The Book of Mormon Movie

Plot

The movie is based on the first two books of the Book of Mormon. It is the story of Lehi, his wife Sariah, and their four sons: Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi. Lehi leaves Jerusalem in 600 B.C. after having prophesied concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and people wanted to kill him. He journeys into the wilderness with his family. He sends Nephi and his brothers back to Jerusalem after the brass plates and the family of Ishmael. The sons and daughters of Lehi marry the sons and daughters of Ishmael. They take their families and continue into the wilderness. Ishmael dies in the wilderness. They come to the sea. Nephi's brothers rebel against him; he confounds them, and builds a ship. They cross the sea to the promised land in the Americas. Lehi dies in the promised land. Nephi's brethren rebel against him again. The plot concludes with Nephi departing again into the wilderness.

Development

Rogers's inspiration was the Cecil B. DeMille 1956 version of The Ten Commandments. He envisioned The Book of Mormon as one long historical epic. His plan was to make nine films that cover the entire story of the book.

The film's length is two hours, and it was revealed on the DVD commentary that the first cut of the film was two hours and forty minutes.

Casting

Noah Danby was cast as Nephi because of his strong resemblance to the art of Arnold Friberg. He had never read the Book of Mormon prior to his casting. Danby is a devout Lutheran, and while at first he didn't feel comfortable in making the film due to religious differences, he has said in an interview for The Hollywood Reporter that he took the role to gain experience as an actor.

Filming

The desert scenes were filmed in Utah in the spring, and it was very cold. The "great and spacious building" was a five-foot miniature. The boat does not appear in the theatrical version of the scene in which the family arrives in the promised land. It was digitally added to that scene for the DVD version.

Mike Ripplinger directed and filmed the behind the scenes portion on the DVD release.

The costume designer used Mormon art and illustrations to guide her selections.

The film was mentioned in Paul C. Gutjahrs 2012 book The Book of Mormon: A Biography.

Release

The film was rated PG-13 for "a scene of violence", having contained an image of Nephi with blood splatter on his face after beheading Laban. This image was removed for home media releases, and the film received a PG rating on DVD.

Box office

Produced for $1.5 million, Book of Mormon opened in 29 theaters on September 12, 2003 and made $114,573 in its first weekend, ranking number 41 in the domestic box office. The film played for 35 weeks before closing on May 13, 2004, its widest release being 38 theaters, and it had grossed $1,680,020.

It is the fourth highest-grossing film in the history of LDS cinema.

Critical reception

The film was widely panned by Mormon and non-Mormon critics. Variety described it as "[w]ell meaning but often as tediously earnest as a Sunday sermon". In the Bloggernacle, A Motley Vision gave it a grade of C–.

Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes scored 17% of 6 critics giving the film a positive review.