk like a road traveling into the night. His role in “Beverly Hills, 90210,” dating Brooke Shields at Princeton University, “Superman”—all these recede like the taillights of a car.
He gently reminds me that he has made over 150 movies and written more than 40 scripts.
Last year, for his documentary about the Armenian genocide, “Architects of Denial,” he was awarded the Order of Armenia by the country’s president.
“Armenians have been persecuted for centuries. They were the first bastion of Christianity and remain the only bastion of Christianity in the Middle East,” he said.
His life is busy.
“I have been balancing my work with being a single father. My son just turned 18. I have been limited in what I would do and where I would go.”
What does he think about women’s rights?
“I don’t believe Roe v. Wade will be overturned. Abortion must be legal, but every state makes its own rules. ‘Legal’ meaning that a fetus is viable from 20 to 24 weeks. Women haven’t had any rights overturned. I’ve traveled to Saudi Arabia,” he said.
“I haven’t seen Trump roll back any rights for women or gays. I am happy to speak to anyone about politics, but personal attacks mean the argument is over.
“As Ben Shapiro says, ‘A lot of facts don’t care about your feelings.’
“I am fully pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, pro-full equality. But there should be equality of opportunity, not of outcome.
“Trump is doing a fantastic job. He speaks differently and tweets differently, but when I say fantastic job, I’m basing it on his policies, not only here but for the world. Today, we’re No. 1 again. The economy is soaring. I’m not a Republican. I am an independent.
His Son
Cain’s parents live seven minutes away; he works with his dad and has an extremely close relationship with his son, Christopher.There is a photograph of father and son praying on the site where Christ is said to have prayed. It is pinned to his Twitter feed.
How did he bring his son up to pray with him?
“I have had joint custody of him since he was born and full custody of him since he was 9. I have taught him my morals and my values. In fifth grade, he started going to a private Christian school. They were more religious than I; he had to go to church and studied the Bible,” he said.
“We traveled to Jordan and sat down with one of the foremost Islamic scholars in the world. We spoke about religion and morality for days. We met with King Abdullah and then, we went to Israel and went to all these incredible places like the baptismal site of Jesus, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We experienced a lot of that together. We met the Greek Orthodox leader and the mayor of Jerusalem and [Prime Minister] Netanyahu. Traveling together, I exposed him to stuff that let him see different worlds.”
Conversations With God
“I remember when I was so upset by something. Christopher was 13 or 14 at the time. He said, ‘Dad, there is a reason for it. Maybe God has another purpose for you here,’” Cain said.It was deeply moving. “We have conversations with God. When I was flying helicopters over Iraq in 2005, I had a lot of conversations with God about myself and my future for my son and this world. I have a lot of conversations with Him now.”
There are places whether the air is thinner, where the veil between heaven and earth is thinner. In and around Jordan at the Baptism site, at the Cave of John the Baptist.
The spirit of the place—“spiritus loci”—even the memory of it, moves him still.
What is it that makes people have morality, if they don’t believe in a creator God?
“That’s a very good question,” he said.
Looking for Lois
In June, he was sworn in as a reserve police officer in St. Anthony, Idaho. He volunteers with the All About Kids initiative, which focuses on preventing teen suicide, bullying, and internet crimes.“If you think there are problems with the police department, volunteer and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them. I am proud to do so,” he said.
Dean is of three-eights Japanese descent. His birth name, Tanaka, is tattooed in Japanese on his ankle.
Just when one tries to tie Dean Cain down as just another Hollywood actor who just happened to be the most successful Superman of the small screen, he slips his moorings.
There have been wonderful loves in his life, but Superman would love to be married. “It just hasn’t happened.”
All Lois Lanes who wish to apply—the queue forms to the left.
