This is a review, of sorts, of the videos on Joseph Smith recently added to the “Prophets of the Restoration” feature on the Church History Department’s website, history.lds.org. Assisting me in the review were several of my children, the oldest of whom is eight.
Approximately ten videos, of about a minute and a half each on average, have been prepared and posted for each of the sixteen men who have held the office of president and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It appears that for each prophet, the videos are divided into four categories: one video on some aspect of the prophet’s “testimony”; about three videos on some aspect of “preparation” for the calling as prophet; about three videos on the “ministry” of the prophet; and about three videos on the “teachings” of the prophet.
The video portion of the Joseph Smith videos appears to have been taken primarily from prior church videos, especially Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration (with Nathan Mitchell as the adult Joseph Smith and Katherine Thompson as Emma Smith), which debuted in 2005 in the Legacy Theater of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building on Temple Square and continues to play there. It is also available online. Much of the audio content of the ten Joseph Smith videos is provided by voiceover, either of a narrator or of the actor portraying Joseph Smith.
The favorite Joseph Smith videos of the child reviewers were those on family life and on Joseph’s trials. The reasons given for preferring these two were that they had a lot of “action” (as opposed to a mostly still image of someone standing there reading or talking). The children were actually taken aback that some of the videos did not have much “action.” In their minds, “video” means “action,” which can be expressed mathematically as V=A. The children were also touched by seeing Joseph’s suffering in the second of the two videos mentioned.
Some of the children’s reactions were unexpected, as when they giggled both times the well-known oil portrait of Joseph Smith was shown (this one). Apparently they had not seen it before and thought it looked “weird.” I did not take the time to explain that the oil portrait was actually painted in his lifetime and so is probably a more accurate rendition than most of the ones they are used to seeing. After watching the video about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, the children said they wished it had shown “the angel,” a reminder to me that children readily accept the supernatural with none of the reservations adults sometimes have.
For my part, I most enjoyed the video on the First Vision, which was borrowed primarily from the Prophet of the Restoration. I think the movie’s producers did a nice job of casting a youthful-looking actor for the teenage Joseph Smith and that the actor (Nick Whitaker) well portrayed a sense of being awestruck by what he experienced. (Regarding this video one of the child reviewers commented: “I think the part was cool where it showed Satan trying to stop him, even though I know we’re not supposed to think that’s cool.”)
These videos will be helpful to a whole variety of folks wanting to learn more about church history and the presidents of the church from the comfort of their own Internet connections. The videos could also be used for family nights or in Sunday lessons. Those who produced the videos should be commended for making this valuable resource available.
By way of mild criticism, I noticed that in the video about Joseph’s teachings on the Book of Mormon, at least three characters are shown reading the last few pages of the Book of Mormon with a sense of satisfaction on their faces. To me this tends to create an expectation that one cannot obtain a testimony of the book until she or he has read the entire thing. In my own experience, I had obtained a testimony, or as much of one as I was going to get for a while, well before I got to the end, and I was almost mocking God to pray for a testimony after concluding the volume because I knew I already had one.
I also want to express my wish that someday someone will produce a feature-length film about Joseph Smith that portrays his life in greater complexity. Necessarily the church-produced videos focus on certain faith-promoting aspects of his life. I think perhaps seeing some of his weaknesses or some of the difficult aspects of the history portrayed on film might help prepare some members for the negative information about Joseph they are inevitably going to encounter on the Internet. I think a full-length film on the Camp of Israel (Zion’s Camp) would be terrific, as would one on the events related to the second attempt by Missouri to extradite Joseph from Illinois.
Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon 