(fixed)

Thanks for noticing that, Jonathan. I’ll fix it right now. I hadn’t realized the month had changed…..

Thanks for pointing this out to us.

A small point: Your “click here to get more of my thoughts” link doesn’t take me where I think it’s supposed to take me…

Pfff. Nothing to be sorry for.

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David—No, I have not seen those films. When will a strong indie film about Mormons being Mormons make a splash, I wonder. We are starting to grow some talent, after all.

I thought of posting that link, Moriah, but I’m planning on writing about it separately so did not. But the PW review suggests it is just the thing.

Oops! Sorry!

My wife is quite the fan of Mario Puzo, but every character who has anything to do with Mormonism in his works is vitriolic, as if he had only ever spoken to bitter lapsed members.

A pair of western films come to mind (that you may have missed) negatively, The Tracker [1988], starring Kris Kristofferson involving a lawman going after rogue Danites. The best part (in a pretty so-so film) to me was the crazed Danite killer arguing with a captured Navajo shaman – “What are you?”
“Navajo”
“No, you’re not. You’re a Lam-In-Ite.” (sounds like laminate)
&
somewhat positively, The Avenging Angel[1995] with Tom Berenger, James Coburn as Porter Rockwell and Charlton Heston as Brigham Young. This tried a little more to be sympathetic in my eyes, not to say they didn’t get some things completely wrong, but at least I never felt like they were trying to beat me over the head with ‘Look how crazy these people are’.

I’m reaching the conclusion that (to my knowledge) film has ironically been better than literature at providing a fairer sense of who we are.

The closest and honestly sympathetic book I can think of is Dan Harrington’s memoir “Who’s at the Door” and he very nearly joined the Church, but for some misgivings/misunderstandings about the Temple.

Heh. Heh heh.

Ben Nugent.

I’ll fix that right away.

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I thought of posting that link, Moriah, but I’m planning on writing about it separately so did not. But the PW review suggests it is just the thing.

If we Mormons want to be known for what we are really like, we need to tell our own stories.

At the risk of sounding self-promote-y, I’ll offer this as a decent start.