By now I'm guessing everyone who is going to watch those 'Prophet of the Restoration' YouTube clips has watched it, and those that aren't, aren't.
So, for your reading pleasure, here are the notes I made a mere hour after watching the movie in the theater, as it were. I could change them to make them better, but instead I present them here in their original state:
Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration (60 min.)
-General overview of the movie available on Wikipedia. Overall impression: surprisingly good!
-The scenes of the father & daughter from England were not great - combination of bad writing & bad acting there.
-The flashback scenes were better and were very effective. Costumes, settings, production values, music, etc. all good.
-I thought the movie would be more about the church & its beliefs, but it was really the more personal story of Joseph Smith.
-That being said, I have a number of critical things to say about the film. Some are more relevant than others.
-The first is about accents. If Joseph Smith was born in the early 1800s and grew up in the NE, he must have had a hell of an accent on him. But everything in the film was done with a very modern general American accent. Everything except the English girl & her father, and the young Scottish couple. Those four people sounded like Americans trying (and not succeeding) in doing English and Scottish accents. Well, maybe the Scottish wife was OK. The other three were crap!
-The second is about general propriety - there were a number of scenes with Joseph Smith & Emma Hale during their courtship, with nary a chaperone to be found. In the 1830s? Player please.
-Third: when Joseph was shown translating the golden tablets, he wasn't using the seer stones. He was just reading off the plates, albeit slowly.
(Incidentally - learned new thing - the first two thirds of the plates were "bound" so Joseph couldn't translate them. The other third was what became the Book of Mormon.)
-Fourth: When Joseph & disciples were in Jail in Missouri, there were really bad taunts thrown at him. "Hey, Joseph, where's your faith?! Looks like God forgot you!" Failure of writing there.
-Fifth: The film really glosses over a number of things that later became controversial. Not that I particularly blame the filmmakers for doing so. The movie is designed to present the church's history in the best light possible. But, notably, it made no mention of polygamy or of Joseph taking multiple wives, or of how mightily this pissed Emma off. In this version, Joseph was the dedicated husband throughout. Additionally, while it showed Moroni coming to Joseph to tell him about the plates, it never mentioned the central premise of the BOM - that Israelite tribes came to the Americas and formed the basis of modern American Indians (after God turned their skin red, of course). It shows Mormon missionaries going out to preach the good word to all the world. Or, as far as I could tell from the film, all the White world. I'm guessing it was quite some time later before they began trying to convert non-Whites.
-Sixth: Deserving of a separate point along with being a "glossing over" issue, it showed Joseph being Friend to the Negro. Very welcoming to the blacks, and helping out. Never mind that blacks weren't accepted into the priesthood until 150+ years later.
-Seventh: Showed Joseph curing people of malaria (even if they'd already died) in Nauvoo by laying on hands. Surely that wasn't invented solely for the film - must be a tenet.
-Eighth: Ending music was bagpiped 'Scotland the Brave' - not that I particularly mind, but that can't translate well in the Spanish-language version. And then they took the tune and made a hymn out of it… oh, my poor Scottish folk song.
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Overall verdict: a very mass-market, cleaned-up version of the Joseph Smith story. I'm currently reading 'No Man Knows My History', a not-too-friendly biography of Smith, so that's filling in a lot of interesting gaps that the film made. Good production values, OK script. I've seen many worse films.
Thanks for visiting Mormania!
So, for your reading pleasure, here are the notes I made a mere hour after watching the movie in the theater, as it were. I could change them to make them better, but instead I present them here in their original state:
Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration (60 min.)
-General overview of the movie available on Wikipedia. Overall impression: surprisingly good!
-The scenes of the father & daughter from England were not great - combination of bad writing & bad acting there.
-The flashback scenes were better and were very effective. Costumes, settings, production values, music, etc. all good.
-I thought the movie would be more about the church & its beliefs, but it was really the more personal story of Joseph Smith.
-That being said, I have a number of critical things to say about the film. Some are more relevant than others.
-The first is about accents. If Joseph Smith was born in the early 1800s and grew up in the NE, he must have had a hell of an accent on him. But everything in the film was done with a very modern general American accent. Everything except the English girl & her father, and the young Scottish couple. Those four people sounded like Americans trying (and not succeeding) in doing English and Scottish accents. Well, maybe the Scottish wife was OK. The other three were crap!
-The second is about general propriety - there were a number of scenes with Joseph Smith & Emma Hale during their courtship, with nary a chaperone to be found. In the 1830s? Player please.
-Third: when Joseph was shown translating the golden tablets, he wasn't using the seer stones. He was just reading off the plates, albeit slowly.
(Incidentally - learned new thing - the first two thirds of the plates were "bound" so Joseph couldn't translate them. The other third was what became the Book of Mormon.)
-Fourth: When Joseph & disciples were in Jail in Missouri, there were really bad taunts thrown at him. "Hey, Joseph, where's your faith?! Looks like God forgot you!" Failure of writing there.
-Fifth: The film really glosses over a number of things that later became controversial. Not that I particularly blame the filmmakers for doing so. The movie is designed to present the church's history in the best light possible. But, notably, it made no mention of polygamy or of Joseph taking multiple wives, or of how mightily this pissed Emma off. In this version, Joseph was the dedicated husband throughout. Additionally, while it showed Moroni coming to Joseph to tell him about the plates, it never mentioned the central premise of the BOM - that Israelite tribes came to the Americas and formed the basis of modern American Indians (after God turned their skin red, of course). It shows Mormon missionaries going out to preach the good word to all the world. Or, as far as I could tell from the film, all the White world. I'm guessing it was quite some time later before they began trying to convert non-Whites.
-Sixth: Deserving of a separate point along with being a "glossing over" issue, it showed Joseph being Friend to the Negro. Very welcoming to the blacks, and helping out. Never mind that blacks weren't accepted into the priesthood until 150+ years later.
-Seventh: Showed Joseph curing people of malaria (even if they'd already died) in Nauvoo by laying on hands. Surely that wasn't invented solely for the film - must be a tenet.
-Eighth: Ending music was bagpiped 'Scotland the Brave' - not that I particularly mind, but that can't translate well in the Spanish-language version. And then they took the tune and made a hymn out of it… oh, my poor Scottish folk song.
-----------------------
Overall verdict: a very mass-market, cleaned-up version of the Joseph Smith story. I'm currently reading 'No Man Knows My History', a not-too-friendly biography of Smith, so that's filling in a lot of interesting gaps that the film made. Good production values, OK script. I've seen many worse films.
Thanks for visiting Mormania!
