Editorial Review:Amazon.com:This Sundance Festival sensation has attracted attention because of its jarring images of Amish kids immersed in debauchery: plain-dressed girls in white bonnets slugging back beers and flicking ashes from their cigarettes, boys passing out in the back of pickups after all-night parties, even Amish teens in bed together. But like a good drama, it's the characters themselves and their heartbreaking dilemma that linger in the mind. In the Amish vernacular, 'Devil's Playground' refers to the 'English' or outside world. The protected teens are suddenly thrust into this world upon their 16th birthday as they begin 'Rumspringa,' a period during which they decide whether to join the church as adults. Crystallizing this predicament is the 73-minute documentary's most compelling figure, 18-year-old Faron, a preacher's son fighting drug addiction. His earnest intent to return to the church and astonishing articulateness makes his misadventures in the drug underworld and penal system undeniably poignant.
--Kimberly Heinrichs
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"Rejoice Oh Young Man In Thy Youth" ~ Amish Kids Have The Best Parties
Synopsis: The '02 documentary film `Devil's Playground' is a surprisingly revealing look behind the black hats, beards and bonnets of the Amish enigma as it focuses on five young adults during a transitional period called "rumspringa"( meaning: running around). The Amish believe baptism is only valid when one is old enough to make a rational, mature decision on their own.
Between the ages of sixteen and early to mid-twenties (it varies with the individual) is a time of experimentation when Amish young people are allowed to see how the rest of the world lives. They smoke, drink, drive cars, date non-Amish, take drugs and party. It is nothing short of a modern day "rites of passage" when each must decide for themselves to make the decision to renounce what the outside world has to offer and return to the community of believers, or leave behind everything they have known to embrace a new life.
The five who must decide their future are; Faron and his girlfriend Emma, Gerald, Velda and Joann. The camera follows them about on their daily activities as they reflect on the life in their community and the allure of the new world they have been recently thrust into. Who will return to and who will leave is the question that will keep you watching to the end.
Critique: The first thing I'd like to do is offer my congratulations to the producers of this film. How they ever attained to permission and Amish cooperation to make this documentary was quite an accomplishment. I consider myself an individual well versed in the field of religions but must admit to knowing almost nothing about the social and communal practices of this faith before watching this film. It was a real eye-opener. For some reason I never considered the possibility of an interim period like "rumspringa" to exist. I just assumed that youth just flowed into adolescence, then into adulthood without any special upheaval or chaos in-between. Yes some would leave the community occasionally but I would have never expected such a turbulent, chaotic time of experimentation and decision making. Little did I know.
`Devil's Playground' is definitely an informative and fascinating glimpse into the beliefs, life, and practices of the Amish. For that reason alone it is worth watching. If I were to point out any negatives in the production I would say 1- it's a little slow at times and easy to loose focus and 2- in my opinion they spent too much camera time on the drug dealing, crank addict Faron. I would have liked to see more of the others, especially the more articulate and introspective Velda.
Rating: 
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Amish youth gone wild: sympathetic of sensationalistic? - must also watch with commentary
I suppose that I have a somewhat overidealized appreciation for the Amish, and when I first heard about this documentary I figured it was just a sensationalistic attempt at exploitation. I had no intention of watching it, but a few years later after reading Rumspringa, I finally decided to see what it was all about. I'll admit, the first time it really shocked me, and I considered it to be just what I had expected it to be. I watched it again several times, my feelings about it unchanged; after shelving it for about six months, I've watched it again a number of times, and my attitude towards it has change a little. I no longer consider it to be "exploitation" as it does try to depict the Amish in a somewhat sympathetic manner, and in some respects the true underlying goodness of the Amish people filters through despite the movie's subject matter. Having listened to the commentary--which is essential if you really want to understand the documentary itself--it does strike me, though, that the movie has to be viewed with a critical eye. While the type of behaviour depicted is clearly something that does occur among modern Amish youth, what's not clear is how widespread it is. According to the director, it took quite some time to find the people featured in the movie; no one wanted to be involved in the project at first, and so eventually it was mostly only people who were pretty fargone that did because they didn't really care anymore what people thought. So we have Faron--drug addict and dealer--as "the main character," and Velda, who left the church because it wouldn't allow her to be "the girl I want to be" and is now is shunned by her family, figuring prominently, as well. The former extremely rare, the latter with an axe to grind. Some of the lesser "characters" are not as extreme, and a few even decided to join the church in the end, but it's difficult to say for sure because they don't received the same attention. Moreover, in the commentary, it's easy to tell where the director's etc. sympathies lie--praise for Velda for writing and publishing a "feminist poem," critical remarks about certain Amish practices, the director's naive claim that maybe Faron would be a meth addict if he could just continue his education--not to mention the general tone of the discussion. Another thing to keep in mind: the documentary is very brief and general when it comes to Amish culture and history; it does not differentiate between the various sects, for instance. Of lesser significance, the inclusion of home movie clips does not make it clear that these people are not related to anyone in the movie, nor are they in fact even Amish. I understand why they were included, but it seems a little deceptive to me; well, I think they could have been left out altogether, or included as extras. So in the end, I'm left with mixed feelings about the movie; it was certainly fascinating and revealing, but there is an underlying agenda and it is does not fully explore the nature of Amish culture by which the viewer can measure the behaviour depicted in it. Is this kind of behaviour really the product of being released from a strict religious culture, or is it something that these children would have engaged in anyway had they not been born Amish and thus an example of why the Amish are justified in their rigid worldview? Many will conclude from this documentary that it is the former, while I tend to think the latter is correct. In the end, I would recommend the movie, but caution that it should be viewed critically.
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Party like it's 1699!
OK, I got the funnies out of my system with the review's title and now I'll deal with it seriously and see if I can relate the good and not-so-good aspects of this documentary. I'll likely not write anything that hasn't been written yet, but I'll try to do it succintly.
First the good points.
First, great idea for a documentary! Who doesn't find the Amish mysterious? What do we, who don't live near Amish communities, know about them other than maybe we saw the movie "Witness" many years ago, or we went furniture shopping and saw their craftsmanship on display. Well, this film takes you up close and personal and really gives you the feeling that you're living with them for a while. I tried to imagine what I would be like if I grew up Amish and had to make a choice between the benefits of community (and perhaps the salvation of my soul) and the benefits of living my life without all the rules that Amish must obey. What would I do?
Second, great idea to focus in on the one aspect of Amish culture that nobody would ever guess, and that's that they let their kids run wild during their teenage years, starting at age sixteen, just to see what the world is like before deciding whether or not to join the Amish church.
Actually, I knew a little bit about this becuase I saw another documentary that was done years ago, and it showed Amish teenagers driving cars, a practice which they must cease and desist after joining the church, but this documentary takes it "up to eleven" by showing just how far the teens are allowed to stray, apparently without parental intervention.
Third, I got to see that the Amish really don't reject modern technology, just the technology that destroys community. In fact, it seems that so much of being Amish is about preserving community, and that the rejection of technology is more of a byproduct than an end in itself. One of the bonus features was a video tour of the main subjects family home, and I saw a rather state-of-the-art furnace in the basement. Natural gas I assume.
Fourth, I just had to wonder whether the Amish really are that backward, or are they geniuses, or perhaps both. They've pre-empted any generation gaps by simply letting their teens run wild and giving them no parental authority to rebel against. By the time they're eighteen, many of them volunteer to be grownups and take on adult responsiblity. What a feat!
Now for the not-so-good.
I really wish something like this had been done by the people who do the PBS "frontline" series. That would have made an intriguing idea into a genuinly compelling documentary, but instead there were seemingly endless minutes of one particulary messed up kid blabbering on and on and on and on. I think it may have been a mistake, and the downfall of this project, to concentrate on one young person, and one of the most troubled at that. Seeing footage of other teens and parents was the relief and what kept me going through the whole thing.
Second, it just plain needed more Amish teens and tighter editing. It was tedious to watch a lot of this, and there was more than enough subject matter to keep this from happening. More views from the parental side might have helped, for example.
So the bottom line is that I'm glad I watched it, but I'll never likely want to watch it again. One trip to the "Devil's Playground" is enough for me.
Rating: 
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A Superb Video
A great way to spend a rainy afternoon! I love the Amish...reading about them, watching them and visiting them. This is a great quality video for a fair price and the delivery is super fast too!
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Amish Youth On Rumspringa
This documentary explores the Amish ritual of Rumspringa. This is when Amish youth reach age 16 and are allowed to enter the "English world" and to experience all it's temptations such as drinking, drugs and sex.
The doc focuses on Faron, an Amish teen who's Rumpspringa experience has led him to become a meth addict who also deals drugs to pay for his habit. He gets busted but avoids jail time by turning evidence on some other local dealers. Obviously, this puts him in physical danger and he heads for the safety of life back home. Faron eventually leaves again to follow a girlfriend who has moved to Florida. There he succeeds in staying clean but faces setbacks in his attempts to "make it" in the outside world.
Velda is another teen that the doc features. She is an intelligent, independent young woman who has suffered from depression while growing up Amish. She comes across as a determined and inspirational figure who succeeds in getting into a college in Texas, a terrific accomplishment since Amish are not allowed to attend school beyond the 8th grade.
Nearly all the kids seem to be good hearted and I really found myself pulling for them. But I also ended up with some very mixed feelings about the adult Amish community. Of course, it's easy to feel a sort of romantic nostalgia for the simple country life they live, far away from the materialistic and competitive excesses of the modern world. But I do have a serious problem with the fact that they discontinue education at the 8th grade. This obviously leaves young minds underdeveloped and puts the kids at a severe disadvantage when it comes to suceeding in the outside world. Also the Amish are a very strict fundamentalist religious sect who teach their young people that they must remain Amish to enter Heaven. If they do choose to live in the "English world" they are dooming themselves to eternity in Hell. This sort of judgemental and punishment based religious theology I find extremely disturbing.
But the documentary itself is both tremendously educational and entertaining. Highly recommended!
