The Saviour

Neatly dressed in white shirts and ties bible thumpers comb the neighborhood in search of converts, offering spiritual salvation. They are mostly met with veiled contempt as they go from door to door but one of them, Malcolm, has developed a carnal situation with a married woman. He naturally keeps it from his superiors who frown at one on one guidance sessions but becomes undone when she suddenly breaks it off.

Writer director Peter Templeman immediately imbalances the viewer with his opening scene that poses a series of questions and then moves this short along in a breezy comic pace with dark undertones. Templeman displays a real knack for economy of editing and framing as he moves the pieces of the film's puzzle into place in the film's brief running time revealing only clues as to the intention of the film's characters and ultimate destination. Ably assisting Templeman's deft construction is Thom Campell as the nebbish but disturbing Malcolm. Joyless with a constant expression of disapproval and now heavily conflicted he keeps you guessing on how this thing will end.

Well, here we go with another example of slamming a religion where it's politically-correct to do so by a hypocritical filmmaker. In this case, it's the Mormon church. It's either them, the Catholics or the Protestants.....everyone else is off-limits due to "sensitivity." However, when it comes to slamming the above folks, PC goes out the window. Try doing a hatchet job like this - showing a Mormon missionary going door-to-door while at the same time he's trying to have sex with a married woman - but having a Buddhist doing it, or a Jew or Muslim. Hey, that might be "offensive," but Mormons....hey, that's okay.

Of course, this got nominated for an Academy Award. That fits in with the rest of Hollywood's secular agenda. And - no, by the way, I am NOT a Mormon, but I found this extremely offensive, and that includes the ending. The director of this film should stick to cartoons, something he's better at doing. His agenda in here, making Mormons look like fools, is obvious. What motivates a writer to do this? Hate?

I also found it laughable and typical to see another example of these secular filmmakers don't even bother to check the faiths they slam. Here, the leader is called "pastors" which Mormons do not do and, of course, the leader is shown to be some nasty hard-ass. That is so typical of these hate-filled atheists who make films. Hey guys, at least do your homework.

Two bible sellers and church recruiters, Malcolm and Paul, peddle their religion to an unresponsive community. Malcolm seems to be having some initial success with a woman that he visits a number of times. The head of the local church to which Malcolm and Paul belong presses them on to get this new recruit to join the faith. Eventually it becomes clear that she is unwilling to take the next step and attend church on Sunday. She does not want see him around the house anymore. What's going on? Everything is explained when we finally meet the husband. To get the answer, see this clever short. The religious bits are short and pertinent.

This film has to do with a team of evangelists canvassing a neighborhood. However, one of them isn't the best representative of the faith because he ends up sleeping with one of his potential converts--leading to a very sticky (and funny) situation.

I won't attack this film like one of the other nominations, though I can see how they might be upset that the film definitely makes fun of some religious people, though I don't think it can be categorically said that the film targets Mormons. The characters do seem rather like the Mormons, though no mention is made of Mormons, The Book of Mormon and the missionaries only carry the Bible and refer to their leader as 'pastor'. So this might be seen as a general attack on religion or Christianity instead of Mormonism.

My advice, then, is that if this might offend you, then watch a different film. However, despite the film's tone towards religion, it is very well written and directed--as well as being very clever. It was nominated for the Oscar for Best Live Action Short for 2006 but lost to the amazing WEST BANK STORY.

These and many more are included on the DVD "A Collection of 2006 Academy Award Nominated Short Films" and is well worth buying because it is jam-packed full of 13 wonderful shorts.