Six Days in August

Just finished watching Six Days in August in theatres. Very professionally and creatively made film. The cinematography was awesome, the score was moving, and, while it seemed the writers struggled sometimes to narrow down the elements necessary for their story, the acting portrayed by the actors (particularly with John Donovan Wilson) was superb. The ensemble cast did a fantastic job of carrying the story and providing the audience with a close look into the days after the LDS prophets death. Definitely would recommend seeing in theatres. Very well made and would hope that the film's reach keeps extending.

This is a wonderful movie to show what Brigham Young was really like, according to so many different people's journal entries from back in the 1800s. This movie even touches on the difficulty that people have accepting polygamy, and gave us a peek into many other lives we here less about like Heber c Kimball, George A. Smith, and wives like Violate Kimball and Mary Ann Young.

It does flip or forward and backward in time a little. As long as you pay attention to the dates printed on the screen it should not be hard to follow.

As for the other review that said polygamy was "enthusiasticly accepted by the women", they must have not seen the movie, or at least not the scene where Emma was crying saying that she is being tested beyond what she can handle, and Joseph said he would not choose this.

It tells the story of the martyrdom of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young's succession to the leadership. The story is very complicated with a lot of characters and the writer/director, Mark Goodman, does a fantastic job of making the story engaging and easy to follow. It was a well-written, well-acted film with beautiful cinematography and a great soundtrack. You may never have heard of any of these actors. But they were all great and I hope to see them in other films for years to come. It is worth staying for the closing credits to hear the song O Give Me Back My Prophet Dear, with lyrics by John Taylor, music by Rob Gardner, and sung by Casey Elliott. It is a great film that tells an important story in Church history.

In the film the martyrdom scene isn't too specific but because this film strives for historically accuracy I will critic it for it more harshly. They showed Joseph bolting out of the window in Carthage Jail and breaking the window. Eye witness testimony stated he crawled out of that small window with one leg, one arm, and his head out of the window before a great force flinging him out of the window as like a leap or push. Newspapers from that time also describe that the window section that lifts up was still present and was not knocked out by Joseph going out of the window. They don't address enough the placement of Hyrum in the room as he died with his back turned to the door facing the window as his head was 1 foot away from the north east corner of the room and blood splatter on his clothing suggest he died on his stomach. They don't address Willard Richards being behind Joseph when at the window and the mob not shooting Richards while he was in plain line of sight.

I was familiar with the history and came into the movie with a pro bias. The movie however was a disappointment. It's as if the director and writers couldn't decide which story to tell so they told too many. Within five minutes they covered twenty years of highlights from Brigham's life. This made for disjointed story telling. The maudlin acting particularly of the women who played Maryann and Emma diminished the strength of the women and the complexities of the times they lived in. While Emma acknowledged why there would be tensions in Missouri, the mob and Plant were depicted overly villainous.