Category Archives: Media

The last of “September Dawn”

LDS History, Main, Media

My last posting on this subject, since “September Dawn” has died a well-deserved death. Here are the figures for its third weekend in release: a grand total of $7,445 in all of 26 theaters, a 96% drop from last weekend. To give you some perspective, the #1 film this past weekend — also a Western, “3:10 to Yuma” — grossed an average of $5,292 in each and every one of the 2,652 theaters in which it played, for a total of $14+ million.

Having no desire to either support the producers of this film or subject myself to what Justin Chang in Variety (undoubtedly another crypto-Mormon) called “massacre porn“, I cannot directly opine on the merits of the film. But based on the reviews I’ve read, I think it’s not only clear that “September Dawn” is generally a wretched movie and historically distorted, it’s also unabashedly anti-Mormon. It’s a shame, because I think that a very thoughtful and provocative movie could have been made.

Next up, I’m waiting for a film version of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” Oh, wait — someone’s already doing that. ..bruce..

Someone who gets it

Belief systems, LDS Doctrine, LDS Organization, LDS Society, Main, Media, Politics

As I’ve mentioned before, one of my sources of both frustration and amusement during my 40 years as a Latter-day Saint has been the sheer number of people who either misunderstand or deliberately misrepresent LDS history, beliefs and practices. So it is always a delight to run across a well-written article by someone outside the LDS Church who not only under understands LDS culture and doctrine, but who provides new insights.

Such an article is “A Mormon President? The LDS Difference“, written by Laurie Maffly-Kipp and published in The Christian Century. Maffly-Kipp is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), and one of her areas of specialty is Mormonism. She clearly has done her homework; I’ve never seen someone outside the LDS Church (or few within it) so clearly articulate the balance of authority and independence within the Church:

Yes, the prophet can receive revelation. But this power is couched within a set of concentric circles of revelation and authority: the prophet receives revelation for the church, bishops receive revelation pertaining to their wards (local churches), and fathers and mothers receive revelation relating to their families. Most important, Mormons—like Protestants—attach great importance to the agency of the individual believer, who is expected to pray and receive guidance for herself. This set of interconnected responsibilities makes for clear lines of authority, to be sure—few agencies are as efficient as a local Mormon ward in action—but it also means that leaders cannot, in theory, overstep the bounds of the authority bestowed on them by virtue of their office.

In practice, then, LDS religious authority is diffused and regulated in quite orderly ways; indeed, one might say that this flow is both more controlled than in many Protestant churches and more democratically distributed than in Roman Catholicism. Mormons are taught from a very young age that their purpose in life is to exercise their own spiritual agency and to maintain a right relationship with God. The church hierarchy, of course, has a major role in facilitating that growth, but not the only role. Higher education is valued for both men and women, regardless of one’s career path. Healthy living and moral values are extolled not simply as exercises in discipline, but as keys to individual progress. Considerable emphasis, in other words, is placed on the individual cultivation of personal agency, a fact that may help explain the resounding business success of someone like Mitt Romney.

Nor do LDS Church members in good standing bow to church officials at every point; the authority of many church teachings is, in fact, somewhat ambiguous. There are a number of incontrovertible teachings, of course (such as: Joseph Smith was a prophet; sex before marriage is forbidden), but these are surprisingly few in number. Many other decisions are left to the dictates of individual conscience. One need only ask 10 church members about whether Mormons are allowed to drink caffeinated soft drinks to encounter a wide range of interpretations.

I strongly recommend the article, and I plan to keep a look out for other articles and books by Maffly-Kipp. ..bruce..

“We are as the army of…Master Chief?”

Humor, LDS Society, Main, Media

Sandra and I had two of our grandsons spend the weekend, Ashton (8) and Raiden (5). When Sandra drove them back home (Longmont, just outside of Boulder), she spent a few minutes speaking with their mom, our oldest daughter, Chase. Sandra had noticed Ashton teasing Raiden a bit about the video game Halo during the drive back up; Chase confirmed that Raiden really, really likes Halo. Chase said she didn’t realize quite how much so until Raiden’s Primary teacher (Primary ~= Sunday School for kids 3-11) told her that Raiden tends to relate all of the class lessons to Halo. (The Primary teacher said that her husband plays Halo as well, so she generally knows what Raiden is talking about.)

Somehow fitting for a kid who was, yes, named after a character from Mortal Combat. ..bruce..

(ObExp for non-LDS: the title refers to a well-known Primary song, “We’ll Bring the World His Truth“, better known by the first line of its chorus: “We are as the army of Helaman” — a song that never fails to move me to tears when sung by a group of children and which allows me to excuse Janice Kapp Perry for the rest of her rather ah, bland oeuvre.)

More “September Dawn” silliness

LDS History, Main, Media

[UPDATED 03/03/07 – 1625 MDT]

I was wrong on one prediction below — “September Dawn” managed to break the $1 million mark for total gross to date (vs. a production budget of $11 million). However, it did nosedive in number of theaters (415, down from 872 last weekend), total gross for the 3-day weekend ($129,000 vs. $608,157, nearly an 80% drop — horrific for a movie in its 2nd weekend of release), and per theater gross for the 3-day weekend ($310/theater vs. $702/theater last weekend). Clearly, there’s no groundswell for this film. Maybe the distributors will have better luck selling the DVD.

[ORIGINAL POST]

OK, people are welcome to have their various opinions about “September Dawn” even though most critics think it’s wretched and there appear to be some real historical howlers in it. For example, from what I’ve read, there’s a sequence in which one of the characters is forced(!) to go through the temple endowment ceremony down in southern Utah, even though there were no temples down there until 20 years after the Mountain Meadows attack, and the only ‘endowment house’ in operation was hundreds of miles north, in Salt Lake City. Also, at that point, in order to attend the temple, you had to have the explicit approval of the LDS Church President (this continued until the early 20th century).

But I’ve run across this article in which the author suggests that the flood of poor reviews for “September Dawn” is due to — wait for it — quiet sabotage on the part of the LDS Church:

While the Mormon hierarchy denies any effort to directly or indirectly sabotage the film, it seems possible much of the criticism dealing with the film is derived from some common blueprint. Perhaps the suggestion is wrong — indeed, I sincerely hope that it is — but, while not being prone to embrace conspiratorial theories, I can understand those who question coincidence in matters of this nature. However, any effort to suppress speech in such a manner would not be in keeping with the thinking of friends of mine in the Mormon community. No matter how upset they might be with what they considered to be an unfair criticism of their religion, they are Americans first and Mormons second. As a consequence, they respect our freedoms, particularly freedom of expression. They would grit their teeth and let the film rise or fall on its artistic merits, secure in the knowledge that it is merely a film and their religion is more than strong enough to withstand any criticism — accurate and profound or unfair and derivative. And, again, no such criticism of the present day LDS Church was ever intended. Moreover, it concerns me that members of a great religion, such as Mormonism, may feel the need to sabotage a film in order to preserve their version of history.

The author, Ken Eliasberg, seems to seriously think that the LDS Church has somehow managed to convince critics as diverse, well-known and/or visible as Michael Medved (USA Today), Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times), Dessen Thompson (Washington Post), Steve Heyden (Onion AV Club), Matt Zoeler Seitz (New York Times), Owen Gleiberman (Entertainment Weekly) and J. Hoberman (Village Voice) to give “September Dawn” the rather poor reviews it has received. Once again, I simply point people to the list at Rotten Tomatoes (which is back down to 15% “fresh” — which means 85% “rotten”).

Eliasberg’s key evidence, apparently, is his claim that several reviewers have used the term “ham-fisted”, suggesting (as per the quote above) “some common blueprint”. Eliasberg does not apparently realize that “ham-fisted” is not that uncommon a term for, well, reviews of ham-fisted movies. A Google search for [movie “ham-fisted” review] yields nearly over 100,000 hits. And they’re not all “September Dawn”.

Meanwhile, the movie itself is nose-diving at the box office, will likely be out of theaters altogether within another week or two, and may not even break the $1 million box office mark (it’s currently grossed $836,000 through Thursday). Based on the reviews I’ve read, I would say that Mr. Eliasberg got his wish that the movie “rise or fall on its artistic merits.”

I don’t mean to sound snippy, but this is, in a word, asinine. And, just possibly, ham-fisted. ..bruce..

P.S. Having written this, I’ve discovered that Carol Schutter, the co-author of the screenplay for “September Dawn”, appears to be the one making the claims of LDS Church conspiracy behind the film’s bad reviews, going so far as to issue a press release.

“September Dawn” flops

LDS History, Main, Media

[UPDATED 09/09/07 – 0752 MDT: Someone else has noticed possible parallels between the Utah War and the US invasion of Iraq. In the meantime, “September Dawn”has now vanished entirely from Denver theaters after just two weeks.]

[UPDATED 08/30/07 – 1742 CDT: The ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ score has rised to 16% (from 15%), and I’ve noted that change below. However, estimated daily grosses for Monday through Wednesday have been $64,000, $65,000, and $54,000 respectively, still for 857 theaters, which means that each theater is getting about 10 people/day to see it. I suspect this film will lose a lot of theaters this coming weekend.]

[UPDATED 08/28/07 – 2342 CDT: I’ve had to revise the box office figures down even more — all of the original weekend estimates (~$1 million, $635K, $615k) were too high.]

[UPDATED 08/27/07 – I’ve updated the box office figures [twice now] and made a few other edits.]

The film “September Dawn“, purporting to show the events of the horrific Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1857, appears to have crashed and burned, both with the public and with most movie critics. In limited release (857 theatres) and with heavy advertising (there was a full-page ad for it in Friday’s Rocky Mountain News), it still only managed an anemic $702/venue this past weekend, for an opening-weekend total of $601,857. Critics were not all that kind, either; the film has managed only a 16% ‘fresh’ rating at Rotten Tomatoes, while the (LDS Church-owned) Deseret News published a round-up of scathing comments by critics.

From what I can tell, the flop status is well-deserved. The director (and co-screenwriter), Christopher Cain, appears to have made the presentation so one-sided (evil Mormons!) as to induce incredulity even among film reviewers who have no reason to be sympathetic to Mormons. The polemics led Roger Ebert to state in the Chicago Sun-Times, “The Mormons are presented in no better light than Nazis and Japanese were in Hollywood’s World War II films. Wasn’t there a more thoughtful and insightful way to consider this historical event?”

Ebert’s last statement there points out the real missed opportunity. The Mountain Meadows Massacre happened and is an horrific blot on LDS history. Contrary to some claims by film critics (probably based on promotional materials from the film), the events have not been covered up until recently; the classic historical work on the subject, The Mountain Meadows Massacre, was written and published over half a century ago (1950) by Juanita Brooks, who was a BYU graduate and an active Latter-day Saint. Mormons have been wrestling with this event ever since.

In the hands of a skilled screenwriter and director, these events could have made for a very uncomfortable and thought-provoking film. Consider the historical events leading up to the massacre:

Continue reading “September Dawn” flops →

Mormonism and Democratic Politics: Are They Compatible?

LDS History, Main, Media, Politics

Richard Bushman is probably the great LDS historian of our generation, much as Leonard Arrington was of his. Under the auspices of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, Bushman sat down with a group of journalists to try to explain, from a historical perspective, LDS interaction with society and politics. His comments, as always, are insightful, informed, and honest. A sample:

Joseph Smith was nominated as a protest candidate in February of 1844. Like other protest candidates, he began to warm to his work and got quite excited about it. He may have dreamed for a moment that through some strange concatenation of events, he would get elected. Every candidate has to dream such things.

His involvement in politics was manifested in a political platform of which he was very proud. He would bring it out whenever he had visitors and read from it. It is an interesting document because it represents a man whose world had been his own people, whose own project had been to create a kingdom of God, and who now had to turn his mind to politics.

He began by citing the Declaration of Independence, the famous passages about all men being equal and endowed by their creator with inalienable rights, which of course could be a lead-in to religious rights. But he didn’t use it that way. Instead, in the very next sentence, he talked about the obvious contradiction: “Some two or three million people are held as slaves for life because the spirit in them is covered with a darker skin than ours.” His platform called for the elimination of slavery, proposing that the funds from the sale of Western lands, a major source of revenue along with the tariff in those days, be devoted to purchasing slaves from their masters in order to avoid the conflict that would otherwise ensue.

Josiah Quincy, soon to be mayor of Boston, visited Joseph Smith in the spring of 1844 when this platform was in circulation. Much later, Quincy wrote about that visit, saying that Joseph Smith’s proposal for ending slavery resembled one that Emerson made 11 years later in 1855.

As Quincy put it, writing retrospectively in the 1880s, “We, who can look back upon the terrible cost of the fratricidal war which put an end to slavery, now say that such a solution of the difficulty” – Joseph Smith’s and Emerson’s – “would have been worthy a Christian statesman. But if the retired scholar was in advance of his time when he advocated this disposition of the public property in 1855, what shall I say of the political and religious leader who had committed himself, in print, as well as in conversation, to the same course in 1844?”

I cite this example to illustrate the radical tone of Joseph Smith’s political thought, which seemed to carry over from his religious radicalism. It extended to prison reform and better treatment of seamen, big issues in the 1840s and 1850s. Smith seemed to identify with all of the underdogs in society. I think that was why he thought he might get elected – because the little people, the beat-up people, would rise and select him.

Read the whole thing. Hat tip to Meridian Magazine. ..bruce..

Upcoming posts: Mormon perspectives on life, the universe, and, well, everything

"The Mormons" (PBS), LDS Doctrine, LDS Organization, LDS Society, Main, Media, Politics

As a response to both on-going silly postings on the net and the PBS broadcast “The Mormons”, I’ve wanted to write about several subjects, including:

  • LDS cosmology (the nature of the universe)
  • LDS ontology (the nature of reality, including God and humanity)
  • LDS epistemology (the nature of truth and ways of knowing it)
  • the organization and functioning of the LDS Church

The challenge is that they are all interrelated, which is why you get so many goofy and misinformed postings about the LDS Church and its doctrine (as a parallel example, try to write intelligently on the Catholic doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary without reference to original sin, St. Augustine, or the Fall). I’m not quite sure yet how I’m going to tackle all this — except that I may just pick an arbitrary starting point and go from there.  ..bruce..

A poll on ‘feelings towards Mormons’

LDS Society, Main, Media

This article in the Deseret News (Salt Lake City, Utah) about a poll taken by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research tries, I think, to draw a bigger distinction between the public vs. college faculty results than I think the results justify:

Results of a two-year study released this week show one-third of university faculty nationwide have an unfavorable impression of Latter-day Saints, while an equal proportion of the general population holds a favorable view.

I guess I’m just not sure that statement has a lot of real information in it. If you sum up the results, you get the following:

  • General public: 33% “warm”, 43% neutral,  18% “cold”, 6% don’t know/refuse to answer
  • University faculty: 40% “warm”, 20% neutral, 33% “cold”, 8% don’t know/refuse to answer

The only real conclusion is that the faculty members surveyed are less neutral, that is, more have an actual opinion, and that that the non-neutral faculty members divide a bit more evenly on the “warm”/”cold” rating than the public at large — not surprising given the general secular/liberal nature of university faculty. In fact, I’m a bit surprised that “warm” respondents outnumber “cold” ones at all.  ..bruce..

Al Sharpton weighs in [UPDATED]

Media, Politics

Via Hugh Hewitt’s website, comes this choice sound bite from the Reverend Al, apparently during a debate with Christopher Hitchins:

“And as for the one Mormon running for office, those that really believe in God will defeat him anyways, so don’t worry about that, that’s a temporary, that’s a temporary, uh, situation.” [laughter from audience]

Being from California, my general attitude to such comments is summed up by my all-time-favorite bumper sticker, which first appeared there some 30-40 years ago: “I used to be disgusted, but now I’m just amused.”

Continue reading Al Sharpton weighs in [UPDATED] →