Witnesses

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.

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.

Tons of antagonists of the church are rating this movie hoping it will make them feel better about their lives. This movie is amazing! I saw it in theaters and bought the movie as soon as I could. It's a beautiful depiction of the events with the 3 witnesses of the Book of Mormon translation. I would highly recommend this movie to everyone!

"Historically accurate!" "Honest!" "Amazing film!"

These are how positive reviews are framing this story of a two-bit conman and his hapless marks.

If you're unsure if this movie is worth your time - ask yourself... do you trust positive reviews from people who believe a conman's story about speaking to god via a stone he was hiding away inside of a hat that only he was allowed to look at, along with golden tablets he received (but didn't let anyone else see and mysteriously disappeared never to be found) and translated as the word of god himself?

If you trust the positive reviews coming from people who believe this obvious conman spoke the truth - then this movie is for you.

If, however, you are capable of thinking about something without drooling all over yourself then you probably won't enjoy this movie.

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.