The film starts with a montage of clips from movies and TV making jokes about members.
They stuck to the mostly harmless stuff.
It was a pretty lighthearted way to begin, and it worked since that was the major tone of the whole thing. This film was made with a clear thesis: Mormons are normal people. There was no scene with members bearing testimony or explaining the tenants of their faith. I suspect that the expectation is that the real missionary work will begin after the credits roll and audience members go to ask their LDS friends about the movie they saw.
To explore their thesis, the filmmakers follow six members and their families and how their membership affects their lives. We meet a young, black bishop in Atlanta, the head coach of the Naval Academy football team in Annapolis, a young Costa Rican mother who is an amateur MMA fighter, a Nepalese businessman who is helping to develop villages in his country, a WWII veteran fighter pilot who still flies planes today, and a mother in Salt Lake City who is helping her oldest son prepare for his mission. I'm a bit disappointed that the filmmakers only followed two people outside the US, but since this is intended for a US audience, maybe they felt they would alienate people if it wasn't made up of mostly Americans.
From a technical standpoint (which I have a better eye for these days), I was impressed with the various techniques used. While there was a narrator, she was mostly used during transitions, allowing the stars of each segment to tell their own stories. They also allowed each segment to stand on its own by employing different styles for each person: for the football coach, they made sure to capture plenty of shots of gameplay; for the segment in Nepal, they took a lot of footage of the beautiful mountains and valleys; and for the story of the WWII vet, they got to use the Ken Burns effect to its fullest potential with old photographs. Not that the Church is new to film production, but this was still an expertly-made documentary.
In preparing for this post, I read a few snippets of the mostly negative reviews that the film has received, saying that its not a documentary but a propaganda film. I disagree. Does the Church make propaganda films? Sure, and our missionaries give them away for free. This wasn't a preachy movie. In fact, during a few of the segments (especially about the veteran), I forgot I was watching a Church-made movie. Every person talks about the positive effects of the gospel in their life, but this isn't a movie to learn about the basic beliefs of the Church. Rather, its intent is to show a variety of members in their daily lives.
The film's second goal is to be non-confrontational and in that it also succeeds. If you want a movie that shows how the Church can be a part of anyone's life, or if you just want a lighthearted look at some interesting people, Meet the Mormons is a fine choice.
Meet the Mormons is produced by Excel Entertainment.
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