Three Identical Strangers [DVD]

Wonderful Documentary
CONTAINS SPOILERS.This documentary was very touching. However, I was curious about a few things that were not explained.Identical triplets are rare. A teenager got pregnant on her prom night – – there is never any mention of who the babies’ father was. Was she raped, or was it her first date with him, or was he her boyfriend? There is never any mention of why she gave up the babies – – although it was 1961, when unmarried teens did not keep their babies. However, the babies were not placed into their adoptive homes until they were six months old, which was not explained… Where did the babies live for their first six months? At that age, they were definitely old enough to miss the other two when they were separated… it was said that the babies each banged their heads on their cribs, probably from missing the other two, which could definitely affect any kind of test that was secretly being done… the babies were not separated at birth, which matters. Very little was said about the mother – – just that she appeared to be an alcoholic with some kind of mental illness – – and absolutely nothing was said about the father or any other family members, such as siblings or grandparents, etc.The adoption agency took advantage of the opportunity of identical triplets by using them as an experiment. The babies were carefully placed into different homes – – one baby got a very rich family, one got a middle class family, and one got a poorer family. If the goal was to examine “nature versus nurture,” then it doesn’t take an experiment to guess the results. A baby in a loving family with no worries about money will definitely have a better chance in life than a baby in a neglected or abused family of poverty – – this is just common sense. If the goal was to take babies that were born to a woman with mental illness and watch how they turn out in different environments, it still wouldn’t take an experiment to guess the results – – if a baby grows up showing mental issues, a loving family will recognize that, and if money is not an issue, then everything would be done to help him – – if a baby grows up in a neglected or abusive family, they may not notice any mental issues and would probably make it all worse, and would not have the money to help him even if they did recognize a problem. It doesn’t take any kind of medical degree or experiment to figure this out. It was said that it will never really be known what the goals of the experiment were.The adoption agency said that they separated the babies because it was difficult to place three babies into one home… but they never asked the prospective parents if they wanted to take three babies… one of the parents said that they absolutely would have taken all three, but they were never asked. This was obviously just a lie by the agency – – the babies were carefully placed into different homes that were exactly what the agency wanted for their experiment. It would have been interesting if the documentary could have interviewed someone from the agency. I don’t understand why the three sets of parents did not sue the agency.It was said that there was so much research hidden away in boxes (about the triplets and about other babies), and it is so sad that the results were never put together after destroying so many lives…. It was said that there are definitely twins who still don’t know that they were separated and don’t know that they have a twin.The triplets appeared to be so happy when they were together. They got an apartment and lived together, even sleeping together in a king sized bed. It is never explained how they transitioned from being so close, to each getting married and living lives apart again. It was nice to see that they continued to be close by running a restaurant together, and it was so sad to see that their relationship started to suffer because of it.I would have liked to hear more about how different they were.It appeared that between the triplets, they only had one child from the three marriages. I wondered why only one triplet had a one baby. It would have been interesting for that child to be interviewed because she would have been an adult by the time that this documentary was made.It really threw me to hear that one of the triplets committed suicide… I did not see that coming. The documentary should have gone into more detail about that, instead of just saying that he had a mental illness. The two remaining men looked so unhappy at the end… it really touched me.I wondered how their lives would have turned out if the three of them had been raised together.This documentary reminded me of the story of the Reimer twins… you all can look it up… it is similar in many ways, especially the tragic ending.

Interesting documentary
Sad

Sad and moving movie
After reading an article about these boys story I was interested in understanding what had happened to them. The movie was very informative but also such a sad situation that society allowed such things to happen at this point in history.

Such a great movie

Great documentary