# Non-LDS-produced films about Joseph Smith **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 8, 2010, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-lds-produced-films-about-joseph-smith/563466 "2010-12-08T20:41:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-lds-produced-films-about-joseph-smith/563466/21 "2010-12-10T20:23:05Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > And if I were a non-Mormon Californian – a category which includes most Hollywood directors – I would **love** a chance to piss off the Mormons! 😃 I have mentioned here on this board both my anti-prop 8 activism and my work as a film producer, haven’t I? I am worried by your SN, given my sense that you are inside my head 🙂 Just the same, I don’t see a literal retelling of the story as the way to go. Something indirect and Narnia-ish, or maybe even more indirect than that. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-lds-produced-films-about-joseph-smith/563466/22 "2010-12-10T20:58:13Z")
I think a warts-and-all biopic of Smith could be pretty interesting on several levels: as a character study, a period piece, a dramatic exploration of faith in the midst of controversy and violence, and a political commentary. Almost-kinda-sorta _The Scarlet Letter_ meets _There Will Be Blood._ ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-lds-produced-films-about-joseph-smith/563466/23 "2010-12-10T21:19:50Z")
> [@not\_alice](#): > > Jon Krakauer’s book Under the Banner of Heaven seems to me as a film producer to be ripe for licensing. Someone could do it. It would have some cachet, as it was his Into the Wild that did OK for Sean Penn. What does this sentence mean? How does a book have to have cachet? What is cachet? I’m not sure what you mean by that term, but I do think Krakauer’s book has the best chance of being optioned simply because of Krakauer’s success with Into The Wild. (Is that what you meant?) > [@not\_alice](#): > > Apparently there is a related documentary: [http://www.freshfilm.com/damnedtoheaven/](http://www.freshfilm.com/damnedtoheaven/) > > I am no Mormon fan, as a same-sex marriage activist in California, but I do think there is an increasing market for the story as the fight goes on. I bet someone has optioned the Krakauer book… I hope so, because I think it would be the perfect book to make a movie out of. I also think [Fawn Brodie’s No Man Knows My History](http://www.amazon.com/No-Man-Knows-My-History/dp/0679730540/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292015714&sr=8-1) would be good as well, but that might not be very plot driven. I haven’t read it myself, but have read a lot about it on the exmormon boards. Also, [Todd Compton’s In Sacred Loneliness](http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Loneliness-Plural-Wives-Joseph/dp/156085085X/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1292015714&sr=8-4) might also be good. That one was all about the plural wives of JS. Might explain a lot about the mindset behind Brian David Mitchell’s kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart (convicted!). ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2010, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-lds-produced-films-about-joseph-smith/563466/24 "2010-12-11T04:11:10Z")
It should be called [_The Enchanter._](http://www.chick.com/catalog/comics/0118.asp) ---
**Author:** ![Rhodes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhodes/32/273_2.png) [@Rhodes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhodes)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2010, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-lds-produced-films-about-joseph-smith/563466/25 "2010-12-11T04:14:24Z")
_No Man Knows My History_ and _Rough Stone Rolling_ are biographies of Joseph Smith in much more exquisite detail than _Under the Banner of Heaven_. They both tell the entire story, one from the perspective of someone in Mormonism just begging to be excommunicated (Brodie) and one from someone in Mormonism trying feebly to rationalize his faith without concealing embarrasing facts (Richard Bushman). The info in _Rough Stone Rolling_ is every bit as damning as in _No Man Knows My History_, but Bushman’s less hostile attitude means it is actually sold at LDS-owned bookstores. Any LDS biographical film about Smith is going to tell the official whitewashed story, where an independent producer would certainly use the narrarive found in the actual biographies. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-lds-produced-films-about-joseph-smith/563466/26 "2010-12-11T15:22:55Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > Movies about confidence men usually veer towards the humorous, and it just doesn’t suit the subject matter. In fact, what I imagine in my head is kind of comedically twinged. Totally could never work IRL but it’s the kind of thing that makes me wish I could peak through into alternate universes to see what someone could have come up with. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2010, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-lds-produced-films-about-joseph-smith/563466/27 "2010-12-12T21:04:20Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > Movies about confidence men usually veer towards the humorous, and it just doesn’t suit the subject matter. **Of course** humor fits the subject matter! ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-lds-produced-films-about-joseph-smith/563466/28 "2010-12-12T22:27:49Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > **Of course** humor fits the subject matter! Oh sure, you can laugh. I’m crying. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-lds-produced-films-about-joseph-smith/563466.md?page=1)