The Mormons
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Movie Reviews of The Mormons
Movie Review: Mormon DVD
Summary: 4 Stars
Good background on this Christian sect: history, doctrine, dissenters, etc. It provided some interesting interviews especially with one of the wives of one man. Interesting take or alternative to family living.Movie Review: Joseph Smith,Brigham Young and The Mormons
Summary: 3 Stars
This four hour documentary goes into all of aspects of the Mormon story. However, for my purposes the first two hour segment was most important concerning the founding myths and trials and tribulations of the early Mormons as they kept getting banished further westward until they found a final central settlement in Utah. The second two hour segment concerning the assimilation of the more orthodox Mormons into the mainstream of political and social life and their successes at political power and their growth through missionary zeal are less important. We have been there before on this assimilation question for other ethnic and religious groups, notably the Roman Catholics of Irish, Italian and Eastern European heritage so that part was not of pressing concern to me.
I know the land that nurtured Mormon founder Joseph Smith, the farm country of upstate, mid-state New York. Places like Utica, Amsterdam, Rochester and so forth. At least I know the late 20th century version of those places. The seemingly endless rolling hills, the hard scrabble rocky land where there is no give without some Herculean effort. The vast tracts of trees and other obstacles to farming to be uprooted and brought to manageable size. The hard, hard winters that start early and end late. Hell, and that is what it is like now so one can only imagine what it was like for those who in the early 19th early were essentially on the American frontier looking to see if or why their god had abandoned them. There were more seekers, peekers, ranters, panter, shakers and quakers than you could shake a stick at this side of the 17th century English revolution. Put that together with a charismatic, rather mystical and intelligent young man, Joseph Smith, and you certainly have the genesis for some kind of religious movement. Or a political one for that matter. In a latter age that might very well have been the case. Whether, and if, such a plebian movement based on "revealed" truth could survive among the others more secular trends in the labor movement is the real question.
The documentary goes into some detail about Smith's ability to gain converts (and spin off dissenters) after his conversion experience. It moves on to discuss the creation of the first Mormon communities in upstate New York, the pressure of other Christian denominations to push them out, the success of that effort and the first evacuation of Mormons to Missouri. After some hotly disputed fights from there to Illinois where Smith was assassination by other non-Mormon Christians. Then on to the Brigham Young led treks to the West, the establishment of thriving settlements there, the famous, if shadowy Mountain Meadow massacre by the Mormons on other settlers that, in effect, consolidated Mormon political power in the Utah territories; the fight over polygamy and the eventual entrance into statehood and the assimilation process mentioned above.
I first began looking for Mormon material over a year ago. I started and put down more than one biography about Joseph Smith or Brigham Young. Or histories of the early days (especially that controversial Mountain Meadow incident). The problem is that most of this material is by Mormons or Mormon-influenced authors and I felt I had to discount most of it, especially the "myth of creation" aspects around what Joseph Smith did or did not find out in those lonesome hills of up state New York. This documentary, more so than other PBS documentaries in this "American Experience" series suffer some of that same problem. There are too many "talking heads" identified as historians without being designated as Mormon historians. This is not generally a problem in other PBS productions. Still, if you need a well-produced introduction to this esoteric religion this is a good place to start. And perhaps to finish.
Movie Review: Decent overall, but not perfect
Summary: 3 Stars
As a believing member of the Mormon church, I found this to be a decent enough introduction to the history of the Mormon church. Of course there will always be disagreements about how balanced any documentary is; this one did an OK job. There were a couple of problems, however. First, the documentary spends very little time with current, believing members of the church. Not that their views aren't represented, but they could have spent a little less time with Mormon "academics" and more time with the lay members that do most of the work and believing in the church. Second, the documentary strays in the second half (at least the second night shown on TV) with what can only be described as a disproportionate fixation with dancing. While the fact that dancing is not banned may set us apart from other "strict" faiths, it is hardly an essential or even meaningful part of our religion. BYU (a church owned private university) does have excellent dance teams, but they were shown in the documentary as if they were a representation of normal LDS church members. Rather, they are trained teams and students in classes, like many colleges all over the nation. The average LDS member doesn't dance any more than non LDS church members. Another issue I had with it dealt with a family in Colorado with a daughter that was diagnosed with a terminal disease (cancer I believe). While anyone will feel compassion for the family, I couldn't figure out why the story took so long to tell and why focus on them. It did show how Mormon strive to focus on the family (which is true), but I felt there were other stories and examples just as worthy and perhaps more relevant that could have been explored.
I feel like the historical part of the documentary did a fairly good job of explaining Mormon history, the area of the documentary focused on what it is like being Mormon today failed to really capture the normal modern LDS life.
In the end, this won't convert anyone, though it shouldn't keep those interested in converting from further investigation either. Rather, it is what it is--an outsider's view of a unique and challenging religion. You can hardly criticize the Mormon church for lacking empirical evidence to prove its truthfulness as no religion can back up their claims in this manner (as faith would simply not exist). Otherwise, we would all be following that religion. Rather, the Mormons are a faith that still believes in miracles and that God talks to man today as he did in the past. And I believe, even with its faults, this documentary does get that point across.
Movie Review: An incomplete story
Summary: 2 Stars
This was an interesting film of what non-mormons think the Mormons believe. A majority of the film was spent interviewing those who were either not members or those that had left the church. A disproportionate time was also spent on contraversial issues that were an unfortunate but a small part of Mormon history. Most of the actual beliefs and practices of the church are not included in this film.
Movie Review: Nuanced - Through Someone Else's Eyes Darkly
Summary: 1 Stars
I have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (nick-named the "Mormon Church") for some time now, and down through the years have carefully studied the history of the church. I once heard a Doctor of Divinity on the East coast suggest that if someone wants to know about the Catholic faith, they should ask a Catholic; if they want to know about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they should ask a Latter-day Saint, and so forth. Doesn't that make good sense?
Producer Helen Whitney appeared to give her production something of substance, which included trace amounts of responsible LDS commentary. Nevertheless, a fair-minded individual cannot ignore the power of nuance. To see the four-hour piece chiefly use dark, foreboding images and music was needless, and can only have the intent of tilting the mind of the viewer toward scandal. Try to imagine Ken Burns using the same gimmick. (Heck, after a time I was expecting Whitney to show us some gargoyles.)
No documentary can be comprehensive, but one can hope for Balance. This piece is not balanced; that's the problem. Muckraking is not history lesson. Just two examples: Whitney's disproportionately long, drawn-out focus on the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and her showing of two LDS missionaries on a sidewalk acting like obnoxious public irritants toward passerby's. (Why, I ask myself, have I never--in my decades of membership and close association in the Church--have I never seen nor heard of our missionaries acting like that? The reason: because they don't act like that. Were these two young men in Whitney's production "coached" or encouraged to act foolish? We don't know. What we do know is that this is a dishonest, inaccurate depiction of our young men and women who serve full-time missions.
Further, the omissions are striking. For example, there was no mention of the church's remarkable welfare program, or its marvelous Seminary (for high school kids) and Institute (for college age) programs, or its ongoing charity projects abroad, etc. No wonder--Whitney was concerned with other things. She knows that if it smells, it sells, so "scandal" got the nod. Her agenda becomes clear to any clear-minded viewer.
Apostates and self-styled Mormon liberals like to use the following quote by the late LDS apostle Hugh B. Brown: "Thoughts and expressions compete in the marketplace of thought, and in that competition truth emerges triumphant. Only error fears freedom of expression." I don't believe Elder Brown meant to imply that we have obligation to give equal time to blackwash. And personally, I am not inclined to invite a video into the walls of my home which features an aggregation of full-blown apostates blathering their anti-Mormon nonsense.