By Christopher Graham
In the past few years, Mormon filmmakers have provided an abundance of clean, entertaining movies for all ages. But creating a family-friendly film about gangsters poses a difficult task for many directors.
BYU graduate, John Moyer faced this same challenge when he wrote, produced and directed the new movie ?Mobsters and Mormons.?
But for Moyer, avoiding the content found in most mobster movies was easy.
?We hear from members of the church constantly that there is nothing decent to watch,? Moyer said. ?I wanted to make a family film, and I don?t mean bubblegum-fluff, just something everyone could watch together.?
It all came down to the way he wrote the script.
?I knew we had to have a PG-rating to appeal to the audience,? Moyer said. ?I just tried to not put the characters in positions that would create the need for extreme violence or any of that other stuff.?
Moyer has made a career out of avoiding ?that other stuff? in his work. He wrote the script for ?The Singles Ward? in 2001 and his film ?Mobsters and Mormons? was released last weekend. He said this film is entertaining and comes with a good message.
Moyer hopes the film?s release will appeal to more than a Mormon audience.
To broaden the audience, Moyer approached the story from a different angle than other Mormon films. The focus of the movie is more on an average community and its issues rather than on Mormon culture.
?That?s why I think the movie works,? said Mark DeCarlo, who played the lead character Carmine Pasquale. ?These are two groups that are separate and apart from the rest of the country. So you go from being a big shot in one to being a little fish in the other and hopefully comedy ensues.?
The cast and crew, many of whom were not LDS and had some of their first contact with Mormons on this production, also felt this film could succeed despite the competition.
Mormons and their values are represented in the film, but this story could work with any clash of cultures, not just Mormons, he said.
?I think this movie carries a community message, not necessarily a religious message.? Moyer said. ?You don?t have to be LDS and you don?t have to understand the doctrine.? Moyer got the idea for the movie while reading an article in a local newspaper. The article told the story of a family that was not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who had moved into a local neighborhood. In the article,
The film?s plot revolves around a mafia family from New Jersey. When the FBI catches the father, Carmine Pasquale, he?s forced to testify against many of his fellow criminals.
To protect the family, the FBI puts them into the witness protection program and sends them to a predominately Mormon neighborhood in Utah.
The comedy explores what happens when opposing cultures collide and emphasizes the importance of community.