Mormon Cinema Gets Noticed

At The Revealer, "a daily review of religion & the press," there's a short, snarky blurb on Mormon cinema. Wanna bet the gal writing the article has never seen a "Mormon cinema" production? But that won't stop a determined journalist from commenting, will it? The blurb links to a much longer article on Mormon cinema in last week's SL Trib, obviouslly written by someone who has seen a few of the movies he cites. Not that I'm one to comment on such movies, never having seen God's Army or even Napoleon Dynamite (although there's a copy of it floating around the house somewhere), and I wouldn't see The Work and the Glory unless strongly urged to do so by someone with a loaded weapon who knows how to use it. But it sounds like several LDS producers are on a quest for the holy crossover movie: Donnie and Marie did it in music, Steve Young and Dale Murphy did it in sports, Orson Scott Card did it in fiction, and sooner or later one of the moviemakers will hit it big in the mainstream movie market.

Comments

[Kent Larsen]

If LDS producers are "on a quest for the holy crossover movie," they will never get there. The "crossover" artists you mention were never, IMO, looking for a "crossover" production -- they were just practicing their craft.

BTW, Dale Murphy is a particularly bad example, since he was already well on his way to baseball stardom when he joined the Church. A better example would be Vern Law. Of course Harmon Killebrew is in the Baseball Hall of Fame, but he's always been inactive, though proud of his LDS heritage.

And Dave, you should see more Mormon cinema. Gods Army and Brigham City at least, and watch Napoleon Dynamite.

[Geoff J]

It's hard to tell if Napoleon Dynamite can be considered Mormon Cinema or not (see the Kulturblog thread on that). But if it is then it certainly already made the "holy crossover".

[Speaking Up]

You haven't seen Napoleon Dynamite... "Gosh!"

[Half Canadian]

I'd second Brigham City and throw in Saints & Soldiers. Both of these movies use the LDS aspects as a complement to the storyline, which allows them to come off as non-preaching. There were some aspects of both that I didn't like, but overall they were both engaging.