The Work and the Glory III: A House Divided

The Work and the Glory series by Gerald Lund was written as a historical fiction series. They are wonderful in the sense that they teach you a whole lot about the history of the church while making it entertaining to read by inserting a fictional family for you to follow. I have read the books and highly recommend them. The movies, however, got increasingly frustrating. The first movie I actually thought was very good. The second movie was a little disappointing. The third was plain out frustrating. Frustrating in the fact that it had so much potential and was almost epic, but missed the mark. The acting was great. And it was well casted. The whole Steed family was done almost exactly as I portrayed them in my mind. The problem in the movie was the script. Now I know that the books were really long and I'm not one to complain at every little detail left out, but the movie totally hashed it. It was poorly transferred from book to movie. If the movie were done exactly word for word to the book, it would've been at least a 5 or 6 hour movie, but in that situation I think its fair to at least make the movie 2 hours or 2 1/2 hours long. But no, this movie was only 90 minutes. And of that 90 minutes about half of it was a story line that was not in the book at all. That means they took a huge book and turned it into 45 or 50 minutes, thus leaving out 3/4 of the book. Thus the story line with the Steed family is only loosely followed and the historical aspect that makes the series so perfect is portrayed only half-heartedly at best. Extremely disappointing. But I'm giving this a 5 out of 10 because the acting is great. The actors do an amazing job with what they were given. And its still a touching message of family unity and brotherhood in the trying times of the early Saints. But overall, I would suggest you to read the books and skip the movies. I normally like a movie franchise based on a book series to finish the series and turn all the books into movies, but after this poorly done third movie, I am so glad that they stopped there and didn't continue to make all 9 books into movies.

The third and as of now last film of the early history of the Church Of Christ Of Latter Day Saints that has inspired a nine series is in keeping with the good standard set by the first two. I don't have any fault with the quality of the work done in these films inspired by LDS novelist Gerald Lund and his fictional characters the Steed Family in whom we see the rough early days the Mormon Church had to endure.

My problem is that by now polygamy should have been part of the film. Can't escape that was part of the LDS tenet of faith and the film makers should have been honest about it. It's the underlying reason why so many outsiders don't like these people. Of course that was no excuse for the persecution that they endured.

Eric Johnson is the oldest Steed brother who as we know from the previous films is estranged from his family. Younger brother Alexander Carroll stole his girlfriend and newly formed LDS church has gradually converted almost the whole family. This mind you after family patriarch Sam Hennings has hired a couple of brothers in his first year after emigrating from Vermont to Palmyra, New York hired a couple of itinerant farm hands named Hyrum and Joseph Smith, little realizing that Joseph Smith was a young man who has claimed to be visited by angels of God who told him to establish a new church. One way or another Smith's vision has affected all in the Steed Family for three books and films now. Smith is once again played by Jonathan Scarfe.

While on business in Savannah, Johnson acquires a new wife and comes back to Missouri. He doesn't tell her all about his past and his unyielding hatred of the LDS church which he sees as the root of all his personal problems. But when the Governor of Missouri essentially signs a shoot on sight order for Mormons who venture from what you could call an assigned ghetto, things come to a head for the Steeds and the Mormons.

Few enough people know about Lilburn Boggs who was Governor of Missouri who signed that order which was nothing less than genocide. A not very proud chapter in American history. After his term as governor was finished, Boggs was almost assassinated by persons unknown. Suspicion pointed at Porter Rockwell who was not the most even tempered of men. Rockwell is not in the picture yet as far as the LDS church is concerned. He was never convicted of the crime of putting four bullets into Boggs who miraculously lived. Apparently there was a list of people as large as the Salt Lake City phone book of today who would like to have done the job and not all of them Mormons.

The church itself is going through crisis and in this film that is most definitely related to what was going on at the time. Joseph Smith decides to charter a bank and it fails as many banks in the years of 1837-38 did in the USA. Andrew Jackson did not recharter the Bank of the United States and when it went out of business many wildcat banks sprung up overnight and just as many failed. Smith's bank was far from the only one. It was the Panic of 1837 and one of the major depressions in American history. The film also makes reference to the fact that banks could issue their own currency. Our American currency system did not get its start until the Civil War under Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase.

Sooner or later if additional films are made they'll have to come to grips with the polygamy issue. But for what it is and is trying to say, The Work And The Glory: A House Divided is a fine bit of cinema.

Given that I have not read any of the books upon which the Work and the Glory movies are based, I do not bring a pre-conceived measuring stick to the theatre. I have,however, seen all three movies and thought this one was well-directed. The main characters were flesh and blood and not one dimensional. I enjoyed being given a window into the lives of the characters. I thought the story moved along without condescending dialog and the audience was respected enough to be allowed to put two and two together numerous times. I agree with some others that Joseph's role was too slight in this one. However, the only caricatures I saw were in some of the mobbers. Some of the resolutions were a bit swift, but were better for me than if they had been drawn out and over-dramatized. Of particular quality in acting were Sam Hennings, Eric Johnson and Meredith Salenger.

"The Work & the Glory: A House Divided" is a wonderful conclusion to the three films based on Gerald Lund's inspiring set of books. While one could wish that the series would continue, it is nice to have the the three films made conclude at a strong point for the fictional Steed family depicted. The three parts make for a marvelous canvas on which to paint a portrait of a good family torn apart by the forth-coming of the restoration of Christ's Church. This film shows the necessity of forgiveness and its power in healing. As in the other films, the characterization of Joseph Smith and other historical figures is outstanding. Well worth seeing in a theatre--and certainly a great DVD to own! Too bad that EXCEL didn't provide a commentary track for this one.

Imagine if the "Lord of the Rings" series ended with the fellowship reaching the mines of Moria, Loegolas and Gimli decided to be friends . . . and that's it. That's essentially what we get in disastrously disappointing denouement to "The Work and the Glory III: A House Divided." The less interesting subplot of the fictional Steed family is wrapped up satisfactorily (in fact, for the first time in the trilogy I really cared about these characters. The Joshua/Nathan story, merely a tepid, uninspired LDS "Legends of the Fall" in part I, is now deeply moving). But the strength of "W & G" (best displayed in the second film, easily the best of the series, aside from it's slapdash ending) is it's portrayal of early LDS Church history. in particular, Jonathan Scarfe's portrayal of Joseph Smith is a performance for the ages. When these films center on Smith and Andrew Bown's Brigham Young, they're to notch. Sadly, despite some compelling scenes for Scarfe and Bowen early on, the film then tries to end too abruptly, leaving the best parts of the story untold. It's as if producer/used car salesman/anti-Christ Larry H. Miller suddenly ran out of money and decided to wrap things up in a half-heartedly fashion. He bolts from the ending so quickly you'd think he's discovered the film contained gay cowboys.

"A House Divided" demonstrates how this series flirted with great film-making, and sadly, fell just short. I still remain a tremendous fondness for these films and their moving portrayal of events which i hold sacred 9and yet are presented in a way as to be compelling to people of all religious creeds), and am glad they were made. Jonathan Scarfe is the screen's definitive Joseph Smith. It's just a shame that lack of money and other concerns led to the most anti-climactic ending since "X-Men: The Last Stand." See it, it's well worth it. But it ends at least another hour to tell the best parts of the story.

Two and a half stars out of four (could have made three and a half, as did "American Zion", without the dumbfounding fizzle-out at the end).