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For the most part, anyone who is interested enough to make a serious Book of Mormon film will probably be Mormon, so there would be a vested interest in representing the material well. That freedom can be a little uncomfortable when you’re dealing with scripture.
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This brings an element of world building autonomy to Book of Mormon films that is generally absent from other scriptural stories. Because we don’t have third party descriptions of clothing, armor, weapons, architecture, social habits, etc, that we can definitively associate with Book of Mormon cultures, much of what we see and hear in a film of this type is essentially made up. Restoration stories are even easier than the Bible. So Bible stories are a lot easier to depict from one perspective because we can establish legitimacy through historical accuracy.
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At the same time, we don’t have nearly the wealth of information about these societies that we do regarding, say, the ancient Jews. We know just enough about what these things may have looked like to have certain limited expectations, which leads me to my next point:Ĭhurch productions like The Testaments and a host of seminary videos have created Nephite and Lamanite looks that we seem to have adopted as official, if not authentic, as evidenced by films like Passage to Zarahemla. Recreating any extensive or believable version of Book of Mormon culture/setting requires money. This leaves me asking why? Here are some possibilities: But it seems to me that depictions of the events in this book of scripture have been the rarer than those of other books, including the Doctrine and Covenants. We’ve even seen films with original stories set either partially or completely in Book of Mormon times. There have been a lot of films with plots based on stories or characters from the book, and even more sharing Book of Mormon themes. A new project of mine, which you’ll be able to read about on my personal blog soon, has gotten me thinking about the various attempts we’ve seen at Book of Mormon movies.