{"id":108908,"date":"2025-01-27T23:53:06","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T06:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=108908"},"modified":"2025-01-27T23:53:06","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T06:53:06","slug":"of-movies-serious-unserious-fun-and-not-so-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2025\/01\/of-movies-serious-unserious-fun-and-not-so-fun.html","title":{"rendered":"Of Movies, Serious, Unserious, Fun, and Not So Fun"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Errol<\/a>
A poster for the 1938 film (Wikimedia Commons public domain, fair use)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many nights, we watch a film with our granddaughter. \u00a0We\u2019ve watched all of the classic Disney cartoons and a host of others, some classic and some, well, not quite so classic. \u00a0We\u2019ve watched Mary Poppins<\/em> and the live versions of Beauty and the Beast<\/em> and Mulan<\/em> and so on and so forth.<\/p>\n

Tonight, we watched the classic 1938 movie The Adventures of Robin Hoo<\/em>d, starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, and Claude Rains. \u00a0It\u2019s been quite a while since I last watched it, but it holds up surprisingly well for a movie that is now \u2014 incredibly \u2014 nearly ninety years old. \u00a0The performances are good, the script is often witty (\u201cYou speak treason!\u201d \u201cYes. Fluently!\u201d), and the (1938!) Technicolor is still lush, as is Erich Wolfgang Korngold\u2019s score.<\/p>\n

Opern ohne Singen<\/em>, Korngold called his film scores. \u00a0\u201cOperas without singing.\u201d \u00a0And no less a modern film composer than John Williams has acknowledged his debt to Korngold, who returned to the United States from an opera-conducting gig in his native Austria in order to work on The Adventures of Robin Hood<\/em> and then remained in America until the end of the Second World War. \u00a0A Jew, he was no longer either welcome or safe in his home country after the Anschluss<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But The Adventures of Robin Hood<\/em> has a special significance for me and my wife: Our first date was to the Mexican restaurant El Azteca, which was once located just \u00a0south of Brigham Young University. \u00a0(I still regret its closing, though many years have now passed. \u00a0Its banana punch was luscious.) \u00a0And then we caught a screening of the film back up on campus.<\/p>\n

\"Either<\/a>
A typical Latter-day Saint \u00a0family in an upscale suburb of today\u2019s Salt Lake City.
(Wikimedia CC public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile, the Hollywood onslaught against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> shows little sign of easing up. \u00a0So I share here an opinion column written by Sarah Jane Weaver, the editor of Salt Lake City\u2019s Deseret News<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cOpinion: The \u2018Secret Lives of Mormon Wives\u2019 does not represent me: To ignore every bit of reality on \u2018Reality TV\u2019 \u2014 especially related to something as sacred as the faith of millions of people \u2014 is hurtful, unfair, unkind and mischaracterizes religion\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: This perspective was originally published Sept 16, 2024, and is being repromoted as episodes of \u201cThe Secret Lives of Mormon Wives\u201d will begin airing on ABC.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/div>\n
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\"A<\/a>
Martin Harris (portrayed by Lincoln Hoppe), following the loss of 116 manuscript pages of the translated Book of Mormon, at the Smith family table. A still photo by James Jordan from the set of the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s 2021 movie, \u201cWitnesses.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I\u2019m pleased that Hank Smith and John Bytheway, in Episode 5, Part 2, of their popular Follow Him<\/em> podcast<\/a> for this year \u2014 this installment featuring Professor Robert Eaton for a discussion of Doctrine and Covenants 3-5 \u2014 make very favorable mention of the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s 2021 theatrical film Witnesses<\/em>. \u00a0The reference to Witnesses<\/em> comes \u00a0at about the 2:35 mark and continues for not quite a full minute.<\/div>\n

Incidentally, as we enter into a Come, Follow Me<\/em> curriculum year that is devoted to the Doctrine and Covenants and to the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the collection of resources that were accumulated by the Interpreter Foundation as part of its overall Witnesses film project might potentially be very helpful to students and teachers. \u00a0Here is one small illustration of those resources: Episode 15: \u201cAre Prophets Perfect?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Witnesses of the Book of Mormon\u2014Insights Episode 15: God uses human beings as his leaders on the earth. Do these people need to be perfect to be prophets, seers, and revelators? This is Episode 15 of a series compiled from the many interviews conducted during the course of the Witnesses film project. . . . \u00a0These additional resources are hosted by Camrey Bagley Fox, who played Emma Smith in Witnesses<\/em>, as she introduces and visits with a variety of experts. These individuals answer questions or address accusations against the witnesses, also helping viewers understand the context of the times in which the witnesses lived. In this installment, we feature Gerrit Dirkmaat, Associate Professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University. For more information, go to <\/span>https:\/\/witnessesofthebookofmormon.org\/<\/a><\/span>. Learn about the documentary movie Undaunted\u2014Witnesses of the Book of Mormon<\/em> at <\/span>https:\/\/witnessesundaunted.com\/<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And please don\u2019t forget that Undaunted<\/em> is now available for free streaming at The Witnesses Initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"World<\/a>
Throughout Utah \u2014 and, no doubt, across the Western states generally \u2014 hundreds of thousands if not millions of listeners gather by their radios every Sunday night, seeking wisdom from the Interpreter Radio Show. They\u2019re never disappointed.
(Wikimedia CC public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Interpreter Radio Show \u2014January 19, 2025, including Doctrine and Covenants in Context D&C 10-11<\/a><\/p>\n

In the 19 January 2025 episode of the Interpreter Radio Show, Bruce Webster, Kris Frederickson, and Martin Tanner discussed Come, Follow Me<\/em> Doctrine & Covenants lesson 7, BYU employment standards, and NetFlix\u2019s American Primeval<\/em>. \u00a0Their conversation was recorded. \u00a0It has now been edited (to remove commercial interruptions), archived, and made available to you online and at no charge.<\/p>\n

The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard on Sunday evenings from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640. \u00a0Or, if that doesn\u2019t work for you or if (for whatever reason, whether good or bad) it simply doesn\u2019t float your boat, you can also listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Wiki<\/a>
The Church Administration Building in Salt Lake City, with the high-rise Church Office Building directly behind it. \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s now my painful duty, however, to share a quartet of horrors from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122:<\/p>\n