Witnesses

I wish I could give Witnesses a higher rating. After all, it means well, and the acting is good. However, as a film, it's a little messy. First of all, it's a frame story, so there's that element, and then they have three different accounts they're trying to tell at the same time. Plus, in addition to all that, they also jump around in time within those accounts. It gets confusing. And I feel like they tried to cram too much into the movie. I'm fairly familiar with the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but I imagine Witnesses would be quite confusing for someone who isn't.

The church use to excommunicate people for teaching that Joseph Smith translated from a hat. Most of this is white washed history.

It was good to see that the movie did not just gloss over the negative events of that day. And did not hide the fact that the witnesses all had issues with Joseph Smith and left the church.

The film focuses on real people as they live through extra-ordinary events, The history aspect is more a backdrop in the lives and emotions of the characters. Too often, Church History genre of films are overshadowed by speculation, conspiracy, or are too focused on depicting key points in their portrayal of historical figures, actions, events and their context. Refreshingly, this film did not go there, leaving the audience to be entertained rather than schooled. This movie is about people, not a Prophet, nor a Church, nor a book (though these 3 things play a crucial role and are portrayed with painstaking historical accuracy in my opinion.) But as such, the film may leave unfamiliar movie-goers with lots of questions about the Prophet, the Church, and the Book of Mormon. For example, my wife asked whether the early Church didn't baptize woman.

Witnesses is a well done film based on a true story. It is not a documentary but a well scripted portrayal of the Witnesses of the Book of Mormon. The director captures the beauty and suffering of the day and the music is beautiful. It is entertaining and inspirational and captures the most important message that no matter what the witnesses faced, they stayed true to their testimony of what they saw and witnessed.

The acting was well done and whether or not you are a Christian or a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, this film is uplifting showing the strength of the human spirit. I highly recommend.