An Excerpt from the Sealed Portion of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings

SAM
Mr. Frodo. What’s that you’re hiding under a linen napkin?

FRODO
Sam, I have come into possession of the ring of power—the one ring which rules us all and binds us.

SAM
May I see it, Mr. Frodo?!

FRODO
Sam, only those deemed worthy may see it.

SAM
Oh, I wish I could see it, Frodo! I’ve longed to see such a thing before I grow old and die.

FRODO
I know you have, Sam. Since I’ve concealed it under this cloth, you may touch it through the fabric. Do you feel the ring, Sam?

SAM
Yes, Frodo! I can feel the metal, the roundness of it, the hole to put my finger through! Oh, bless you Frodo for letting me touch the ring! This is a day never to be forgotten! Even if I cannot see it with my physical eyes, it’s almost as if I behold it in my mind!

FRODO
You do, Sam! You have been granted a vision of it. You are now a witness of the ring. You have seen and hefted and know of a surety that this is the ring of power![i]

Let a Film Without Silliness Cast the First Stone

Earlier this week I watched The Oath, the recent and much-maligned Mormon movie from filmmaker Darin Scott. The Oath centers on the prophet Moroni after the final battle at the Hill Cumorah. He wanders alone, guarding the golden plates with the help of an angel. Soon he falls in love with a Lamanite concubine named Bathsheba who has fled her evil master Aaron.

I’d been led to believe, mostly by progressive and ex-Mormons, that The Oath is a crappy movie. But… I have now seen and beheld! Guess what? The Oath is not crap. Unless, that is, the Hollywood blockbusters it emulates are also crap.

Mr. Scott and his beloved film can be faulted any number of ways. Certainly, his choice to bear spiritual testimony in the film’s official marketing materials has arguably sabotaged his earnest efforts to achieve box office success. Here are some faults I find with the movie:

  • The plot suffers from slow pacing, as the director gives us shot after shot of characters gazing pensively, praying silently, or sobbing fervently
  • As other’s have noted, the camera dotes, devoutly dotes, dotes in near idolatry on its stars’ physical beauty. It’s as gratuitous as old Star Trek episodes where Captain Kirk’s shirt gets ripped off early in a fight. Still, this self-infatuation with sexiness is more of an industry standard than a sin[ii]
  • Sped-up footage in the film’s climactic fight sequence pulled me out of the story. Granted, we film fans have been putting up with this fight-scene editing cheat for decades
  • The Oath provides an eternal polygamy opportunity for its hero; but I’d rather focus on what a honey of thing it is to watch a Latter-day-Saint-produced story depict the bad guy as villainous, in part, because he enjoys sexual favors from multiple women
  • We are asked to accept that the golden plates are guarded by a real angel, while simultaneously being expected to believe the plates are in jeopardy of being stolen. Which is it? Are the plates protected by divine power, or are they vulnerable to cat burglars?

Nevertheless, The Oath is not crap. Talent and craft are everywhere apparent. At a glance, the production values are superior to the Church-produced Book of Mormon series currently available on YouTube, though they continue to be roundly upstaged by the TV series The Chosen. The Oath is also far more artfully evolved than the terrible 2003 movie: The Book of Mormon, Volume 1: The Journey. Even if it turns out the Book of Mormon is true, that movie was awful on production values alone. Worse yet, it does not even try to mask the racism of the Lamanite origin story or the psychotic brutality of killing Laban.

Anyhow, here are some positives in The Oath:

  • The acting is quite good. Religious films place huge demands on actors to emote believably in farfetched situations. Here the cast mostly manages to keep the dialogue naturalistic. It certainly never gets more melodramatic than some of the grandiose performances and dialogue in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films.
  • There is even some well-delivered comic-relief as Moroni learns wilderness survival techniques from Bathsheba
  • Through storytelling craft, Darin injects suspense into how things may turn out for Moroni prior to the closing credits. As a devout believer in real life, it’s safe to say Darin isn’t going to radically retcon the scripture which inspired The Oath. Suffice it to say *ahem* Moroni is the last Nephite. There’s only so happy the film’s ending can hope to be[iii]
  • Visually, this film is gorgeous. No luck involved there. This requires talent behind the camera and on the post-production team
  • The Oath has a compelling villain who experiences internal conflict. …no, not Billy Zane’s Aaron. I refer to the character Mahigana, sister to Moroni’s main squeeze, played with no-nonsense poise and intensity by actor Karina Lombard. No kidding, she rocks! Karina’s performance left me wanting to see her in a starring role in whatever Mormon or non-Mormon film comes next[iv]
  • The Oath effectively addresses faith crisis, with people frantically resisting reality, clinging to myths. There is emotional truth in how Moroni and Bathsheba struggle with conflicting accounts of their peoples’ difficult history

And it came to pass…

I return to the argument I began with via parody. If The Oath is crap, then probably so are any of your favorite flicks. They are all one religious rewrite away from cringeworthy.

I suspect the only thing which makes this movie embarrassing to a wide spectrum of Latter-day Saints from TBM to ex-Mo is its being based on the Book of Mormon—a publication which I and others continue to declare is a racist piece of white Christian nationalism[v]. If, indeed, sincere faith is the active ingredient in the film’s being bad, what does that say about the scriptures in specific and the religion in general?

That said, if Darin Scott makes another Book of Mormon movie, I’m open to forking over the price of a ticket to watch it. I don’t have to love a film for it to be worth considering. Nor am I ethically bound to pan it outright if it has some thematic issues or comes from a person who likely votes differently than I do. We should still be able to munch on popcorn together.

In fact, it was kinda fun to immerse myself in one of those good, old-fashioned Book of Mormon stories, like the ones my teacher told to me. In my own way, I feel as drawn to the tale of Moroni as Darin, albeit with the arm’s-length separation provided by allegorical interpretation. By way of compliment, he got me closer to Moroni than anyone has in a long time.

The Oath is an interesting, problematic, yet often beautiful film. Rail against it if you like, as indignantly as any soldier in either army on the mythical Hill Cumorah. Just remember, we all know how awful that battle turned out for everyone involved.

Questions for Discussion

For a previous Wheat & Tares post on The Oath, read hawkgrrrl’s piece. Okay, W&T readers and film fans, what say you? Have you seen The Oath? What did you think of it, and why? What other films with religious themes have you seen and liked? Or disliked? Why?

[i] I can do this all day, folks. It takes less than a page of parody dialogue to turn your most cherished popcorn flick into a horrifically creepy, yet authentically Mormon, story

[ii] It is hard not to drop the word narcissism into a discussion of The Oath. Take a look at the names of the various business entities involved in producing and distributing the film: Great Scott Entertainment (the director/star’s surname); Reign Movie, LLC; Herculean Pictures (complete with a pectoral-shaking, arguably homoerotic, animated logo); and Intrinsic Value Films. To put it in Mormon terms, do these company names not sound a bit prideful?

[iii] Granted, we’ve seen this story formula many times before: Braveheart, Gladiator, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Death Wish, and for funsies, let’s throw in John Wick (same basic formula). Are these imperiled-romance films also crap? Or is this story formula only crap when the lonely hero at its center honestly believes in his God?

[iv] Believe it or not, it is possible to make a quality Mormon film which passes the Bechdel test. Dig up a copy of the somewhat problematic 2002 film Charly, or the excellent indie drama/romance Out of Step

[v] I arrive at this shocking interpretation by reading the Book of Mormon as written, and as taught authoritatively from the pulpit in General Conference and Church publications for over a century. Now watch how the people who push back hardest against me are progressive Mormons who don’t even regard the book as authentic history