Brigham

The only thing historical about this film is that there was once a man named Brigham that had many wives and went to Utah. Other then that, you have to look somewhere else to find out about the Mormons. Not one scene through this film is historically accurate. The makers take so much license in this film that you have to be very ignorant to believe it. My friends and I watched it once as a joke. Perhaps it works better if considered a parody. As for the question of polygamy, it is very clear from the beginning that the filmmakers have no idea how it was practiced among the Mormons. In fact, it appears that someone just sat down with a cold beer and dreamt up what it may have been like.

My dad was the third bigot in the credits. This laughable rendition of Mormon history was a patchwork lunacy staffed by local theater people and a shoddy productions company. At the time, the actors thought they were making an epic, they even were told the man who produced EL Cid was the brains behind the operation. The casting is way off. I mean, Richard Moll plays the founder of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith. This was well before his fame in Night Court, as the tall bumbling court security guard, and the casting choice is hilarious. It would be like Wilt Chamberlain playing Martin Luther King. Any way, the joke in our family has always been to call our father the third bigot. Good Stuff for a campy night at the cinema

While vaguely historical,i.e., the Mormons were persecuted and Brigham Young did lead them to Utah; this film is very inaccurate in portraying that history. The production quality is poor, splicing in badly color-tinted black and white stock footage and clips from the 1940 Brigham Young to show the westward trek and cricket plague. The acting of the minor characters and bit players runs from adequate to exceptional, but to say that the acting of the leads is pitiful is more than kind.

Seeing some of the other criticisms of Brigham and from members of the Mormon Church I'm not in a position to talk about accuracy. I've seen and reviewed several LDS films about the early church days and things like American Zion, The Work And The Glory and A House Divided which were also covering the same period of history as Brigham were better made and better production values. I don't see much different however in the subject matter and how it was treated.

I did see however a serious and sincere work that certainly could have turned out better say had it been shot at 20th Century Fox like their Brigham Young film. I did recognize some of the footage not too well integrated or colorized as part of the film.

The only actor that most outside the LDS church would know is Richard Moll who played the brain dead court officer in Night Court. He certainly had the height to play Joseph Smith who was reputed to be a tall man. So was Vincent Price who brought a certain saintly other worldliness to the role for 20th Century Fox. I'm sure Price also had better direction than Moll got here.

Joseph Grandmaison played Brigham Young as the kind of rugged guy I always conceived of him. Grandmaison seems to have limited his career to LDS features.

One has to remember that this is not a Hollywood production so a little charity is in order. Like Savage Journey the film edited from this for television it remains a kind of Mormon primer for young LDS members who can get more deeply involved in their church history with a little research and viewing those more recent films I've mentioned.

If Mormons are anything else they are good archivists. As I stated in my reviews of those other films the church obviously has a lot of archival material of people who lived through the times portrayed. This film has a good eye for the Jacksonian era it portrays.

More than LDS audiences might benefit from watching Brigham.

You could be like those who persecuted the Mormoms and just say it's a bunch of baloney or watch with an open mind and you will laugh and cry. I loved it. Why would someone want to be in a movie they call a "turkey" anyway? They saw the movie every day being shot. I thought the actors did a great job. It is fun and informative . It's so easy to be negative and not give something a fair shot, even pure Hollywood movies. Just because it didn't earn any Oscars doesn't mean you are fair for taking pot shots at it. I loved it and my family learned much and enjoyed it. I don't always only watch Oscar movies. Many others are very worthwhile like this one.