Mormon Movies

I read an article on Mormontimes.com - which I beleive is some type of subsidiary of Deseret News because they always have their articles linked on their website - called "Dynamite, Dutcher, Hitchcock and the failure of LDS movies." It talked mostly about the God's Army films and the creator of the two films. Michelle doesn't think too highly of God's Army 2, I however have not seen the film from beginning to end. What I have seen of it was a little hard to watch because of how inaccurately it portrayed missionary life (or at least my experience as a missionary). I did not know this until I read the article but the producer of God's Army apparantly left the Church a couple years ago so his ideologies and philosophies while creating the films may not have been completely on flattering or accurate regarding the Church. Either way I don't care about that, I am writing this blog to say that the article completely neglected what are in my opinion the best two LDS films: Saints and Soldiers and New York Doll. Saints and Soldiers is amazing, not just for an LDS film, but on standards for any movie.



This movie is about a small group of allied soldiers who are behind enemny lines in Germany during WWII. It is based on a true story and one of the actors in the movie is the grand son of the man he portrays. Saints and Soldiers is actually one of the most viewed movies on Hulu.com which I think is saying something. Ironically though, all the people who have commented about the movie on Hulu evidently have no idea what the message of the movie was and they also have no idea that the movie was produced by and all of its actors are LDS. We have the DVD and in some of the extras on the DVD it talks all about the people who produced it and there is no doubt that it is an 'LDS movie,' whatever that means. Above all else, the movie's got Kirby Heybourne in it so...yeah, it is an LDS movie. What actually kind of frustrated me to read in the comments on Hulu was that many people thought the movie was criticizing Mormons because the "Mormon is a sniper who kills people and the Atheist is a medic who saves lives." While that is true about the two people in the movie, it is in now way an attack on Mormons. The movie praises the Mormon for his morals and standards even in war times. His supervisor says how remarkable of a soldier he is and knows he can always counts on him in sticky situations. Furtermore (I will not give away too much about what happens) the atheist actually converts to beleiving in God by the example and the actions of his Mormon counterpart. It is completely beyond me how anyone could think this movie was anti-Mormon. New York Doll is a documentary about Arthur Kane, the bassist of the popular 70's punk band 'The New York Dolls." It is no action packed thriller but it is very captivating and enthralling. Arthur Kane lived a rock star lifestyle and is probably the least likely person you would expect to convert to the LDS church. He saw a TV commercial for a free bible and requeste one and it came delivery of two sister missionaries. He joins the Church and at the time of the documentary works at the LA temple. Other people who volunteer at the temple didn't even know he was a rockstar until the filmers interviewed them. It is really cool to see Arthur reunite with his band members and tell them he has found God and he is able to mend some past relationships that ended poorly. I will not give away how this film ends but it is a touching movie. These are, in my opinion, the best two Mormon movies. When you compare them to movies like Singles Ward 2, there is no comparison. I actually liked Singles Ward 1 when I first saw it before my mission but I tried to watch it again since then once and I couldn't even finish it because I thought it was so silly. A lot of people commented in Deseret News about the article on M0rmon Movies that most LDS films basically just try and exploit a niche with movies that nobody that isn't mormon would understand and provides only cheap laughs. I mostly agree with that. Nevertheless, Saints and Soldiers and New York Doll are two great movies. They are very different from each other, both are very good though.