Six Days in August

Beautiful cinematography and music pulled the viewer into this historical story of the early LDS church. It told the story of a defining moment in time as the church grappled with Joseph Smith's successor. We learned several things that we had not known before. The casting was excellent. The music was powerful in its subtle use of hymns recognizable to church members. The use of 'Praise to the Man' at the end underscored the film's theme of Joseph Smith as the Prophet. The actual run time of the film was longer than we thought as we never looked at our watches during it.

We enjoyed the movie and definitely would recommend it.

In the film the martyrdom scene isn't too specific but because this film strives for historically accuracy I will critic it for it more harshly. They showed Joseph bolting out of the window in Carthage Jail and breaking the window. Eye witness testimony stated he crawled out of that small window with one leg, one arm, and his head out of the window before a great force flinging him out of the window as like a leap or push. Newspapers from that time also describe that the window section that lifts up was still present and was not knocked out by Joseph going out of the window. They don't address enough the placement of Hyrum in the room as he died with his back turned to the door facing the window as his head was 1 foot away from the north east corner of the room and blood splatter on his clothing suggest he died on his stomach. They don't address Willard Richards being behind Joseph when at the window and the mob not shooting Richards while he was in plain line of sight.

I was very disappointed that this film didn't portray the historical facts accurately. I did enjoy the camera work and scenery, but the acting, screenwriting and story was pure fiction. There are several other films that depict this times period that are much more historically accurate. It tends to portray polygamy as something that was enthusiastically embraced by women. Nothing could be further from the historical truth. Many women left the church due to polygamy and many others did not embrace the doctrine. Do yourself a favor and read the book Rough Stone Rolling that covers this time period in a much more accurate and meaningful way.

I was familiar with the history and came into the movie with a pro bias. The movie however was a disappointment. It's as if the director and writers couldn't decide which story to tell so they told too many. Within five minutes they covered twenty years of highlights from Brigham's life. This made for disjointed story telling. The maudlin acting particularly of the women who played Maryann and Emma diminished the strength of the women and the complexities of the times they lived in. While Emma acknowledged why there would be tensions in Missouri, the mob and Plant were depicted overly villainous.

This is a wonderful movie to show what Brigham Young was really like, according to so many different people's journal entries from back in the 1800s. This movie even touches on the difficulty that people have accepting polygamy, and gave us a peek into many other lives we here less about like Heber c Kimball, George A. Smith, and wives like Violate Kimball and Mary Ann Young.

It does flip or forward and backward in time a little. As long as you pay attention to the dates printed on the screen it should not be hard to follow.

As for the other review that said polygamy was "enthusiasticly accepted by the women", they must have not seen the movie, or at least not the scene where Emma was crying saying that she is being tested beyond what she can handle, and Joseph said he would not choose this.