Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

aa56 Fictionalized account of some of the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is typical of "historical" films of the 1940s. Many of the Westerns made during this decade are as laughable as some of the nonfactual anti-Mormon rants posted here pretending to be reviews of "Brigham Young." As a Western history buff, I am dismayed at the historical inaccuracies of this film, but I am impressed by the effort to manage all of the people, wagons, and animals sloshing through mud and rivers. The sets and special effects are commendable. Too bad Scott Forbes of television's "The Adventures of Jim Bowie" was not old enough to portray Joseph Smith, for he resembles him more than any other actor I've seen.

mercuryix-1 I always liked Tyrone Power, but am embarrassed that he chose to perform the title character in this extremely propagandist and revisionist fiction of Brigham Young's life. I have no idea if Tyrone Power was Mormon or not, but don't understand why he would star in this if he wasn't; he portrays Brigham Young as a Frontier version of Christ, and I am not kidding; if you removed the 1800s trappings, you would think he was playing Christ in certain scenes. However, he plays his scenes so flatly and so earnestly, that it flattens out what is already a cartoonlike character.The movie naturally leaves out important pieces of information: that a Mormon expedition en route to Utah committed one of the worst slaughters of pilgrims in American history, because they were paranoid that the government was after them; when they discovered that the survivors of their attack were in act simply other pilgrims they talked them into coming out of hiding, then shot them all dead; except for the small children, whom they forcefully adopted into their new cult. This massacre only became known 20 years later, and the government out of obligation chose one scapegoat to hang, as they couldn't be bothered to investigate the scope of this atrocity and prosecute the dozens of Mormon men who shot the Pilgrims in the head. The massacre is actually much worse than this, and easily searchable. Brigham Young was alive during this time, and denied it ever happened, although he had been advised it had occurred.The movie also leaves out the fact that Joseph Smith had served time in jail for conning people out of money multiple times; by promising to find water for them with special "stones" he possessed. He used this trick later when he claimed to have "Seer stones" to translate the golden plates he claimed to have found.During Mormonism's initial spread, women were actually kidnapped away from their husbands and families in neighboring states and forced to marry Mormons who already had multiple wives. The government never bothered to investigate these abductions, though they were recorded in the states where they occurred.Joseph Smith was not assassinated; he had come to a new town to spread his religion and gather more wives, and the townspeople tried to lynch him; he shot three of them dead before they managed to kill this cynical huckster.This movie is an artifact of its time; it is useful in demonstrating how dangerous whitewashing history and religions can be. Someday L. Ron Hubbard will be seen as the Christ figure who was shown Scientology by God; today in Russia, Stalin is actually being considered by the Russian Orthodox Church as a candidate for sainthood; a monster who murdered up to 30 million of his own people during his time as dictator. Whenever you see any movie like Brigham Young that portrays a historical figure in Christlike terms, be very suspicious. It's not as harmless as it seems....Also be very suspicious of glowing reviews of a movie made 70 years ago, by people watching it today and calling it the most brilliant, accurate historical drama you can see. It makes you wonder what their relationship is to the religion this movie is a tribute to.

blanche-2 This is a wonderful movie about the struggle of the Mormons and their final settlement in Salt Lake, Utah. The beginning and the ending are especially powerful, and the message is one we all have to be reminded of - God doesn't talk, but he communicates, if we would only listen. As I am writing this in the midst of the horrors going on in New Orleans and the surrounding area due to Katrina, I was especially moved by the Mormons having to leave everything behind and move on after Joseph Smith was assassinated. People came to this country to escape religious persecution, and yet they could not. The struggle of the Mormons to cross the country, the cost in lives, the hardship they suffered was truly awe-inspiring, demonstrating their tremendous strength. As far as the actual beliefs of Mormons, this is not heavily gone into, and polygamy is mentioned but is not a centerpiece of the film at all.The cast is top-notch, though others who have commented know more about the actual characters and can talk about how true the portrayals were. But as actors, Dean Jagger, Mary Astor, Brian Donlevy, John Carradine, Jane Darwell all do excellently with the script they were given.Though the film could have easily stood on its own (and certainly does today) Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell were added to the cast to get the crowds into the movie theaters to see a film about the Mormons. Power is magnificently handsome as a young Mormon, and Darnell, as Zina, is not a Mormon but stays on with the family after her father is killed. Power does not have much to do until the end of the film, when he has a big scene, and Darnell (still a teenager at the time of the filming) has even less, though they make a lovely couple. Their fate is left unclear regarding her conversion, and one does wonder about the polygamy in their case. You can't beat either one for eye candy, however.

Scott Stevens I enjoyed Brigham Young-Frontiersman immensely, however, I would not characterize the movie as an accurate portrayal of the personalities in the film. Although the events are accurate enough, the film does not do justice to the historical figures. Immediately noticeable is the positive light that Mormons are cast in, and I think this is necessary to make the film work given the subject matter and historical events portrayed. Nevertheless, being a card carrying Mormon, and having read a great deal of history and biography on the leaders of the Church, I cannot say that the personalities are true to history. I thought that Vincent Price cast as Joseph Smith was very strange, though my reaction to him in the role was heavily tainted by his later roles in the Roger Corman adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe's works (The Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven, etc.). Still, I felt that Price was not charismatic enough, and did not have the forceful presence that Joseph Smith surely had in life. Dean Jagger cast as Brigham Young was more tolerable, but not really as convincing as say Brian Keith in the Wind and the Lion, or George C. Scott in Patton. Furthermore, Brigham Young had a very powerful, direct, yet unrefined manner of speech that had it been carefully followed or mimicked, would have made the character much more convincing. His manner of speech is entirely unique and really gets a reader's attention. It is often very humorous as well. Hearing it in the film would have greatly improved the script, but the writers would have needed to immerse themselves thoroughly in his discourses and writings to carry it off.Moreover, there are a host of perspectives or ways of looking at things that are unique to Mormons, not to mention a very distinctive manner of speech and phraseology regarding religious matters that the film failed to capture. As an active Mormon, I would have to say that as I watched the film I felt like an insider observing a film written by outsiders who had not properly done their homework. The film has many fine qualities and I give it a good rating. If the writing had been more true to Mormon thinking, speech patterns and their leaders unique personalities, it would have been all that was necessary to raise the film from good to great. All of this aside, I give the film three stars out of a possible four.