As a returned missionary and current teacher at the MTC, I was thrilled to hear about the new film 'God's Army' that was to show the world the miracle of missionary work. When my husband, a seminary teacher, was invited to see its premiere viewing last Saturday, March 3, I naturally jumped at the chance to watch a full-length motion picture on a topic so intertwined with my life. Not even able to stomach the entire show, I walked out of the theater nauseous and completely devastated.
The film reviews I had previously read emphasized the intent of film director Richard Dutcher to 'tell the real story,' yet leaving the theater, I offered a desperate prayer that my non-LDS friends would never have the chance to see that movie. I could just picture them wanting to, out of respect for me and with a desire to better understand the year and a half I spent serving the people in France. Any holiness that there was in my service there however, felt cheapened by this careless, Hollywood depiction of what a mission is 'really' like.
Herein lies the age-old conflict of wanting to describe something which is of God to the world and yet, antithetically, 'the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned' (1 Corinthians 2:13-14).
So what other alternative are you left with as an LDS director who aspires to share the sacred 'missionary story' in a way the world can understand? Dutcher's attempts to implement both the 'world's wisdom' and the Spirit were unsuccessful. The techniques he used to connect with today's audience, instead served to weaken the integrity of the very truth he attempted to share.
Dutcher attempts to musically enhance each scene with rock or alternative music -- a sound the world can identify with, and yet in doing so, fails in teaching a reality that is extremely spiritual in nature.
Perhaps this was Dutcher's attempt to make the missionaries more real -- more reachable. And yet aren't they supposed to be representing someone much more above the world? Where did that vital reality lose itself in portraying the 'real' message?
The music, however unfitting, was minimal in its damage compared to the plot. A story line following a converted and humble missionary would certainly be more true-to-life in its depiction -- yet that wouldn't be much of a story, would it? Instead we are affronted with a sort of 'misfit' cast. An elder obsessed with reading anti-Mormon literature, another unfocused elder that drools over a local waitress, and finally the main character, Elder Allen, who is weak in his faith and yet strong in his attraction to the local hookers. Even the supposedly more spiritual elder comes off as self-righteous and severely lacking in charity. Since when do we emphasize the exception over the rule when depicting 'the real story'? If that was 'God's Army,' the enemy must be laughing.
This genre of character is definitely useful in making the audience feel more comfortable, for the natural man is able to relate to them, but are they accurate in telling the story as a whole? I might go away from this film thinking I better relate to the missionaries, however, I am not sure that I would trust them to come into my home, as one sent from God, to share a message.
The choice Dutcher made in what to tell about a missionary's life only gets worse as he mixes conflicting images of missionaries taking pictures of each other on the toilet in one scene and then giving a sacred priesthood blessing in the next. Admittedly there are missionaries out there that lamentably have not caught the vision of who they really are and their behavior shows it. Yet this is not the 'real story' of a missionary and should have never been put into a film available to the whole world -- many for whom this will be their first contact with the church.
This film mocked the sacredness of what I, and so many other missionaries, have given. It re-words the mission into something that the world will feel comfortable with and yet loses its worth in the translation. The world is simply without the vocabulary. It desecrates every sacred aspect of what it truly means to represent Jesus Christ.
Emily Halverson is a junior from Penryn, Calif., majoring in English.