I Know My First Name Is Steven (The Missing Years) Reviews

It was an excellent movie! A good movie to watch with children and a great discussion opener of kidnapping and talking with strangers.

It's the kind of movie that I want to teach my own kids reg: stranger danger and amongst family offenders.

This film revolves around the true story that begins in 1972 with the abduction of seven-year-old Steven Stayner, who was snatched on his way home from school by a known paedophile Kenneth Parnell. Steven was then kept as the man's son for seven years and forced for endure systematical sexual abuse at the hands of his kidnapper. He finally managed to escape when Parnell abducted a five-year-old boy whom Steven was determined would not suffer as he had. However, upon his return to his real family-- who never gave up that he would be reunited with them one day-- Steven found it hard to adjust as he had no understanding of what it was to be part of a loving family. It was horrifying to see what little was actually done to either help Steven, as not only when he did try to tell a teacher of his abduction, he was accused of lying and being ungrateful but Parnell was able to freely go from town-to-town with a child who was not his own and with no-one challenging this. This film depicts both the trauma Steven faces as he grew up in such horrifying circumstances and the grief of the parents he left behind but it also shows the courage of the Stayners, who all remained strong through everything. Corin Nemec is truly magnificent as Steven. He makes the movie come alive and makes you want to watch the truly brilliant film.

An emotional look into the life of a kidnapped child. This movie was well-written and well-directed. Corin Nemec's greatest performance.

This movie is SOOOOOO fantastic! It's a very SAD story, but sometimes you just have to watch a movie that it serious, sad, and honest. I couldn't even imagin what Steven went through as a child, and I am glad that I can't. If anyone knows where I can get this dvd, let me know please! Thanks

It is sad that this movie was based on a true story, but I think no other movie based on the life and death of Steven Staner could compare to what this movie told, especially with the great performance given by Corin Nemec. And it's so eerie to know, even though it is not mentioned in the movie at all, that Steven's brother in real life was a serial killer.

The movie is good, but I read the book first, So I think the book was actually better then the movie. Too bad it's based on a true story:(

A gripping and gut-churning story of a traumatising seven-year ordeal of mental, physical, and emotional abuse that is given an even greater sombre tone when watching with the knowledge of the outcomes of the real-life persons depicted (see footnotes below).

Arliss Howard (uncredited for some strange reason) is spine-chilling as serial pedophile Kenneth Parnell, Luke Edwards and Jacob Gelman are engaging as his two young victims, Steven (aged 7) and four-year-old Timmy, and John Ashton and Cindy Pickett stretch their dramatic legs with differing degrees of effect as parents Del and Kay Stayner. But it's in the second-half of the picture where Corin Nemec enters, portraying Steven at 14 years old, where the gravity of this story really hits home. Mr. Nemec delivers a tour-de-force performance, portraying that complexities of survivor and victim to perfection.

'I Know My First Name is Steven', a two-part made-for-television production, is a bitter pill to swallow, but it has so much to say about the judicial system and the treatment of victims of criminal acts. In this case, the punishment did not fit the crime.

1989: Steven Stayner dies in a motorcycle accident in September, four months after the miniseries originally airs, aged 24.
1999: Cary Stayner, Steven's older brother, murders four women at Yosemite Park, and is later sentenced to death row (still serving as of this writing).
2004: Kenneth Parnell is sentenced to 25-years-to-life imprisonment for the attempted kidnapping of a four-year-old boy, and dies of natural causes at the California State Prison Hospital in 2008, aged 76.
2010: Timmy White, a police officer, dies from a pulmonary embolism, aged 35.

ANOTHER TRUE STORY !!! Ths little Boy gets kidnaped And Returns after many years To find he is a lost soul drowning in the horrors of the abuse he Endured in the arms of his rapist captor!!
His Brother carrie stayner grew up to Murder 2 wimen on vacation And Made HEadlines of his Own ... Then Steven Died In A Tragic car accident ... Ths movie Is A Reaminder of those who stalk children and the pain It causes .....To The Family's And Those Who Servive *