The Mormon Observer

Moses und Aron, known in English as Moses and Aaron, is a 1975 film by the French filmmaking duo of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet based on the unfinished opera of the same title by Arnold Schoenberg. During its 1975 run at US festivals, it was also known as Aaron and Moses, and was frequently reviewed as such. It is one of three films based on Schoenberg works Straub and Huillet directed, the other two being Einleitung zu Arnold Schoenbergs Begleitmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene, a short film made directly before Moses und Aron, and, over two decades later, an adaptation of the one-act comic opera Von heute auf morgen. The film retains the unfinished nature of the original opera, with the third act consisting of a single shot with no music as Moses delivers a monologue based on Schoenberg's notes. The film was shot on location in Italy and Egypt, specifically the amphitheater within the ruins of Alba Fucens.[1] The film utilized the same team of cinematographers as Straub and Huillet's Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach. The soundtrack and cast of the film is the same as the 1974 recording conducted by Michael Gielen (Philips 6700 084). The original German version of the film was dedicated to Holger Meins, a former cinematography student who joined the Red Army Faction in the early 1970s and died on hunger strike in prison. This dedication was censored by German broadcasters for the film's first transmission in 1975. The English subtitles of Schoenberg's dense German libretto were prepared by assistant Gregory Woods, who is credited on the DVD. The film was shown at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival, but was not entered into the main competition.[2] In a review of the film, composer Allen Shaw[1] commented on how the camera work and directorship mirrored the film's central premise: While mirroring the technical rigor underlying the music, the Straubs also established a directorial method that brilliantly underscored the work’s themes: Moses and Aron’s dichotomous relationship is presented with an extraordinary visual economy—yet they are never framed in exactly the same way. — Allen Shaw, Holy Ghosts Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron meets Straub and Huillet

Il vecchio testamento, released in English as The Old Testament, and in Spanish, Los Macabeos (The Maccabees), is a 1962 Italian/French widescreen international co-production epic film shot in Yugoslavia. It is based on the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire of Syrian of 167–141 BC. It was directed and co-written by Gianfranco Parolini and starred Brad Harris in one of their frequent collaborations. Plot The film is a very loose and free retelling of the Maccabean Revolt. The Greek Syrians demand that Zeus be worshiped in the Temple in Jerusalem. The Jewish priest Mattathias calls for resistance; Mattathias and his followers revolt and flee into the desert. In the wilderness, the Syrian government forces and Mattathias's rebels clash, a battle that claims many lives. Judas Maccabeus, the son of Mattathias, assumes command for a time of them, but he too falls in battle and his brother Jonathan Apphus takes over. After Jonathan's death, his brother Simon Thassi takes his place. Eventually, the Jews under Simon recapture Jerusalem and expel the Syrians. Simon celebrates the victory with his people. A Syrian woman, his bride, stands by his side. In a speech he announces that the captured Syrian soldiers are to be released so that they can report on the power and leniency of the Jews. A notable difference the film has is that it seemingly portrays the hostile Antiochus IV Epiphanes as more of a local governor than a distant king. The movie also extends his term as villain, as he is around to oppose the Maccabees during the whole movie; in history, he died before Judas did and was replaced by other Syrian kings and commanders. The film also gives romance stories and women a larger role than the rather patriarchal book of 1 Maccabees, which generally kept women in the background and unnamed. Cast In the American release several of the cast were credited with surnames of American actors who had appeared in Biblical films such "John (Charlton) Heston" and "Susan (Debra) Paget". Brad Harris ... Simon Thassi Djordje Nenadovic ... Judas Maccabeus Ivano Staccioli ...Antiochus IV Epiphanes Franca Parisi ... Miza Mara Lane ... Diotima Philippe Hersent ... Namele Carlo Tamberlani ... Mattathias Jacques Berthier ... Apollonius, military commander of Seleucid Empire Alan Steel

The Trip to Bountiful is a 1985 American road drama film directed by Peter Masterson and starring Geraldine Page, John Heard, Carlin Glynn, Richard Bradford and Rebecca De Mornay. It was adapted by Horton Foote from his 1953 play of the same name. The film features a soundtrack by J.A.C. Redford featuring Will Thompson's "Softly and Tenderly" sung by Cynthia Clawson.[2] Geraldine Page won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as Mrs. Watts and Horton Foote was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film is partially set in the titular community of Bountiful, a fictitious Texas town. Although part of the film is set in Houston, Texas (as was the original play), the movie was shot in Dallas. Plot The film, set in the post-World War II 1940s, tells the story of an elderly woman, Carrie Watts, who wants to return to her home, the small, rural, agriculture-based town of Bountiful near the Texas Gulf coast between Houston and Corpus Christi, where she grew up, but she's frequently stopped from leaving Houston by her daughter-in-law and her overprotective son, who will not let her travel alone. Her son and daughter-in-law both know that the town has long since disappeared, due to the Depression. Long-term out-migration was caused by the draw-down of all the town's able-bodied men to the wartime draft calls and by the demand for industrial workers in the war production plants of the big cities. Old Mrs. Watts is determined to outwit her son and bossy daughter-in-law, and sets out to catch a train, only to find that trains do not go to Bountiful anymore. She eventually boards a bus to a town near her childhood home. On the journey, she befriends a woman traveling alone and reminisces about her younger years and grieves for her lost relatives. Her son and daughter-in-law eventually track her down, with the help of the local police force; however, Mrs. Watts is determined. The local sheriff, moved by her yearning to visit her girlhood home, offers to drive her out to what remains of Bountiful. The town is deserted and the few remaining structures are derelict. Mrs. Watts learns that the last occupant of the town and the woman with whom she had hoped to live, has recently died. She is moved to tears as she surveys her father's land and the remains of the family home. Having accepted the reality of the current condition of Bountiful and knowing that she has reached her goal of returning there before dying, she is ready to return to Houston when her son and daughter-in-law arrive to drive her back. Having confronted their common history in Bountiful, the three commit to live more peacefully together. They begin their drive back to Houston. Cast Geraldine Page as Mrs. Watts John Heard as Ludie Watts Carlin Glynn as Jessie Mae Richard Bradford as Sheriff Rebecca De Mornay as Thelma Kevin Cooney as Roy Norman Bennett as First Bus Ticket Man Harvey Lewis as Second Bus Ticket Man Kirk Sisco as Train Ticket Agent Gil Glasgow as Stationmaster, Gerard Mary Kay Mars as Rosella Wezz Tildon as Bus Passenger Peggy Ann Byers as Downstairs Neighbor David Romo as Mexican Man Tony Torn as Twin John Torn as Twin Alexandra Masterson as Drugstore Waitress Don Wyse as Doctor Reception Critical response Geraldine Page's performance received positive reviews, earning her the Academy Award for Best Actress. The Trip to Bountiful received a very positive response from film critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a score of 100% from 10 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. Geraldine Page received particular praise for her performance as Mrs. Watts. Variety called the film "a superbly crafted drama featuring the performance of a lifetime by Geraldine Page."[3] Vincent Canby of The New York Times described it as a "funny, exquisitely performed film adaptation of [Foote's] own play" and wrote of Page, "Her Mrs. Watts is simultaneously hilarious and crafty, sentimental and unexpectedly tough." He added, "It's a wonderful role, and the performance ranks with the best things Miss Page has done on the screen."[4] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times similarly observed that "Page inhabits the central role with authority and vinegar," writing, "She's not just a sweet and gentle little old lady. She's a big old lady, with a streak of stubbornness. And just because she's right doesn't mean she's always all that nice."[5] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times further remarked, "Carrie [Watts] is a performance, a precisely conceived and calculated turn by a gifted professional always aware of what she is doing and the effects she's creating. But the test of acting always is that you forget this, surrendering to the certainty that you have been transported back to 1947 and that dark apartment, and are then riding the bus toward Bountiful in the company of this warm and loving old woman. The film gives us an unforgettable portrayal."[6] Vincent Canby later included The Trip to Bountiful in his list of the top ten films of 1985.[7] The Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa cited The Trip to Bountiful as one of his favorite films.[8][9] Awards and nominations Award Category Recipients and nominees Result Academy Awards[10] Best Actress Geraldine Page Won Best Screenplay – Based on Material from Another Medium Horton Foote Nominated Boston Society of Film Critics Awards[11] Best Actress Geraldine Page Won Golden Globe Awards[12] Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama Nominated Independent Spirit Awards[13] Best Film Sterling Van Wagenen and Horton Foote Nominated Best Director Peter Masterson Nominated Best Female Lead Geraldine Page Won Best Screenplay Horton Foote Won Mainichi Film Awards[14] Best Foreign Language Film Peter Masterson Won National Board of Review Awards[15] Top Ten Films 3rd Place New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Actress Geraldine Page 3rd Place Retirement Research Foundation, USA Television and Theatrical Film Fiction Horton Foote and Sterling Van Wagenen Won Writers Guild of America Awards Best Screenplay – Based on Material from Another Medium Horton Foote Nominated Home media On April 12, 2005, MGM released The Trip to Bountiful on DVD in region 1 US in both a widescreen and a full-frame format on a two-sided disc. In the United Kingdom, the film was initially released in late 1986 on VHS via Vestron Video,[16] while it has been available multiple times on DVD on region 2 in the UK; first distributed by Arrow Films in a standard full-frame format edition on February 7, 2005,[17] while on February 6, 2006, it was made available via Prism in the same full-frame version.[18] Its most recent DVD release was on December 15, 2008, when it was distributed by Boulevard Entertainment.[19] Kino Lorber released The Trip to Bountiful on Blu-ray Region A on September 25, 2018.[20][21]

Winston Blackmore the Prophet of Bountiful BC opens his doors to what life is really like in his Canadian FLDS Community.

A documentary about the Fundamentalist - Kingston Group

Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration is a 2005 film that focuses on some of the events during the life of Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, which was both filmed and distributed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The film was shown in the Legacy Theater of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building from its opening on December 17, 2005 until early 2015, and opened in several LDS Church visitors' centers on December 24, 2005. The film used the digital intermediate process. In March 2011, the church released a revised cut of the film, which is available to watch in select visitors' centers and online. Additionally, the church has released the film in several languages including ASL, Spanish, French, German, and Japanese.

In a journey to Centennial Park, Arizona, Lisa Ling visits one of America's most closed-off communities and is granted unprecedented access to a group of modern-day men and women who are living in plural marriages -- and professing to love it. Original Air Date: October 23, 2011

The documentary explores polygamy as a whole interviewing polygamists from different sects. The show also made the point to pull from different age groups and from different experiences (some were born into polygamist families, some converted in it.

Abraham had two wives. Sarai and Hagar. The mother of the Jews and the Mother of the Muslims. All credit goes to the original uploader of the Channel: On_the_Other_Hand https://rumble.com/user/On_the_Other_Hand

A look into the lives of missionaries who come to Ireland for their mission.

A look at the Lebaron Group

From 2003 Fifth Estate host Hana Gartner with a rare glimpse inside the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and an exclusive interview with one of its most prominent citizens Winston Blackmore. Over the years there have been occasional news reports about a mysterious and secretive religious community in Bountiful, B.C. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - no relation to the mainstream Mormons believe that not only does God condone polygamy, but the Canadian Charter of Rights does, too.

The life of Brigham Young, the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during the better part of the 1800s, founder of Salt Lake City and the first governor of the Utah Territory.

The God Makers is a book and film highlighting the inner workings and perceived negative aspects of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Ed Decker and Dave Hunt co-authored the book and film. Jeremiah Films produced the film in 1982, expressing a highly critical view of the LDS Church, its practices, and its teachings. The film purports to be an exposé of the church's secrets, and has occasioned controversy among church members and non-members since its release, provoking passionate debates about its veracity and message. Two years after the release of the film, the book was published in 1984. The God Makers II is a documentary-styled film produced by Ed Decker and Jeremiah Films in 1993. The film, a sequel to Decker’s earlier film The God Makers, is intended to be an exposé of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

A cartoon from the anti-mormon film, The God Makers, explaining some of the possible theology of Mormon Fundamentalist.

The Biased Hollywood Film About The FLDS LeBaron Group. The take-down of an infamous leader of a small polygamous Mormon fundamentalist group, who ordered assassinations of his opponents which included family members.

A PBS docudrama of the life of Mormon leader (some believe prophet) Joseph Smith (1805-44). Narrated by the late Gregory Peck. Includes interviews with historians (some of them Mormon) and LDS officers and elders.

For the 1956 film, also directed by Cecil B. DeMille, see The Ten Commandments (1956 film). The Ten Commandments Theatrical release poster Directed by Cecil B. DeMille Story by Jeanie MacPherson Produced by Cecil B. DeMille Starring Theodore Roberts Charles De Roche Estelle Taylor Julia Faye Richard Dix Rod La Rocque Leatrice Joy Nita Naldi Cinematography Bert Glennon Peverel Marley Archibald Stout J. F. Westerberg Edited by Anne Bauchens Color process Technicolor Production company Famous Players–Lasky Corporation Distributed by Paramount Pictures Release dates December 4, 1923 (Los Angeles premiere) December 21, 1923 (New York City premiere) Running time 136 minutes Country United States Languages Silent English intertitles Budget $1.5 million[1] Box office $4.2 million[1][2] The Ten Commandments is a 1923 American silent religious epic film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Written by Jeanie MacPherson, the film is divided into two parts: a prologue recreating the biblical story of the Exodus and a modern story concerning two brothers and their respective views of the Ten Commandments. Lauded for its "immense and stupendous" scenes, use of Technicolor process 2, and parting of the Red Sea sequence,[3] the expensive film proved to be a box-office hit upon release.[4] It is the first in DeMille's biblical trilogy, followed by The King of Kings (1927) and The Sign of the Cross (1932). The Ten Commandments is one of many works from 1923 that entered the public domain in the United States in 2019.[5] Plot Duration: 2 hours, 16 minutes and 13 seconds.2:16:13 The Ten Commandments The film has two parts: the Prologue, the epic tale of Moses; and the Story, in a modern setting and involving living by the Ten Commandments. The prologue The opening statement explains that modern society mocked Judeo-Christian morality until it witnessed the horrors of World War I; it then beseeches the viewer to return to the Commandments, calling them "the fundamental principles without which mankind cannot live together. They are not laws—they are the LAW." From there, the Book of Exodus is recounted, starting just after the ninth plague. After their flight from Egypt, and the Crossing of the Red Sea, Moses climbs Mount Sinai and witnesses the Commandments given as writing in the sky, which he then carves into stone tablets. When he returns, he finds the Israelites have fallen into debauchery and built a golden calf to worship. Furiously, he smashes the Commandments, deeming the Israelites unworthy. An Israelite man and woman seducing each other find, to the horror of both, that the woman has hideous sores covering her hands and is unclean, prompting her to beg Moses to be cleansed. Moses calls on God's power and lightning destroys the calf. The story Two brothers, John and Dan McTavish, live with their mother Martha, a believer in Biblical inerrancy. The two brothers make opposite decisions; John follows his mother's teaching of the Commandments, becoming a carpenter living on meager earnings, and Dan, now an avowed atheist who is convinced the Commandments offer him nothing, vows to break every one of them and rise to the top. Martha evicts Dan from her house. He stops at a lunch wagon. There, Mary, an impoverished but beautiful young woman, steals a bite of Dan's sandwich, triggering a madcap chase after her. She takes refuge in the McTavish house, where John convinces his mother to take Mary in for the night. John also convinces Dan to set aside his grievance and stay; he introduces Dan to Mary. Dan quickly wins Mary over with his freewheeling ways. Martha's strict observance of the Sabbath causes friction when Dan and Mary dance on Sunday, and, although John tries to convince his mother to show grace, Dan and Mary decide it's time to run off together. Three years later, Dan has become a corrupt contractor. He earns a contract to build a massive cathedral and decides to cut the amount of cement in the concrete to dangerously low levels, pocketing the money saved and becoming very rich. He puts John, still a bachelor, in charge of construction, hoping to use him to provide her mother the gifts that she refuses to accept from Dan. Dan cheats on Mary with Sally, a Eurasian adulteress. One day, Martha visits John at his work site; a wall collapses on her. Fatally injured, with her last words, she tells Dan she spent too much time trying to teach fear, not love, of God. Now out of money, Dan learns a muckraker tabloid threatens to expose his operation. His business partner recommends a $25,000 bribe to stop publication, but lacking the funds, Dan instead attempts suicide – his partner stops him, solely because he refuses to take the fall alone, and demands the money. He goes to Sally's brothel to take back expensive pearls he gave her, but Sally refuses, revealing she smuggled herself into the country from Molokai through a contraband jute shipment and is thus infected with leprosy, likely infecting Dan as well. In a rage, he kills Sally and attempts to flee to Mexico on a motorboat (Defiance), but rough weather sends him off course and he crashes into a rocky island. His dead body is among the wreckage. Mary, fearing herself also infected, stops by John's office to say goodbye, but John insists on taking her in. As he reads Mary the New Testament story of Jesus healing the lepers (re-enacted on screen, with Jesus shown only from behind), a light shows Mary's hands not to be scarred at all, and that her perceived scars had disappeared in the light. Throughout the film, the visual motif of the commandments' tablets appears in the sets, with a particular commandment appearing on them when relevant to the story. Cast Prologue Theodore Roberts as Moses, The Lawgiver Charles De Roche as Rameses, The Magnificent Estelle Taylor as Miriam, The Sister of Moses Julia Faye as The Wife of Pharaoh Pat Moore (billed as Terrence Moore) as The Son of Pharaoh James Neill as Aaron, Brother of Moses Lawson Butt as Dathan, The Discontented Clarence Burton as The Taskmaster Noble Johnson as The Bronze Man Story Edythe Chapman as Mrs. Martha McTavish Richard Dix as John McTavish, her son Rod La Rocque as Dan McTavish, her son Leatrice Joy as Mary Leigh Nita Naldi as Sally Lung, a Eurasian Robert Edeson as Redding, an Inspector Charles Ogle as The Doctor Agnes Ayres as The Outcast Production The idea for the film was based upon the winning submission to a contest in which the public suggested ideas for DeMille's next film.[2] The winner was F. C. Nelson of Lansing, Michigan; the first line of his suggestion read: "You cannot break the Ten Commandments—they will break you."[2] Production on the film started on May 21, 1923, and ended on August 16, 1923.[2] Writing The four main characters of the modern story (from left to right): John McTavish, a carpenter; his mother, Mrs. Martha McTavish; his sister-in-law, Mary Leigh; and his brother, Dan McTavish Jeanie MacPherson, the film's screenwriter, first thought to "interpret the Commandments in episodic form".[2] Both she and DeMille eventually decided on an unusual two-part screenplay: a biblical prologue and a modern story demonstrating the consequences of breaking the Ten Commandments.[2] In a treatment for the film, MacPherson described the four main characters of the modern story: There are four people in the modern story of The Ten Commandments, and they view these Commandments in four different ways. There is Mrs. McTavish, the mother, who keeps the Commandments the wrong way. She is narrow. She is bigoted. She is bound with ritual. She is a representative of orthodoxy, yet withal she is a fine, clean, strong woman just like dozens we all know. There is a girl, Mary Leigh, who doesn't bother about the Ten Commandments at all. She is a good kid, but she has spent so much time working that she hasn't learned the Ten Commandments... Dan McTavish knows the Ten Commandments, but defies them. John McTavish is a garden variety of human being, which believes the Ten Commandments as unchanging, immutable laws of the universe. He is not a sissy or a goody-goody, he is a regular fellow, an ideal type of man of high and steadfast principles, who believes the Commandments are as practicable in 1923 as they were in the time of Moses.[2] Filming The Gates of Rameses in one of the film's Technicolor sequences The Exodus scenes were filmed at the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes in northern Santa Barbara County.[2] The film location was originally chosen because its immense sand dunes provided a superficial resemblance to the Egyptian desert. Rumor had it that after the filming was complete, the massive sets – which included four 35-foot-tall (11 m) Pharaoh statues, 21 sphinxes, and gates reaching a height of 110 feet, which were built by a small army of 1,600 workers – were dynamited and buried in the sand. Instead, the wind, rain and sand at the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes likely collapsed and buried a large part of the set under the ever-shifting dunes. The statues and sphinxes are in roughly the same place they were during filming. In 2012, archaeologists uncovered the head of one of the prop sphinxes; a 2014 recovery effort showed the body of that sphinx to have deteriorated significantly, but a second better-preserved sphinx was discovered and excavated.[6][7] The effort to locate and excavate the set was the subject of a 2016 documentary, The Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille.[8][full citation needed] The parting of the Red Sea scene was shot in Seal Beach, California.[9] The visual effect of keeping the walls of water apart while the Israelites walked through was accomplished with a slab of Jell-O that was sliced in two and filmed close up as it jiggled. This shot was then combined with live-action footage of Israelites walking into the distance to create the illusion.[10][11] Portions of the modern story were filmed in San Francisco, with the cathedral building sequence filmed at the then under construction Sts. Peter and Paul Church on Filbert Street and the adjoining Washington Square. Release Distributed by Paramount Pictures, The Ten Commandments premiered at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre (in Hollywood) on December 4, 1923.[12][13] Critical response Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt in one of the film's Technicolor sequences On its release, critics praised The Ten Commandments overall; however, the part of the film set in modern times received mixed reviews.[14] Variety, for example, declared the opening scenes alone worth the admission price, but found the remainder of the film disappointing by comparison: "The opening Biblical scenes of The Ten Commandments are irresistible in their assembly, breadth, color and direction [...] They are immense and stupendous, so big the modern tale after that seems puny."[3] According to the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 86% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 7 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10.[15] Box office The Ten Commandments became the highest-grossing film of 1923. The film's box-office returns held the Paramount revenue record for 25 years until it was broken by other DeMille films.[4] The film competed at the box office with Fox's The Shepherd King, and won out overall. Ban in China The movie was banned in the 1930s in China under a category of "superstitious films" due to its religious subject matter involving gods and deities.[16] Remake Main article: The Ten Commandments (1956 film) DeMille directed a second, expanded version of the biblical story in 1956. For the later version, DeMille dropped the modern-day storyline in favor of profiling more of Moses' early life. In 2006, the 1923 film was released on DVD as an extra feature on the 50th Anniversary DVD release of the 1956 film. In the DVD commentary with Katherine Orrison included with the 1923 film, she states that DeMille refilmed several sequences nearly shot-for-shot for the new version, and also had set pieces constructed for the later film that were near-duplicates of what he had used in 1923.[17] On March 29, 2011, Paramount released a new Blu-ray Disc with the 6-disc box set.[18] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ten_Commandments_(1923_film)