The Avenging Angel

I have yet to see Tom Berenger in a bad performance and this made for TV film was no exception. I have watched Tom Berenger's career over the past five (5) decades and regardless of whether he is playing an over the hill Major league baseball pitcher, a hard drinking lawyer, a detective and/or in this case he is playing a character named Miles Utley who is a lifetime dedicated Mormon hard fighting rebel soldier/bodyguard who will stop at nothing to protect the people he believes in and/or loves.

There is something very appealing about all the characters that the actor Tom Berenger portrays, and with his characterization of body guard/protector Miles Utley he once again makes a somewhat historical story line of the Mormon church leader/founder Brigham Young (played by Charlton Heston) into an adventure with a heroic twist. In contrast to a more recent (2020) western film titled News of the World starring the much more honored Tom Hanks, there was no comparison. I enjoyed Tom Berenger's performance and the much lower Hollywood budget story line of The Avenging Angel starring Tom Berenger over the dull and predictable (2020) News of the World.

I give this made for TV film a very respectable 7 out of 10 IMDb rating.

The movie is okay. It's not very accurate, but what do you expect from an old western staring Charlton Heston? Tom Berenger is good as a young member of the "Avenging Angels" learning about intrigue and scandal in his group. Kind of like Mission: Impossible, but in the West.

James Coburn is excellent as Orin Porter Rockwell, an interesting enough character, they could have made the whole movie about him.

Charlton Heston is Brigham Young....if you liked him as Moses, you'll like him here. If not, you won't.

The basic plot of the movie is based on inaccuracies and exaggerations. There may or may not have been a group of "Avenging Angels" in early Utah. Whether there was or not, the group was not an official Church unit and neither murder, nor blood atonement, has been enforced or used by the Church at large.

As long as you understand it's fictional, though, it's a decently interesting movie.

Along my lifetime I'd learned that Salt Lake City in Utah is essentially is the heart of Mormon community, this TV movie exposes the Mormons pioneers moving in that area in Utah due they were steadily persecuted in mid-west in America leading by the president of the church Brigham Young (Charlton Heston), for security reasons they team up a bunch of men called "Destroying Angels' lately changing as The Avenging Angels to protect themselves against the evil invaders made raiding at their lands, actually those Angels were a kind of lowest positions at Mormon society carefully select for this dirtiest job, Miles Utley (Tom Berenger) is one of them, he also a co-producer as well.

Everything changing when someone tried kill Brigham Young inside the own church on a Mormon's meeting concerning political matters, in fact others are get ready to kill the older leader as well, for unknown purposes, so Miles a devoted follower of Brigham whereby used to call him by father starting making a research aiming for find out the truth, due something does not fit properly, slowing he got the whole picture regarding this abrupt assignment to annihilate an upright and legendary Mormon's leadership.

Also it brings to the light that infamous and controversial polygamy fully accepted in the such religious community, it sounds really weird for us lesser mortals in a worldwide religion that just accepts a monogamy on sacred matrimony, as the Mormons used to regarding us as true sinners, such odd behavior on multiple sexual relationship openly consent in this self-called mutual agreement in a society that refuses all Americans dealing them as unholy and decaying society, whereof they avoid us by any means, keeping at their own closed community, this unusual western has many fine actors as James Coburn, Kevin Tighe, Jefrey Jones and the eye-candy Fay Masterson among others.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 1996 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-Youtube / Rating: 7.

First of all, it's been a while since I saw this movie. So, I may be wrong about this, but one of the other reviewers mentions the "trek of the Mormons to Utah in the 1870's...." By the 1870's the Transcontinental Railroad had been completed. Therefore, during this period of time the trek to Utah consisted of hopping on the next train and riding it to the territory. The trek portrayed in the movie actually took place around 30 years earlier.

My next criticism is that the "Avenging Angel" as portrayed in this movie never existed. They are loosely based on a group of renigade Mormons that existed for a short time while the Mormons were living Northern Missouri in the late 1830's. This group was more commonly known as the Danites. The Danites did commit crimes against both Mormons and Non-mormons of the area. However, the Church never sanctioned their activities. As a matter of fact, the first that the then Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, had heard of the activities of the Danites was when the organization's leader and founder, Sampson Avard, gave perjurious testimony accusing Smith of having been complicit in their crimes. Avard gave this testimony in order to save his own neck. Once their activities became known, the Danites were disbanded and were never reconstituted.

Another inaccuracy is that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints never sanction murder. There were several times that various groups used violence against members of the church and the Church sanctioned violence used by the members to defend them selves, but only in their defense, only when the Church?s enemies we in the act of physically threatening the saints.

Finally, their is no evidence the Orin Porter Rockwell (Coburn's character) was ever a member of the Danites. He was a bodyguard to both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young (Heston's character). He was a gun fighter reputed to have killed more men than Wyett Earp, Doc Holladay, Batt Masterson, and Tom Horn combined. He was fiercely loyal to the Church and its leaders. However, he was never party to cold-blooded murder.

In short, I think that this movie would have been better if they had just used wholly fictitious characters and settings. The mixture of real people with an otherwise whole fictitious story only serves to perpetuate false ideas about the society that existed in 19th-century Utah.

Tom Berenger who's a gun totin' sharp shootin' Mormon security man foils an attempted assassination of Brigham Young and is hardly thanked for his efforts. He investigates a little further and finds there's quite a complicated conspiracy at work.

It's good to remember that this film is based on a novel, just as the DaVinci Code is. It's not anything remotely resembling real history of the Church of Latter Day Saints.

For one thing as another reviewer pointed out the Transcontinental Railroad had been completed by 1872. Not only completed, but Brigham Young made money off it in every possible way.

Brigham Young was a complex and charismatic leader who during the Civil War was practically treated like he was a ruling foreign power by both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. His task as best he saw it was to keep the spirit of the LDS church alive and not let it get too touched by outside influences. Of course no one plays a complex and charismatic religious figure like Charlton Heston. His Brigham Young is like his Moses if Moses had actually gone into Canaan and had the responsibility of building a nation as Joshua did.

By the way the Mormons here show enough outside influence. They drink, they smoke, they indulge in extra-marital affairs just like a whole lot of gentiles do. Our protagonist Berenger is no exception.

In the film 20th Century Fox did, Brigham Young with Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, and Dean Jagger we saw a bit of the colorful Mormon Scout Porter Rockwell as played by John Carradine. Here the part is played by James Coburn who's older and wiser. Rockwell's place is still hotly debated, he was devoted to Brigham Young for certain and his devotion led to some blood stained hands.

I'm not sure how much controversy this made for TV western has caused among the LDS community. Apparently they were a lot smarter in handling this than other religions were with The DaVinci Code. If you remember this is a novel and not a factual retelling of events, you will get some insights into the LDS community.