Movie review: ‘Work and the Glory’

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OK, I’m ready for the slings and arrows. I was finally able to see “The Work and the Glory” on DVD this week. In a few words, I loved it. But just so you know, much of the world hated it. Still, it’s a movie I can heartily recommend.

Living in the LDS hinterlands of Miami, four hours from a temple and an LDS bookstore, it can sometimes be difficult to keep up with the latest in LDS popular culture. A lot of people I know saw “The Work and the Glory” months ago in Utah, for example. But for me, and my family, it’s the DVD or nothing.

I loved the book. I think Bro. Lund does a great job of teaching us history while maintaining an interesting story. But good books do not a good movie necessarily make.

The movie version of “The Work and the Glory” regularly had me in tears. The scene of Joseph and Emma being harassed while walking through Palmyra was gripping and helped me imagine the injustices that the prophet had to go through in the name of truth. Joseph’s testimony was moving and well-presented. The love triangle between Lydia and Nathan and Joshua was believable and moving. Most of the actors were excellent — Martin Harris looks just as I imagine him in real life, and the fictional Benjamin Steed looks exactly like the book describes him.

In short, this movie was great. I plan on seeing it again soon. I know many of you right now are shaking your heads and saying, “I’ve seen ‘Batman’ reruns with better acting than this movie,” and all I can say is, I disagree. This movie truly moved me.

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About Geoff B.

Geoff B graduated from Stanford University (class of 1985) and worked in journalism for several years until about 1992, when he took up his second career in telecommunications sales. He has held many callings in the Church, but his favorite calling is father and husband. Geoff is active in martial arts and loves hiking and skiing. Geoff has five children and lives in Colorado.

9 thoughts on “Movie review: ‘Work and the Glory’”

  1. Rather than copy and paste my opinion from my article on WG, I’ll just link to it, instead…

    Bottom line: good acting for a Church movie (a key distinction), but one really weak lead and, like the book, not enough focus on Joseph and Emma (who were excellent). Solid B.

  2. I thought that WatG was a decent effort. One thing that I found interesting was the scene where Joseph Smith participates in a stick pulling competition with the eldest steed boy.

    I found the sneer of triumph on Joseph’s face somewhat repelling. At the same time, it occurred to me that a competitive, athletic person, like Joseph Smith was, would probably take a certain pleasure in “schooling” his competition. I wonder how I would have reacted to Joseph’s competitive nature had I had a chance to meet him.

    A very interesting scene.

    (Also, if I remember right, the competition involved a minor wager…)

  3. Jonathan, interesting comment on the stick pulling. Knowing that Joseph Smith was a competitive and athletic boy, I was expecting a bit more of a sneer after he won the stick pull. Instead, I would describe his victory look as more like, “sheepish pleasure,” than “sneer.” But that’s a matter of perspective, of course. I thought the actor who played Joseph (Jonathan Scarfe) was quite good and had a good film presence.

  4. “The love triangle between Lydia and Nathan and Joshua was believable and moving” –

    …given the subject of the movie, “love triangle” probably should be replaced with “love polygon”…

  5. Thanks for your comments on this, Geoff. My wife and I will have to rent it.

  6. I didn’t really like books, so I was pleasantly surprised when WatG turned out a decent film. I think my favorite part is the depiction of the first vision. I know they were really probably just trying to avoid controversy or a difficult scene, but it comes across well – the flashback of the events leading right up to the vision and then coming back to real time to have Joseph tell it himself just like a missionary would. Considering the resources they had, trying to show it probably would have weakened the effect.

    Speaking of wagers, the funniest part of the movie is near the end when Joshua is playing poker. To show that he is in cahoots with Jessica, he waits for her to steal a look at the other guy’s hand and signal to him that he has the better hand before he goes all in. We then discover Joshua has four kings. What the heck? Like he needed to be told he had the better hand. He must have known the odds of him not having the high hand are well past 1/100,000.

  7. A decent movie – but I learned that I was evil, as all characters with beards are evil.

    In fact the movie allows you to judge a characters righteousness by how much of a beard they have – thos on the road to apostasy are growing beards, those who have repented, shave.

  8. It was about time we had a movie which showed beards in their true light. (lol)

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