Three Identical Strangers Review
This was an absolutely fascinating documentary that I was recommended to watch, and I’m so glad I did.
Three Identical Strangers looks at three boys who were separated at birth from their mother who gave them to an adoption agency, who were then given to three different types of families that did not know that they were part of a triplet.
These boys only found out that they were triplets when one of them went to a university where another had attended and their friends thought they were them, and only was the third brother found when he saw the other two boys in the newspaper. It was a huge set of circumstances that sounds like a fantasy novel and not something that would happen in real life.
However this wasn’t the fairytale that these boys thought it was and in fact it turned out that their whole lives had been an experiment by the adoption agency to see whether nature or nurture has more of an affect on who you become. These boys were put into very different families for a reason and while they had a lot of similar interests including the same cigarettes and all doing wrestling at school there were also a lot of different sides to them, and I think part of the reason that one of the brothers ended up committing suicide is because of what happened.
One brother called Eddy committed suicide in 1995 after suffering with depression. It came as a big shock to everyone around him because he was always so full of life and light and was just an exciting individual but as an outside perspective I can see why he could’ve been driven to do that. To know that for 19 years you had a family out there that you had no clue about and you can never get that time back with them. To know that your whole world that you thought you knew was completely different to what you thought and suddenly to be thrust into this world, of not only the media, but also these three families coming together and being part of your family must’ve been an absolute whirlwind of circumstances. It must be so hard to take in because one day you think your life is going in one direction and the next day it’s completely blown out of the water and your left questioning not only who you are but what your whole life actually is too.
You could imagine finding out that you have long lost siblings as amazing but really the reality can be so much darker. Plus the fact that these experiments that were conducted on the children seemed to come to no fruition either and seemed to be quite a waste of time and ruined these kids’ lives. It’s such a shame that not even the family were told what was happening and no one had a clue up until the moment the boys found each other.
This is a very heartwarming and heartbreaking documentary that really lets you look at not only the experiments and what can come from them but also what it can do to the victims who didn’t even know they’re part of it and how insane it must be to suddenly have a huge family from one that you thought was so small and tight and connected. I can’t imagine what these boys went through and I just hope that they’re able to live somewhat a normal life and it’s such a shame that one of them lost theirs, and you have to wonder if he never knew about his extended family would that have happened.
What do you think of Three Identical Strangers?
Until next time.
Moving Picture Review 