Loved the Book Educated? Watch This Documentary Next.
Tara Westover’s memoir, Educated, spent months on the New York Times Best Seller list, and rightfully so! The book is a complete page-turner and Westover’s story manages to be shocking and heart-breaking, but also inspiring and thought-provoking.
If you haven’t read it, move it to the top of your list. And if you have…it’s time to update your Netflix queue because I have the perfect documentary to keep that crazy-Idaho-family-story-line alive!
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The Weavers’ Story
If you recall, one of the storylines that Westover often went back to was the story of the Weavers – a family who, from her father’s eyes, was being targeted by the government for doing exactly what the Westovers were doing – trying to stay to themselves.
Things did not end well for her father’s version of the Weaver story and Tara never forgot it.
Westover’s father was deeply affected by the events, leading to more of his crazy ideas. But Tara was equally affected by their story (or what she knew of it) and mentioned it multiple times throughout the book…including in her college years when she discovered the Weavers were, in fact, a real family who had suffered through a truly tragic event.
That event? It happened on Ruby Ridge, another secluded mountain top very similar to where Westover herself grew up.
And it turns out that Westover’s father’s story wasn’t too far from actual events…and the true story is CRAZY.
What to Watch After Reading Educated
The true story of the Weaver’s, told in the documentary Ruby Ridge, is an eye-opening, shocking, and devastating account of a government standoff that went terribly, terribly wrong.
Horrible enough that, to this day, it remains as an example for what the government should not do in similar circumstances.
The Weavers were a family very similar to the Westovers – living in seclusion in a cabin on an Idaho mountain top…no electricity, no running water. Just them and the wilderness.
Through unfortunate circumstances, patriarch Randy Weaver gets caught up with the FBI and that’s when things start to escalate…quickly.
The events that unfold are best told by the Ruby Ridge documentary, which is a must-see all on its own, but a definite must-see if you’ve read and loved Educated.
So if you haven’t already, add Ruby Ridge to top of your Netflix queue!
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- The Best Controversial Documentaries to Add Fuel to the Fire
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