A New Trailer Drops for the "Witnesses" Movie

[_Doctor Scratch]

Wow, I can hardly wait until October! Luckily, we can at least help to bide the time with this latest trailer of the movie. Friends, I have to tell you, this is a real doozy, and it makes me more excited than ever for the actual full-length feature.By all means: you should take a look at the trailer for yourself, but for my money, these are the highlights:

--The trailer, of course, opens with shots of the much-touted scene where Joseph is running through the woods with the plates cradled in his arm--almost as if he's running a football play. My, look how spry he is! And that was supposedly the "real-life" replica version of the plates--weighing somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 lbs. When they fall to the ground, roughly 22 seconds in, they clatter rather....softly. Hmmm. So, maybe movie Joseph Smith was *carrying* the full-weight plates, but they used the lighter facsimile for dropping them?
--Perhaps the best moment of the whole thing is at around 38 seconds, where Joseph Smith punches his attacker! ROFLOL! Roll that back and play it again: wtf? They need to fire their foley artist, because the sound effect they are using is downright comical. It sounds like a punch landing in a cartoon or something. Maybe they are going to insert "KAPOW!" and "WHAMMO!" like on the old Batman series, with Adam West?
--It's remarkable how much of the footage is devoted to scenes of people holding, admiring, fondling, and stroking the plates.
--Always nice to see the formidable Don Bradley! He's looking well, I see.
--At the 1:11 mark, we get a shot of Joseph Smith with his arm around who I assume is Martin Harris (?) and they seem to be smiling at a glowing personage or object of some sort. Cool. Does this mean that supernatural material will appear in the film? Are they looking at Deer Jesus? A floating Elohim? This is exciting.
--The final montage, at 2:54, features a lot of screaming, crying, and what have you. So, there will evidently be some emotional moments.
--The shots of nature are quite nice, such as the crane shot towards the end that shows a crowd listening to Joseph Smith (?) holding forth on some matter or another.

Granted, this is only a trailer, but I don't have high hopes for this film to succeed as propaganda. I doubt it is going to convince anyone that the witnesses are truly reliable. Perhaps it will humanize them (or make them seem lame), but I really don't see this as the kind of thing that is going to strengthen testimonies. Then again, come October, we will have the opportunity to evaluate the movie as cinema. How will it stack up against such notables as The RM or Saturday's Warrior? Patience will have to be the order of the day for now, I fear.

[_Icarus]

I liked it when Joseph smacked that guy with the plates. The sound was from the video game Street Fighter. Obviously a highly professional quality.

[_Gadianton]

Thanks for that scholarly summary, Dr. Scratch.

I've now reviewed the trailer myself. I advise anyone with a questionable amplifier to keep the volume reasonable because that "punch" that Dr. Scratch refers to as a "KAPOW" must have clipped. It might blow something.

So far, the material indicates that the witness moment will only be implied, and they lacked the stones to portray Moroni directly. I predicted this years ago. (although Reverend Kishkumen reminisced on this matter in scholarly color far more vivid than my offerings)

There is a lot of commentary from scholars, which is interesting. It seems to indicate that they couldn't risk communicating their aims through the writing narrative and acting and they felt they needed to explain to us what's going with a heavy hand.

The final montage the B.H. Robert's Chair refers to crescendos with strings, a choir, a bell, and Harris: "I'm sorry Joseph!". That's pretty dramatic. I mean, it's pretty formulaic, like it could be X-men or anything else. I don't want to say that's bad out of the gate, I'm actually far more interested in the feeling that went into the film and applaud that part of the creative process far more than scholars telling us what we're supposed to think. But it does make the grandeur of the event derivative, and dependent on tropes and predictable film scoring. There's scary dramatic and music talent at BYU actually. with the beautiful forest shots Doctor Scratch mentioned I couldn't help but think of Aaron Copeland's Appalachian Spring. I dunno. Somebody should break free and attempt to capture a grandeur of the event beyond basic blockbuster formula.

[_Doctor Scratch]

I liked it when Joseph smacked that guy with the plates. The sound was from the video game Street Fighter. Obviously a highly professional quality.

Ah, yes: you're right! Maybe that accounts for the sound? It's the plates, and they are clearly magical, so that's the sound they make when you hit somebody with them? I.e., it's the punching noise from Street Fighter? Perhaps one of the sound editors really hates the Mopologists, and this is his/her secret way of taking a dig at them--i.e., by dumping this side-splittingly funny "easter egg" into the movie without them noticing?

[_Everybody Wang Chung]

Dr. Scratch,

Thank you for this find. The trailer was hilarious. This is going to be a horrible movie. Awesomely horrible.

The punch sound made me laugh out loud. The fight scenes were very amateurish and Joseph’s acting was spectacularly bad.

Where in the heck did the million dollars go? Sound effects? DCP’s slush fund?

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

--Perhaps the best moment of the whole thing is at around 38 seconds, where Joseph Smith punches his attacker! ROFLOL! Roll that back and play it again: wtf? They need to fire their foley artist, because the sound effect they are using is downright comical. It sounds like a punch landing in a cartoon or something.

My word that was awesome. They could literally lift any number of sound effects from WSHH and get a true-to-form smack to the face audio rather than resorting to, what is that? A 50’s era soundman recording himself smacking two bricks together?

Wait. Did they, did they download that effect for free from here?

https://www.freesoundeffects.com/free-t ... ch-426855/

- Doc

[_Philo Sofee]

I LOVED it! That sound effect really makes it all worth it for em! LOLOL!!!!!! Too much! Whee! And of course as Gad pointed out, the scholars have to be there every step of the way...... I said long ago they are NOT going to give full portrayals of Martin Harris. It will be interesting to see if they do, but they won't. You have to edit it for time, so why not throw out all the actual realistic truth and leave just the faith pomotin materials? Oh, and add the sweet spiritual music to get yer emotional juices flowing! Why yes, by all means.Yeah Don Bradley really doesn't look healthy to me. I hope he is all right.......

[_moksha]

And that was supposedly the "real-life" replica version of the plates--weighing somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 lbs. When they fall to the ground, roughly 22 seconds in, they clatter rather....softly.

It would make sense to use the light version so that the D-rings did not rip apart when it landed. Rejoice O audience, we do not have to use our spiritual eyes and imagine the plates.

[_Dr Exiled]

Seems pretentious like unto Legacy, the movie made for the semi-deaf. I still have a ringing in my ears from that crap. Anyway, I like the allusions to the late 60's batman series with Adam West and Burt Ward. My earliest memories are seeing SOCK and POW and other superlatives on that show as Batman and Boy Wonder (Joseph Smith) were taking on Penguin and the Joker. My older brother loved batman and I played robin when he would let me. Do I hear Joseph Smith: Men in Tights a la Robinhood: Men in Tights as a sequel?

Incidentally, I thought no one could see the plates and live, yet the audience is shown the plates, in their dull goldish (tumbaga) splendor. Shouldn't we be destroyed?

[_Gadianton]

ncidentally, I thought no one could see the plates and live, yet the audience is shown the plates, in their dull goldish (tumbaga) splendor. Shouldn't we be destroyed?

you jest but you bring up a great point. Showing the plates as fully completed with writing falsely props up the witnesses as credible.