Great Moments in Latter-Day Saint Cinema

I have shared my affinity for The Phone Call already many times on this website.  If you haven't already, please watch this classic short film as soon as possible. (Possibly for tonight's Family Home Evening.) I'm convinced that the makers of Napoleon Dynamite either consciously or subconsciously took liberally from this beloved film!*

Cipher in the Snow, though, is and has always been trash.

*Not only that but it stars Marc McClure who played both Jimmy Olsen in the Christopher Reeve's Superman movies and Marty McFly's big brother in Back to the Future!

Johnny Lingo!

So, I've been doing this blog for seven years and some change and I've never run a joke on Johnny Lingo! I figured I'd better get to it soon before someone questions my LDS credentials.

What really shocked me as I put this together was the realization of just how old Johnny Lingo is. The film was made in 1969! If I could have held onto this for another three years, I could have recognized its 50th anniversary. It just goes to show you the staying power of cheesy, Mormon pop culture. (Hey, there's hope for this website after all!)

Tear Jerker

I'm sure I prefer the Church's media today over the stuff it was producing in the late eighties and early nineties. The Mormon Messages of today seem much more sincere than the tear jerkers we were showing as missionaries.

Although nothing tops The Phone Call.

What Ever Happened to Mormon Cinema

I vividly remember the first time I saw a trailer for the movie God's Army. I watched the whole thing with my mouth wide open with surprise. Here was a movie about Mormons that looked respectful of the Church, with good production values, and it was actually coming to a theater near you (well, only if you lived in Utah, I suppose). I also remember telling my friends at BYU about the trailer and having them express disbelief at my story. You might not remember now, but at the time, God's Army was a big deal.

Today's comic strip was drawn just a few years after God's Army premiered. At that time, I assumed God's Army would continue to hold cultural significance as the movie that started the Mormon Cinema genre. But now, just over ten years later, that genre is pretty much dead.* Ultimately, I think, it was hard to justify paying the same ticket price to go see a locally produced movie with production values just higher than your stake's roadshow as a big, Hollywood blockbuster like The Lord of the Rings. In the end, like the law of consecration, we just weren't ready for Mormon Cinema.

Oh, and by the way, I think Elder Van Dyke's review of God's Army is right on.

*I acknowledge that there are still Mormon movies being made. For example, the film 17 Miracles is in theaters now (and has received pretty good reviews), but you definitely don't see the numbers of movies being made now that you did a few years ago.

Mormon Cinema

My sentiments are with Elder Toms all the way on this one.

If you've never seen The Phone Call, I recommend you check it out. I'm convinced that it is the major influence behind Napoleon Dynamite.