Twojedi's thread about "greater love" and the couple who are killed prior to their sealing got me reminiscing about the good old days of VCR tapes. My favorite teachers would show these church vids in lieu of a lesson.

Who remembers Cypher in the Snow? Sooooo sad. I remember the teachers showing it when a socially awkward kid in class wasnt being as included as they could have been. Usually accompanied by the "dog food wrapped as a present" story for young women. Ugh

Then The Mailbox. Talk about a guilt trip about reaching out to loved ones, especially elderly ones, who eagerly wait for our letters to arrive.

Loved Johnny Lingo and the 8 cow wife. I always aspired to be at least 8, maybe even as high ad 10. LOL.

And for a while (is it still even available) the theaters at SL Temple Square would let you request videos to watch. I liked the If you Love Em Tell Em series of commercials. The dad getting kidnapped to go camping was stellar!!

And then at some point TSCC switched it up, big reversal, an started going all gruesome with Lamb of God. Whoever thought that was uplifting needs their fingernails pulled out. Horrific and nightmare inducing.

Anyway, just strolling down memory lane. Some of the videos had an impact on my childhood.

Oh... And then in my mish we had the most outdated stuff like Mans Search for Happiness and Together Forever as fodder for investigators. Auf Deutsch. the lamest by far was a video about historical and archeological finds that prove the BoM is true. Haha.

Any idea where I can find these vids? I'd like to hold a reverse FHE with the Fam and some friends who recently resigned.

Thanks!!

Easy. Go to any ward meetinghouse library.
We have at least two copies of all of those titles.

I remember the title Cypher in the Snow but I can't remember what it was about. I'm sure I've seen it a million times though. It's funny what one "blocks" out



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2013 10:39AM by Tupperwhere.

I could be very wrong, and confusing it with a different story, but I think it was meant to show a kid who straight up died because of not being included in his peer group. More guilt for the Morgbots... You could kill someone if you don't pay them attention!
Something like that.
I often wished I could die rather than be subject to the attentions of my peer group. Okay, not literally, it was my dramatic teen brain crying out, "Anything but more of these mormon assholes! Anywhere but here! (church, seminary, Wednesday nights, etc.)"
I mean, I related to the kid in the video, he found a way out. But I also knew from school that I had options other than mormons, but as a mormon child, my parents weren't going to allow any of that worldly influence if they could help it.

I hope it's on youtube somewhere. I feel the need to re-watch all of these now.

Winkswinks you got it right.

From IMDB 1974

Asking to leave a school bus, Cliff, a young teenager collapses and dies in the snow near the roadside. His math teacher is asked to notify the parents and write a short obituary. This task is difficult, for although he was Cliff's favorite teacher and ha the most interaction of any at the school, he barely knew him. In unraveling the mystery of the untimely death, he finds Cliff was shy, lonely, and ostracized, being slowly reduced to nothing, a zero (cipher). He vows not to let this happen to others.

poor Cliff. Thanks for the "cliff" notes :)

The other night I was browsing through the guide on my TV and saw that Johnny Lingo was on -- and it wasn't a BYU or church channel. Didn't watch it cause I can recite it myself with no commercial interriptions!

A lot of material ends up on www.archive.org, both printed matter and multi media. Last year I was searching for some very specific advertising that I remembered from Improvement Era magazine and my search returned a reference to the archive.org website.

BcE

I bought a bunch of compilations on VHS years ago. Still have them. Some day when I get a round tuit I want to convert/digitize them.

I remember the first time seeing "Cypher." It was in my high school sociology class. Teacher wasn't mormon. I think he showed it because it was a "this is so weird I need to share it". But yeah... sitting in a high school class, and the movie started with "BYU productions." That caught my eye. (It was a 16 millimeter film... since we've got a boomer theme going here. That's how we did it then.)

Allow me to take you back another generation to a Morg publication with the same saccharine dreck: Anyone old enough to remember "Uncle Arthur's" A Story to Tell? Still, no doubt, to be found in meetinghouse libraries.

For those Johnny Lingo fans, they made a sequel or actually a prequel to the 'hit' Johnny Lingo. I have it. I think it's called "The legend of Johnny Lingo". It's about JL's early days. If you liked the first one, you would probably appreciate the second.

I once scared up the "Johnny Lingo" movie online. Am I alone in thinking that the Johnny Lingo character came across as a sleazy MLM salesman, and his wife (at the end of the movie) as a brain-dead Barbie-type trophy?

There was an old film-strip from the 1970's that was a bit more bold in the issues it would tackle. It was essentially about a bunch of teenagers who all end up dying or getting pregnant, or the girls start dating much older guys. It end's the Mormon's scriptural lamentation "oh ye fair ones". It was kind of a scared straight depiction that if you leave the Church and have fun, you'll end up going Scarface. The most interesting thing was how much the 1970's cinema clearly was influencing those strips.

The Mailbox and Cyper in the Snow, or The Gift, were all great movies actually, given the time in which they were made. I try not to be sappy, but the quality of those messages had nothing to do with Mormonism and everything to do with how we treat each other. I'd count those among the occassional diamonds that can be unearthed in the Mormon mine-field.

Oooh, now you let us all in on how sappy you are. :)

I agree that the movies were less specific to Mormons and more about humanity andante that's why I recall them so fondly.

But what was The Gift movie? Was that the one where jimmy Stewart is an old janitor living alone with a cat and in his fabulous imagination he leads the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in musical performance? (PS I love old Jimmy Stewart movies from my childhood, too, but that thread would be off topic here.)

That would be Mr. Krueger's Christmas. My husband gets annoyed when I call it Freddy Krueger's Christmas. LOL.

Does anyone remember Uncle Ben? I use to cry myself silly on that one. How about The Three Witnesses? Terrible makeup, bad acting?

And the endowment movie?

"Mama? Mama? Mama you teasin me... Mama?"

Yeah I remember Uncle Ben.

Oh, and let's not forget the
I'll build you a rainbow one.

oh god. I can hear it now in my head

I think that Cypher in the Snow movie was not a Mormon one. I saw it in a psychology class in high school. I remember walking out thinking "why would they make me watch something so unhappy?" That was almost PG and I was only allowed to see G at the time so my sensitivity level was very high.

The 10 Cow wife one: I watched that at a time I didn't even find it derogatory or insulting. Back in the olden days.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2013 05:40PM by Suckafoo.

we were forced to watch johnny lingo every time we went to the temple for dead dunking. That is the only time I've ever seen it actually.

The man from snowy river. I'm surprised the church hasn't sanctioned that as a church movie. It is a good movie but ya...

I need to watch Man from Snowy River. Maybe I saw it and forgot.

Fourth Wise Man? Was that a mormon thing or just popular with the mormons in my family?

Was the BoM history one "Ancient America Speaks"? I'd love to see that one pulled apart now!!

Anyone remember 'the last leaf' - not sure if that was the title but some sick girl is convinced that when all the leaves fall off of a tree outside her window then she'll die. A sickly old man goes out and paints a leaf on the side of a wall or tree or something so it will always look like there's one leaf left so the girl will have the will to live.

In doing so, the old man ends up getting really sick himself going out into the cold to paint the leaf and ends up dying. Supposed to represent Jesus' sacrifice of his life for others.

My non-member girlfriend watched it with me back in the day and couldn't see how the movie was really about Jesus. It was a sad movie.