Six Days in August

It tells the story of the martyrdom of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young's succession to the leadership. The story is very complicated with a lot of characters and the writer/director, Mark Goodman, does a fantastic job of making the story engaging and easy to follow. It was a well-written, well-acted film with beautiful cinematography and a great soundtrack. You may never have heard of any of these actors. But they were all great and I hope to see them in other films for years to come. It is worth staying for the closing credits to hear the song O Give Me Back My Prophet Dear, with lyrics by John Taylor, music by Rob Gardner, and sung by Casey Elliott. It is a great film that tells an important story in Church history.

Looking back nearly two centuries, this fascinating view is both touching and enlightening of the interplay between Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and other apostles and early restored gospel leaders. It repeatedly portrays intense human reactions as these people led the church in hostile circumstances to follow God's commandments. After years of oppression, it is striking to see intense personal dramas as Joseph Smith was martyred, with a focus on what then to do. We see how there was so much needed and how the early church responded. The superb acting, writing, direction, cinematography, and music absolutely brought it home.

The fact that there is no middle ground here should indicate that your bias going into the theater will determine whether you like it or not. The film is beautiful, well acted and uses actual dialogue right from many journals. Many of the 1star reviews somehow claim they know more than anyone else about history. Some even write like they actually lived through events. The truth is that many know more about Joseph's and Brigham's sex life than they know about their own parents sex life. Go figure.

The movie will help many to appreciate those who came before. The sacrifices made by the early saints are incomprehensible. If you are a striving faithful saint the movie will be excellent. If however, you have an ax to grind you should stay away and as for those Brigham haters- thinking you have any credentials to Judge any of the early saints will only reveal the fool you are when it's time for your own judgement.

Went with my wife and two grandsons, we all liked the movie very much. Covered a difficult time for members of the church with the loss of the prophet Joseph. Told with skill and had humor sadness and a great range of emotions. My grandsons talked about the film all the way home, and pointed out the parts they especially enjoyed. I learned about a couple of things I hadn't known that happened to Brigham. I didn't know he had spoken in tongues, so that was enlightening. The music fit the movie vey well the photography was very well done and the acting was generally very good. Can't wait to see what is next from this group of film makers.

The Good -- for all of its cult potential, and my goodness this film is filled with, the song playing through the end credits was haunting and beautiful.

The Bad -- this movie makes Witnesses look like Citizen Kane, despite having a 2 million dollar budget. It just goes to show that money can't salvage a dookie script.

The Ugly -- if you were on a small passenger plane flying over Delta, UT, Six Days might not be preferable to simply staring into your airsickness bag.

I know what you're thinking... 'Just tell us whether you liked it.' Consider this, the film is pure fiction. Almost everything on the screen never happened. Women didn't love the idea of polygamy, there was not transfiguration of Brigham Young and the truth is that Joseph Smith ordered the destruction of the printing press because it was going to publish the truth about Joseph Smith and his many wives.

There is absolutely no reason to see this movie unless you are a glutton for punishment or if you enjoy being gaslit for 2 hours.