I recently watched the Mormon musical Saturday's Warrior for the first time in probably 10 years and I must say it was a very interesting experience. What most intrigued me was how aggressively opposed to the movie EVERYONE was. When I told my roommates I was watching Saturday's Warrior I immediately found myself having to quickly explain that it was for a class (implying that there was no way I would choose to watch it on my own). Also, I hoped to watch it in the safe, privacy of my own apartment, assured that no one would walk in on me watching it. However, I don't have a VCR in my apartment so I had to ask my brother if I could watch it at his. He said yes but it was obvious he was a little embarrassed about it. While watching it at my brothers place with some of my friends (who assured me that they were only watching it with me to keep me company and to be good friends) I witnessed a lot of negativity towards the film. For instance, one of his roommates walked in halfway through the movie and immediately said, "What are you doing? That's my VCR you're playing that on!" Another of his roommates walked in and started belting the songs (that was the nicest response I got, although who knows if he was being sardonic or not). My roommates also took every opportunity to make fun of the movie.This hostility really intrigued me. Why do members of the church hate this movie SO much? I'll admit the movie is totally cheesy and bad, but in my opinion so is every other musical. For instance, my roommate made fun of the scene where Julie is reading her letter from Wally and starts singing, by saying in a very sarcastic tone, "ya, because I always sing while reading letters." At that point I turned to her and said, "Are you kidding me? That's what they do in every musical. They always bust out in song at random times."
Another observation I made was that everyone made fun of the songs, yet they all knew every word of them. I thought maybe no one likes them because they're really catchy and get stuck in your head (in fact I still have them stuck in my head and I watched it on Sunday). To tell the absolute truth, I actually kind of liked a lot of the songs, especially when compared to other cheesy musicals, which brings me to another observation. On the way home from Logan on Saturday my friends were listening to the soundtrack to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I've never seen the movie or the play so perhaps I shouldn't pass judgement, but man those songs were terrible and totally cheesy! Yet the same friends who were making fun of Saturday's Warrior said they absolutely LOVED Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Huh? What's the difference? Is it Mormonism that we are embarrassed to have depicted in a musical? Is it because it's so dear to us? Or are we just embarrassed about our own culture? Because let's face it, Saturday's Warrior does a pretty good job of showing different aspects of Mormon culture as well as some of the difficulties and challenges we face in life. Big families, a wayward child, coping with death, missionary life, Dear John's, wedding plans, peer pressure, finding "the one," and pre-earth life. These things are very much a part of culture and are still topics of "Mormon films"today. So why is this one so hated?
In talking to some friends about this phenomena I got a couple of possible answers. One older woman who loved the play in the 1970s suggested that they just should have kept it as a play and never made a movie out of it. This would have endeared it in the hearts of members as a work of art and the next generation would have never had occasion to pass judgment on the movie by comparing it to other film musicals. We also compared it to the way they made The Phantom of the Opera into a movie recently. It was a huge success, mostly because it is a great story with great music, but I think it also has to do with the fact that they didn't try to give the movie the appearance of a play. Saturday's Warrior looks like they just filmed one showing of the play, because every scene is filmed on a the set of a play. It may have been a little better had they used more technology and made a movie instead of a filmed play.
Another complaint I have heard on more than one occasion is that the film has introduced many misconceptions into LDS theology. For example, the idea that a person in pre-earth life would be interacting with someone in post-earth life has caused many to think that, for instance, our grandparents who have passed on are talking to our future children right now, etc. Another one popular among young single adults is the attempt to find and marry "the one" that you knew in the pre-earth life. And their attempt to show the passing through the veil is pretty funny, but who knows what it's really like. I don't. Anyway, to these arguments I would say that while I wish they could have been a little more doctrinally accurate, it's just a musical, made for fun. If I'm looking for something that's doctrinally sound, I'm not going to go to a musical to find it. The nightly news also introduces misconceptions in people's minds about what's going on in the world, does that mean we shouldn't watch it? It all comes down to doing our own research rather than relying on media and entertainment to provide us with knowledge about the world, our religion, etc.
The hard thing about this post is, I still haven't really come to a conclusion regarding whether I like Saturday's Warrior or not. Part of me wants to be different and say, "It's not that bad, and I kinda like some of the songs." But in Mormon culture today it's seems to not be very kosher to admit such a blasphemy. I want to be cool, and you can't be cool and still like Saturday's Warrior. I still don't think I would be caught dead purchasing the movie. But who knows, maybe one of these days I'll man up and go against the grain of acceptable Mormon entertainment.
13 comments:
Interesting. I wonder why this bothers me more than "Joseph" or any other cheesy musical. (And for the record, I disagree that all musicals are that way...though many are.) I think it might be because "Saturday's Warrior" tries to be more than it is and deals with very sacred material. It takes the form of a cheesy happy musical which seems to contradict its intentions to uplift and inspire and its treatment of real issues and sacred subject matter. It is funny, though, that it is so widely hated but universally...well...memorized. We are a peculiar people...
"Saturday's Warriors" is a great musical. I first saw it in the late 80's and fell inlove with it. I even showed it to a female drill sergeant, not a member, on my mission, who loved it and cryed. My 14, 12, and 8 year old love it. Cheesy, yes sure, but it is for entertainment purposes not church doctrine. It's a great, clean, entertaining way to spend a little over an hour with your family.
Consider that when the movie was released in 1989, members of the Church hardly had access to a wealth of information about the gospel outside what the Church was saying and what General Authorities were publishing in books. "Mormon cinema" was limited to the Homefront commercials and church history films the Church was producing. I wouldn't doubt but that a lot of people thought "Saturday's Warrior" was put out by the Church (Wikipedia notes that it was the first LDS film not made or sponsored by the Church or BYU), and a lot of people bought into its "teachings" about the premortal world and destiny without batting an eye.
That's why I strongly dislike the movie. Thirty-one years later, we're STILL working to disaffect people of the notion of soul mates, parents choosing their children, and of the intermixing of the premortal and spirit worlds, among other things. I'm not saying that everyone who promulgates these ideas has watched "Saturday's Warrior," but the film certainly isn't doing us any favors. Sure, it's fun escapism, just so long as everyone in the room understands that none of it should be taken as doctrine. I wouldn't expose young or spiritually immature (like recent converts) Church members to it.
Uhh, I remember Spencer W. Kimball saying that soul mates were a fiction, but can someone cite me to an authoritative reference that the premortal world and the post mortal worlds don't interract? Or that mortal families aren't based upon pre earth relationships?
**Note** I meant to say "eighteen years" instead of thirty-one in my original post.
You're asking the right question, Jared AZ. I'm afraid I don't have a definitive answer to either issue. However, as to parents choosing children in the premortal world, we should also ask ourselves if there is anything in the doctrine of the Church that justifies such belief. Is it in the standard works? The official handbooks and publications of the Church (anything bearing its imprimatur)? Has it been taught in recent General Conferences? As far as I know, the answer is no to all of the above, though I welcome correction if I am mistaken.
I believe we should be in the position of first justifying the existence of a doctrine or practice, rather than trying to disprove them after they've already become entrenched in Mormon culture.
The issue becomes complicated when we consider children of divorce, blended families, and adopted children. Were they "chosen" by their birth parents or by their adopted parents in the life before? And it just gets messier from there.
As far as the commingling of the premortal and spirit worlds go, they must be physically separate to allow those who died without the gospel the opportunity to accept it or reject it without having their decision influenced by a knowledge of the life before they were born. The veil is not lifted until after resurrection. If it were lifted after death, and everyone knew who they were before their birth and their choice in accepting the Father's plan of redemption, it's hard to imagine that anyone would consciously choose to reject the gospel and its attendant ordinances. In short, their agency would be compromised, and the terrestrial and telestial kingdoms would be sparsely populated indeed.
These two misconceptions fall into that subset of "warm and fuzzy doctrines" because it's so nice to think that dearly departed Grandma and Grandpa are gently tutoring your unborn children before they come to earth, or that birth is simply a reuniting of preexisting parent-child relationships. But the scriptures do not bear these things out. In the life before, we were all on the same plane, as spirit brothers and sisters of our Heavenly Father. And death is not the end of our second estate, our brief sojourn on earth. The probationary period continues for those who did not hear the gospel in the flesh.
Sorry for the threadjack.
Bryan brought up an interesting point about the state of spirits after death, whether they have still have the "veil" over their memory of the pre-mortal life until after their resurrection. If there might be any references to scriptures or such I would be interested to see them.
Alvin R. Dyer taught that only those who enter the Celestial Kingdom will have all the knowledge restored to them that they had before passing the veil to mortality. This was an elaboration of his concerning those who "know as they are known" (D&C 76:94). It was said during a training meeting for missionaries in Europe in 1961, though finding the exact quote will require me to dig around in my files.
I just watched the movie after 10 years and am captivating by the music and a little by the concepts that are floated - doctrinal or not.
I have read a great book on the doctrines of life after death by Duane S. Crowther called "Life Everlasting". It is pretty much authoritative on most major quotes and anecdotal stories of the pre/post-mortal experiences. For the most part, I could not see any interaction. That some are called to earth to fill a specific role and then called home by those in the post-mortal world, I have no doubt after losing my little 9 month old boy that was accompanied by some mind blowing spiritual experiences that proved that point. What interaction occurred to make that happen (Emily and Pam style), I am not sure, but one can be called quickly through this mortal experience by those one the other side who are in need of help to perform a far greater work over there. One day it will all be quite evident - a fascinating topic about something which we will all have much to do.
Just surfed across this blog post after getting "Saturday's Warrior" music stuck in my head.
It seems worth noting that SW didn't necessarily invent any of the implications of the pre-existence, foreordination, "great and valiant spirits" doctrines it depicts; it just put them to music.
They're the kind of things members heard and talked about all the time back in the day. We were soaking in it.
And I would be surprised to NOT find conference talks and GA books from the 60's and 70's that made references to foreordained families and piles of spirit children waiting to be born. It was part of the Church's counter-argument against the overpopulation debate which was raging at the time.
Just stumbled across this myself.
Without entering to the doctrinal debates that the story inevitably drums up (and has here, to which I say relax and enjoy the show) I wish to address this idea of Saturday's Warrior being "unacceptable" these days.
I have not experienced any of that rejection in the wider church myself. But if there is any of this going on, it would be for the same reason that I rejected the 1989 version--It sucks.
I grew up with the 1974 soundtrack in my home, listening to the songs, and pondering the messages. Without the framing story, the songs are, individually, not that doctrinally unsound, and very inspiring for a young kid trying to keep the faith.
They are also much better works of art in their own right than the 1989 versions, done with a higher level of professionalism and a better quality of recording and just plain better directed.
So, in my opinion, when the 1989 version came out, many fans of the play--myself included--didn't mind so much that it was filmed in "play format" as we did that the songs, themes, and tones of our beloved "Mormon Musical" had been butchered.
That disappointment will continue until someone does it right.
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I quoted you.
I'm not a Utah mormon. I'm from Missouri. Living as a latter day saint is more of a challenge out here. I grew up watching that video as a kid. The songs had stuck with me in my head, just as much as the primary songs. I would sing them in my head and that would get me by some of the rough times in life. The messages and meanings in the ongs we sing can be the reason why we sing them. I am grateful for the church and the gospel in my life, because it brings me peace in this troubled world. We all look at the outside of things and see cheesy-ness. When we look at whats inside and the meaning, we see something better. I only wish that ppl can do that same thing with the gospel.
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