The Book of Mormon Movie, Volume 1: The Journey

I endured the Book of Mormon film at the Englewood last night. To paraphrase Mark Twain's assessment of the book as "choloroform in print," I'd rate this work as chloroform on celluloid.

Despite an opening title disclaimer from the LDS church, there were plenty of telltale embellishments of a Mormon production -- pretty, clean, crisp costumes, straight white teeth, Eurocentric looking actors, God as booming bass male voice, etc. I wasn't familiar with any of the actors, but movie lead Nephi was portrayed by a buff looking Greg Brady guy, an amalgam of Barry Williams and Lou Ferrigno. Laman was delightfully sinister. Lemuel had the voice of Chris Elliott which distracted me. Lehi was disgraceful and looked to be an understudy from the Olive Branch players. I was secretly relieved when the old patriarch died, but his deathbed scene was of predictable unpleasant duration.

Considerable Jerusalem intrigue as prelude to the Nephites blowing town, much not depicted in the opening of First Nephi, but I suppose it helped set the scene. Over an hour into the film and we'd yet to depart the book of First Nephi so I was getting pretty apprehensive about the epic running length. But this film, the first in a projected series, only deals with the first two books in the Book of Mormon.

Suitable for the kinderlach. Violent apex is some blood spattering on Nephi. Sexual situations limited to some provocative dancing by the Nephite women. Some pretty fetching halter tops on the sea voyage over.

The darkness of the bad brothers at this film's conclusion portrayed more tastefully than what I'd feared might be coming. They hadn't morphed into African-Americans, but rather had just taken on a browner hue, replete with savage makeup and behavior wailing around the campfire. A refreshing Joseph Smith portrayal to bookend the film, not the beautiful blonde boy we're often treated to in LDS depictions, but a more homely and believable farm boy. Angel Moroni in sore need of recasting. I know who the South Park producers used as their template now when they depicted this angel as a white Native-American.

I attended at the recommendation of an aged church Seventy who beamed about Hollywood production values. I questioned this initially upon watching the film, but then reminded myself that Saturday morning live-action series of my youth like Shazam, Mighty Isis, and the Banana Splits feature Danger Island were likely conceived in Hollywood. So sure, Hollywood production values. Actually there was one unique shot of Laman escaping the clutches of Laban in a long, uninterrupted run down stairs. Flying too fast for a Steadicam. So speedy it had to be mounted on a vehicle of some sort, but quite smooth.

Likely the best Book of Mormon film out there, but the competition's not too stiff. I wish someone with Mel Gibson money, although not his zest for sadism, would turn their film-making efforts to Joseph Smith's literary masterpiece. It might enhance understanding between mainstream Christians and the latter-day Saint tradition churches that sprung up in the 19th century. This film struck me as too boring an initiation ritual into the Book of Mormon, so leave your Goyim buddies at home.

Dirk Ellingson Independence, MO

I really wanted to like this movie; I love The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. But the movie was like watching a low-budget play. The musical score, which I heard prior to seeing the movie, seemed moving, dramatic and even beautiful. But the movie missed the mark.

ON THE OTHER HAND: those interested in celebrating (or even investigating) Mormonism would be FAR BETTER SERVED watching "The Work and the Glory" - which, while not as doctrinally "heavy" as the Book of Mormon Movie intended to be (and failed), is at least beautifully filmed, well-acted and is simply not painful to watch.

BTW I enjoy the Genesis Project effort to put OT & NT stories on film, sticking to the text. I'm not just against putting scriptural stories on film per se. But this "project" needs more work, and especially more thought.

Please, please, please, please, PLEEAAASE DO NOT MAKE ANY MORE OF THESE MOVIES!!!!

Your hearts are in the right place, I don't doubt that at all, but you are in way over your head with this!

If I had never read the Book of Mormon before, after watching this movie, I wouldn't want to!

You're costumes looked like they were borrowed from the Manti Pageant. The make-up looked ridiculous. The acting was amateurish, not to mention the directing. And the writing just plain SUCKED! And what the hell was up with that wedding dance scene?

You are doing a major disservice to the Book of Mormon and the LDS faith by making these movies.

Come on, to take on something as epic as the Book of Mormon on such a miniscule budget is at best, laughable, at worst sacrilegious. Even John Huston knew to only take on the first part of Genesis when he made "The Bible."

Have you seen the movie "And God Spoke... The Making of."???

Your movie is essentially that. A biblical epic made on a B-movie budget and you guys are taking yourselves waaaaay too seriously!

I only hope you haven't done any permanent damage to Jacque Gray's career.

-Nate

OK, first off I'd like to say that this movie and these forums are obviously always going to warrant Mormon bashing. "You don't hold the truth", "Yes we do", "No you don't", "Yes we do", and so on. To all you who are using this forum as a chance to express how wrong Mormon's are, please do it somewhere else, this is for movie reviews. Oh, and secondly, before you ever say if Mormon's are wrong, please go read the Book of Mormon FIRST and pray about it and THEN come say what you have to say. No one can tell you what's right, you have to find it out for yourself by personal witness.

OK, my intent was SO not to go ahead and attempt to respond to the "Mormon bashing". Holding that aside, and moving onto the movie....

It seems to me that as far as the movie goes there are basically two types of people. There are those who watch the movie looking for the spiritual message involved. To those people, I applaud you. You are the type who can go to church and most likely have your attitude changed that you may be able to leave church uplifted no matter who the speaker is. You do not judge that the speaker is a bad speaker, but rather you pay attention to what they are trying to say, and listen with the spirit on the same subject.

The second people are those who are bothered by the acting, and find it hard to get into the realism that this movie is trying to present and one of the purposes it is said to attempt. To these people, I am one of you, and wish I was the first.

I tried watching the first part of the movie with the attitude of the first type of people who watch this movie. Tried to look at the spiritual message, and the impact of such. I try to do that every time I watch a church movie (some of those older ones sure do have some pretty bad acting).

But I've been in drama, theater, etc, and I find myself wondering, "Couldn't this guy have done better??" I mean seriously, I've been in 8th grade musicals and plays where the acting was better. And it's not so much the actors fault, it's the director's. He very easily have found talented actors who had only ever been in plays to do many of these parts who we look up to.

As one said, Lehi seems to be made out to be a "pansy". I always read the Book of Mormon with Lehi being a prophet like what we have today, but who is concerned for his family's welfare. He is a father and a prophet, not a whiner.

I'm not going to pick apart each actor, and I have to admit I have not yet watched the whole movie either. I've been trying to get back in the spiritual mode and watch it again to see if I can get something more out of it.

I truly hope that if these guys are going to produce more volumes though, that they try to do better directing or script writing. Legacy was a church produced movie, and it had GREAT acting I thought, as WELL as a good spiritual feeling. Same with some of the other movies that have been done by the church.

I'll give this one another shot perhaps on a Sunday when I'm feeling a bit more uplifted and in tune. I was really hoping this could have been what I would have imagined it to have been. I sure do hope Work and the Glory doesn't get botched.

Again, to those who have thought this movie was great I applaud you. I'm trying to get to that point.

I saw the previews for this movie, and even though it looked really bad, I thought I'd go check it out anyway. I don't usually listen to critics when seeing a movie, instead choosing to decide for myself.

I'm not a mormon, although I have read the book of mormon several times prior to seeing the movie, so I understood the storyline. However, my worst fears were realized when I actually saw this film. The acting was flat, and unintentionally funny at times. I really had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing once or twice. It felt like the filmmaker was trying to go for a massive cinema experience, but it just didn't work. It didn't flow like I had hoped. Overall, it just felt like a B-movie, and I left the theater wishing I could've gone back in time so that I wouldn't have to see it.

I suppose that people interested in seeing this film will do so, one way or the other, but I'd suggest watching something else instead. Besides, it will inevitably be shown on TV in Salt Lake eventually, and at least you won't have to pay to see it then.