Hello everyone,
I just wanted to get your opinions on the newly revised church film, "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration". (For those of you who have not yet seen it, you can watch it here: http://radio.lds.org/Joseph?lang=eng)
I have found many factual errors and many elements left out of the Joseph Smith story. Relating to polygamy, treasure hunting, methods of translation, revelations, blacks in the church, and of course, the events surrounding his murder at Carthage.
I was wondering what other factual errors you found in the story or what was conveniently left out.
Have a great day,
FormerMormon@BYU

I will watch when I have some time. Thanks for sharing.

The funniest part is at the beginning where it says "The historical events represented in this story are true and occurred on the American frontier from 1805 to 1845."

It's just as you say - blatany omission of facts, often horribly wrong. But in its defense it's based off of Lucy's perspective, which was of itself grandiosely one-sided.

Oh boy are you ever right about that histoical shit from the movie being "true." ROTFLMAO big time.

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So, they're a propaganda mill. Fun!

I saw that in Salt Lake a few years ago. They handed out tissues as you walked in. Please! It was so whitewashed and sappy. I saw a preview of Emma Smith movie and it looks like they used some of the same scenes for both movies. Such propaganda.

This production is aimed at one thing: emotional manipulation of the weak minded.

When you feel something, the mishies will tell you it's the spirit. What they won't tell you is that PAcker taught how confusing emotions and "spirit" can be.

Quote:

Packer: We Can Be Deceived
Be ever on guard lest you be deceived by inspiration from an unworthy source. You can be given false spiritual messages. There are counterfeit spirits just as there are counterfeit angels. (See Moro. 7:17.) Be careful lest you be deceived, for the devil may come disguised as an angel of light.

The spiritual part of us and the emotional part of us are so closely linked that is possible to mistake an emotional impulse for something spiritual. We occasionally find people who receive what they assume to be spiritual promptings from God, when those promptings are either centered in the emotions or are from the adversary.

From http://lds.org/ensign/1983/01/the-candle-of-the-lord?lang=eng

The 15 know this concept, that the emotional part is closely linked to the spiritual part (or are the same thing, really), and use it to "guide" people to their side. They really get how to con people.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2011 01:17PM by Jesus Smith.

Besides the omissions, I noticed the film shows him appear to bring a baby and (the way it's edited) Brigham Young back to life!
Absolutely no reason is given as to why the gentiles (who apparently had the worst hygiene in human history) were trying to kick the mormons out of various places & kill J. Smith Jr.; perhaps they were trying to steal their soap. The gentiles also have bad teeth, while the mormons have perfect smiles, perhaps showing that becoming a dentist goes way back in LDS history.

The mention at the film's opening that "The historical events represented in this story are true..." would apply equally to Michael Bay's 'Pearl Harbor'.

I'm sorry... I'm still trying to get over, "nonprofit organizations such The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Pffffffft!

My aunt and uncle were visiting for the Boston Marathon this week and seeing the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial in S. Royalston, VT was apparently on their bucket-list.

I've breezed through there before, but happily drove them 3 hours there and 3 hours back because being a good host hopefully gives my karma an upward momentum...I did steel my soul against an unpleasant memory of the Mormon Tab Choir blaring from crappy speakers hidden in the forest.

The missionary couple there were aptly named "Brother and Sister Smith." Brother Smith asked if we wanted to see a movie called "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration." Even before I graduated from Mormonism I actively avoided Mormon media in all its forms. Being unfamiliar with the movie, when he told us how long the movie would be, I heard 7 minutes and thought I could manage to sit through that without blood issuing forth from my eyeballs and ears. I misunderstood...it was SEVENTY minutes.

Before it began, Brother Smith explained to us that the new version just came out, but unfortunately they didn't have a copy of it yet, but we could view it online. He said 40% of the content had been "revised." To me, that sounds like an entirely new movie. I asked him why they would need to "revise" 40% of the Joseph Smith story. He explained that they'd changed it to put more emphasis on Brigham Young and and the transfer of authority after Joseph Smith was killed.

So after the first 5 minutes of silent gagging and retching, I realize we're still looking at Joseph as an angelic child and certainly this wasn't going to end in the next 2 minutes (lets single teardrop well-up in left eye).

In an empty theater of about 30 seats, I'd foolishly entered the row of seats first and sat down. My dear aunt, who has no sense of personal space sat next to me and my uncle next to her, effectively blocking any civil exit from the propoganda fest.

Somewhere in the middle the adult Joseph (played by a mysterious Nathan Mitchell) arrives. Even though I was fully aware of the omissions, the visual, audio, dramatic sentimentality and emotional manipulation of the production, by the end of the movie, I totally wanted to be f***ed by Brother Joseph too!

Seriously, it's got that Pride and Predjudice romance thing going on. Brother Joseph is the Mr. Darcy of Mormon Romance. Brigham Young was definately not a turn on.

When it was over, Brother Smith opened the door and eagerly asked us how we liked it. I mentioned that I thought I'd heard him say it was 7 minutes. He then said "No, it's 70. Well actually, it's 69." I thought to myself "Oh, I'd 69 the Man Who Communed with Jehovah!"

So my aunt and uncle flew home today. I checked out the new and improved revised edition of the movie online. It was TOTALLY different. Now they've got some old lady narrating (Lucy Big Mack Smith). I didn't watch the whole thing, just skipped through to different parts, but there was a lot more Brigham Young, and a lot less of the romance plot-line and side characters. Less sexy Jo Smith.

My guess is they had too many GA wives feeling guilty about their tingly woman parts.

The Mormon Tab Choir are still lurking in the woods.