Joseph's No. 1 squeeze
Emma Smith: My Story, a motion picture chronicling the life of Emma Smith, the controversial first wife of Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith, is due out April 11. LDS blogs are beginning to crackle with anticipation — will the church fairly present her or sanitize her legacy? Emma was an important Mormon leader in her own right, but opposed polygamy and broke with Brigham Young after Joseph's murder and ultimately was part of a competing church.
For an advance review of a rough-cut of the film that jokes the title should be changed to "Emma Smith: Really Great Catch," go here.
For an advance review of a rough-cut of the film that jokes the title should be changed to "Emma Smith: Really Great Catch," go here.
Reviewer "Dave" writes:
To my surprise, polygamy was not ignored, but received one comment near the end of the movie. Julia asks her mother how she dealt with the revelation on polygamy. Emma admits to having struggled with it, but concludes that it was of God and even testifies of it.... This, of course, is highly strange, considering the fact that Emma denied until the day of her death that her first husband practiced polygamy, so to have her testifying of the document that justified the practice of plural marriage is, to say the least, historical implausible.BYU NewsNet offers an article on the LDS Motion Picture Studio where Emma Smith and other LDS films were made. It describes the studio as "a wonderland of modern technology which the Church, and occasionally BYU, uses to prepare and broadcast messages to the world."
8 Comments:
This story will be so sanitized it'll make Mr. Clean look like a dung farmer.
Emma saw Joseph's "polygamy" as merely adultery and dismissed it as a mere indiscretion.
BTW, Emma's account of the translating of the BOM said there were never any plates in the room while Joseph was translating. He did the translating completely by sticking his face in a hat that contained the urim and thimum.
Will the church present a highly sanitized white-washed version that has little credibility?
Uh ... duh. Do you expect anything less?
I don't believe the church is doing this film. Seeing people dramatize or re-write LDS history to suit their wishes is certainly not new.
There are differing historical tellings of what Emma thought of polygamy. What's interesting is she testified until her death that he was a Prophet of God.
BTW the plates were present but weren't always used. She ran her fingers through the leaves while they sat underneath some sort of towel.
From historical accounts Joseph and Emma were in love til' the bitter end.
If you go to the movie, especially if it's a bad movie, don't stop there. For the best and truest bio of Emma, read "Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith,"by Linda King Newell and and Valeen Tippetts Avery. It's been around 25 years or more, but it's still the best and most unsanitized version of this complex woman's life story I've read.
Emma may have been "Joseph's No. 1 Squeeze", but Fanny Alger was his favorite piece of ass.
Nobody saw "the plates" not even the three witnesses. Remember the old "oh ye of little faith" story?
Whitmer and Cowdery were excommunicated and Harris joined with dissenters
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