This post is going to be somewhat peculiar in comparison to our previous ones. We're pretty sure that most of you know (since we assume that our readership is mostly our friends) that we were raised Mormon. So we grew up seeing quite a bit of movies produced by the church. Here's the thing: we hated them, especially when we were full-on believers (now we're just indifferent). This isn't about creating controversy between our position now and what the religion teaches though. We understand that religion is a very sensitive topic for a lot of people, and we will try our best to be discreet. We acknowledge that we're not impartial in the matter, observing from afar. This is also our history and our identity that we're exploring. So this is a departure from our normal format; while we will be discussing one movie in particular, we will be looking at it in the context of all LDS (Latter-Day-Saint) movies (especially those of the historical nature).
The movie in spotlight is called Legacy. The film revolves around Eliza whose family was among the first converts to the Mormon church. The main characters are fictional, but the story is based on the church's history. The family has to flee from one place to another because Mormons are persecuted and unwanted. Their mother dies and the father is sent to preach "the word of God" to England. While there, he converts an eligible British bachelor, David (whose English accent is as convincing as Kevin Costner's a la Robin Hood). David joins Eliza's father back to America to congregate with the rest of the church (this is pretty much what all Mormon converts did back then - travelled to America to be with the main body of the church so they could build Zion, or whatever). Eliza is engaged to bald and bespectacled Jacob, so obviously she's with the wrong guy. After some manouvering Eliza and David end up getting married. Then the church's founder, Joseph Smith, is murdered and few years later they're forced to leave their homes again. David volunteers to join an army battalion, leaving Eliza and their family to travel from Nebraska to Utah, which is an arduous journey. These people are called pioneers in Mormon circles. It ends happily ever after with David returning to Eliza and their family unscathed.
The reason we took this movie is because we know it pretty well, it was one of the few "movies" Mormon missionaries were allowed to watch in a missionary training center (if you're wondering what the hell that is, there's always Google - this isn't about us explaining Mormon religion). We're going to discuss three things that we find problematic with Legacy and/or this kind of religious media in general. The first of these issues is the double standard in the love-triangle. As is common in religiosity, loyalty in romantic relationships is emphasized with vigour in Mormonism. The doctrine of the church teaches that when you make a promise, that promise is binding (and marriage is the highest status within Mormonism). So here we have this church funded film that contradicts its own teachings. And not even for good reasons, eg. a personality mismatch, consenting to marry Jacob out of gratitude or duty etc. No, it's because David is constantly harassing her even though she asks him not to. So marry your stalkers, people! Because that is the conclusion to which you will arrive when you analyse the romantic aspect of the movie. In addition, there is some really disturbing, deep-rooted and inherent sexism that is dressed up to look like romance.
Secondly, the historical whitewashing is an issue for us. In Legacy, it only glorifies and exaggerates, unlike, say, Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration where there are serious omissions and downright falsehoods (that's not to say that Mormons didn't face some serious persecution and violence). Presenting a false narrative wouldn't be so problematic to us if these films weren't used as education about the church's history to children, teens and prospective members. Furthermore, if these movies were any good, we would care much less. There are many movies that are glaringly inaccurate history-wise that we love (eg. Gone with the Wind, Last of the Mohicans, The Mission). But they're good movies, and they care about character development. These films are just plain bad. They're naive, clumsy and without proper storytelling. First of all, Mormon history has a plethora of fascinating human beings and stories of which we would love to see material that was faithful to that history. That unwillingness to present accurate history leads to our final point.
Lastly, these movies are religious propaganda. We understand that, because obviously when the church funds these things they have a conflict of interest. Of course you don't want to promote the fact that Joseph Smith practised polygamy with teenagers or that the church was racist. Other religions, and institutions and even countries partake in this practice, it's not uncommon and we're not making the Mormon church into a scapegoat. Propaganda is quite ubiquitous. The reason we're writing about Mormonism is because we were immersed in the religion. So imagine having been taught this narrative as the unequivocal truth and that these historical figures were next to only Jesus and then finding out that's not the case. Not even close. That's some serious cause for disillusionment and identity crises. Although we're agnostic, we don't take issue with movies that are even heavily religiously themed; The Ten Commandments is still one of our favourite films. However, when you camouflage a commercial for a specific religion as a movie, we do take an issue with that. What we would really love to see, is a film about Mormonism and its history by someone who has no stake in the religion, one way or the other. Ultimately these events deserve to be presented as human stories, because that's what they are. These people should be depicted as complex human beings, and that is our biggest beef with LDS church funded films and also, we think, their greatest failing.
PS. if you want to watch a historical pro-Mormon movie that isn't blatantly trying to convert you or whitewash the history, you could do worse than watch 17 Miracles. It wasn't directly church funded or distributed though. Mind you, don't expect to witness cinematic history.
The reason we took this movie is because we know it pretty well, it was one of the few "movies" Mormon missionaries were allowed to watch in a missionary training center (if you're wondering what the hell that is, there's always Google - this isn't about us explaining Mormon religion). We're going to discuss three things that we find problematic with Legacy and/or this kind of religious media in general. The first of these issues is the double standard in the love-triangle. As is common in religiosity, loyalty in romantic relationships is emphasized with vigour in Mormonism. The doctrine of the church teaches that when you make a promise, that promise is binding (and marriage is the highest status within Mormonism). So here we have this church funded film that contradicts its own teachings. And not even for good reasons, eg. a personality mismatch, consenting to marry Jacob out of gratitude or duty etc. No, it's because David is constantly harassing her even though she asks him not to. So marry your stalkers, people! Because that is the conclusion to which you will arrive when you analyse the romantic aspect of the movie. In addition, there is some really disturbing, deep-rooted and inherent sexism that is dressed up to look like romance.
Secondly, the historical whitewashing is an issue for us. In Legacy, it only glorifies and exaggerates, unlike, say, Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration where there are serious omissions and downright falsehoods (that's not to say that Mormons didn't face some serious persecution and violence). Presenting a false narrative wouldn't be so problematic to us if these films weren't used as education about the church's history to children, teens and prospective members. Furthermore, if these movies were any good, we would care much less. There are many movies that are glaringly inaccurate history-wise that we love (eg. Gone with the Wind, Last of the Mohicans, The Mission). But they're good movies, and they care about character development. These films are just plain bad. They're naive, clumsy and without proper storytelling. First of all, Mormon history has a plethora of fascinating human beings and stories of which we would love to see material that was faithful to that history. That unwillingness to present accurate history leads to our final point.
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| This is to illustrate the early Mormon migration, for those who are confused |
Lastly, these movies are religious propaganda. We understand that, because obviously when the church funds these things they have a conflict of interest. Of course you don't want to promote the fact that Joseph Smith practised polygamy with teenagers or that the church was racist. Other religions, and institutions and even countries partake in this practice, it's not uncommon and we're not making the Mormon church into a scapegoat. Propaganda is quite ubiquitous. The reason we're writing about Mormonism is because we were immersed in the religion. So imagine having been taught this narrative as the unequivocal truth and that these historical figures were next to only Jesus and then finding out that's not the case. Not even close. That's some serious cause for disillusionment and identity crises. Although we're agnostic, we don't take issue with movies that are even heavily religiously themed; The Ten Commandments is still one of our favourite films. However, when you camouflage a commercial for a specific religion as a movie, we do take an issue with that. What we would really love to see, is a film about Mormonism and its history by someone who has no stake in the religion, one way or the other. Ultimately these events deserve to be presented as human stories, because that's what they are. These people should be depicted as complex human beings, and that is our biggest beef with LDS church funded films and also, we think, their greatest failing.
PS. if you want to watch a historical pro-Mormon movie that isn't blatantly trying to convert you or whitewash the history, you could do worse than watch 17 Miracles. It wasn't directly church funded or distributed though. Mind you, don't expect to witness cinematic history.
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