(indieWIRE/ 8.21.00) -- We can all take a lesson from the Mormons -- or at least their niche distribution methods. "God's Army," an independently financed dramatic comedy about missionaries in Los Angeles, is nearing $2.3 million at the box office, as it opens in New York City this week, to be followed by an additional 30 cities around the country. Since its March 8 premiere back in the Mormon hotbed of Utah, the film has since traveled to 132 cities and 195 screens. While the film's tagline reads "Saving the World. One Soul at a Time," you might say, 'One Theater at a Time,' as it screens in limited slots around the country.
But hold on there. This is a serious religion, as Mary Jane Jones, Publicity and Promotions Director of Excel Entertainment Group, the company now distributing the film, will tell us. "We want to be careful not to ever commercialize the actual religion. Most of us here at Excel are members of the church and we treat it with the utmost respect. We look at it as celebrating the culture. We don't view this as exploiting the religion," she says. "We're not trying to sell God or anything."
A 5 year-old music production and distribution company, Excel is owned by Jeff Simpson, a former Disney executive. Until writer-producer-director-star Richard Dutcher came along with "God's Army," the company had never released a movie before, sticking to its 3 record labels which produced instrumental, inspirational, and contemporary music. Dutcher originally came to Excel to produce and release his soundtrack, but the company soon assumed a larger distribution role.
With a paltry $300,000 marketing budget, the company's campaign utilized low-cost promotional methods like the Internet and e-mail. "We try to do things as cheaply as possible," says Jones, "using as much groundswell support. We tried to create a lot of Internet interest with mass e-mailings and the film's website," (http://www.godsarmythemovie.com/), which Jones adds, garnered 300 e-mails daily, from people seeking more information about the film.
Targeting Utah's population is one thing, where the film beat out "Mission to Mars" in its opening week, according to Dutcher, but reaching the millions of Mormons around the country isn't as easy. If it were, the movie's box office receipts would be 10-fold its already auspicious number. So Excel holds advanced screenings in each city for select members of the community in order to get the word out. New York's screening, for instance, took place well in advance of its August 25 release back in July. "With a city like New York, or Philadelphia, or Miami," says Jones, "our approach is again to have these advanced screenings and get as much publicity in the press as we can using the novelty of the film as an angle." The film also gets a boost from Mormon bookstores around the country, which number about 300, according to Jones.
"God's Army" is only the latest film to turn a religious base into box office dollar. Remember "The Omega Code," the Christian suspense thriller, starring Caspar Van Dien and Catherine Oxenberg, which leapt onto the charts with $2.4 million in its opening weekend and eventually went on to gross around $13 million? Partly produced by TBN, the Trinity Broadcasting Network, the station broadcast trailers and promotional spots of "Omega," and had a $2 million ad campaign on cable, according to Variety.
Excel is no TBN, however, with neither the financial resources nor the powerful Christian Coalition behind it. But given time, Excel hopes to grow. "Now that we've created this means of distribution," says Jones, "we'd love to see more filmmakers making use of it." Filmmakers, it's time to start researching the Book of Mormon, there's a new distributor in town.
GOD'S ARMY A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2000 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): ***
In a popularity contest, those well-scrubbed young men in their starched white shirts and dark ties, who show up on your doorstep offering you the Book of Mormon, would probably finish dead last. Most people can't shut the door fast enough when they realize who is there. Movies about Mormon missionaries might seem likely to get the same reaction from non-believers. In the case of GOD'S ARMY, viewers who shut the cinematic equivalent of the door in its face will be depriving themselves of a surprisingly good film about faith and dedication.
Like a high quality blend of a documentary and an after-school television special, this low-budget, fictional film creates a host of interesting characters and provides a lot of surprising background on what it means to be a Mormon missionary. Although you may have never given them a second thought, they don't have an easy vocation. They have to give up two years of their lives only to have most people slam the door in their face, or worse.
As Elder Allen (the young missionaries are all called Elders), Matthew Brown gives a complex performance as a kid filled with reservations about whether he should be a missionary. "Isn't it funny how a few short days can change your whole life forever?" he tells us in voice-over in the opening. "And it isn't until later that you realize what happened to you."
Elder Allen has been sent to L.A., which with its "live nude girls" marquees, looks like a den of iniquity to someone from Kansas, like Elder Allen. (There are too many references to the Wizard of Oz in the script, which otherwise, is sharp, intelligent and humorous.)
Elder Allen has been assigned to room with Elder Dalton, who is generally referred to as "Pops" because, at 29, he is much older than the typically 19-year-old missionaries. As Elder Dalton, Richard Dutcher, who also writes and directs, steals the show. In a moving performance, he becomes the Yoda of their group. When the story segues from the humorous to the dramatic, Elder Dalton's story becomes more prominent, as we learn that his life has been no bowl of cherries.
An excellent teacher, Elder Dalton likens their work to that of the phone company. They don't convert anyone; they just supply the tools so that others can get in touch with God. It's an interesting metaphor and one of many in the thought-provoking script. Always polite but not one easy to say "no" to, he has answers for all occasions. "I think that if you're not interested in what we have to say, then you must not know what we have to say," he tells one person who naively thinks that expressing non-interest will make the missionaries leave.
There is certainly one thing that isn't likely to come to mind when people think of Mormon missionaries, and that is that they could be big practical jokesters -- not to their would-be converts, but to themselves. In a movie that is frequently quite funny, one of the best scenes has a guy telling Elder Allen on his first day that he is going to get his gun if they don't leave. Elder Dalton then pushes Elder Allen into the dark, cheap apartment of the gun owner. Frightened out of his wits, Elder Allen is surprised by a camera's flash that goes off in front of his face. This is his new home, and the guys in it are other missionaries who'll be his companions. The bad guy who claimed to have a gun is just another missionary, who was playing a welcoming game on the recruit.
When Elder Allen finds out that the last guy left his bed just hours before, Elder Kinegar (Michael Buster) explains, "That's one of the blessings of a life of poverty -- doesn't take long to pack."
The story doesn't skirt difficult issues. Elder Kinegar spends his free time reading anti-Mormon books aloud. At first claiming that he just wants to be able to refute the arguments of non-believers, he later begins to believe the books and not his church's teachings. The role of women and minorities are discussed as well. And Elder Allen will develop eyes for one of the Mormon Sisters on a similar mission.
The good-spirited and informative picture is well-cast throughout even if the acting is sometimes amateurish. A moving and quite funny film, it isn't at all what you might expect. But be warned: after seeing it you may not be able to quite so efficaciously shoo missionaries from your doorstep. Knowing more about them makes them more human and more deserving of basic human politeness.
GOD'S ARMY runs 1:47. It is rated PG for thematic elements and some
language and would be fine for anyone old enough to be interested in the subject matter.
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Mormonism is one of the fastest growing religions in the world. In a recent survey of this subject, Richard and Joan K. Ostling wrote: "No religion in American history has aroused so much fear and hatred, nor been the object of so much persecution and so much misinformation." The writer and director of God's Army, Richard Dutcher, has fashioned an engaging film about a group of young Mormon missionaries trying to bring in a harvest for the Lord in Los Angeles.
Nineteen-year-old Brandon Allen (Matthew Brown) arrives in town from Kansas City. His stepfather is in prison for molesting children and his mother has left the Mormon church. Allen, who is confused about his beliefs in God, is taken under the wings of Elder Dalton (Richard Dutcher), the twenty-nine-year-old leader of this young band of missionaries who are fulfilling their two-year commitment of service to the church.
The day begins with devotions and study. Following their daily mantra, "Let's do some good," Dalton and Allen hit the streets where they either knock on doors or pass out material about the Mormons. Of course, most people are too busy to talk or to listen to them. The young missionaries, undaunted by constant rejection, try to keep their spirits playful by performing silly pranks at their living quarters.
Allen's faith is challenged by Dalton who has a brain tumor and still works harder than anyone else. Banks (DeSean Terry) is an African American missionary who always faces difficulty when confronting other blacks who claim that the Mormon church discriminates against them. Kinegar (Michael Buster) irritates the others with his attempts to engage them in a dialogue about the flaws and inconsistencies of Mormonism as pointed out by the church's harshest critics. He eventually leaves the flock.
Given the secretive nature of this Utah-based religion that boasts ten million members worldwide, God's Army is the closest many people will come to getting a behind-the-scenes look at Mormonism. Dutcher's focus on the deepening relationship between the young Allen and the older Dalton, who's known as "Pops," gives the drama a strong emotional grounding. Through them we learn a little bit about the Mormon Bible, the prophet Joseph Smith, prayer, baptism, healing, anointing of the dying with oil, and the commitment to build the kingdom of God on earth for the faithful.
Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
As racial and sexual barriers continuously are crossed, only class and religion remain as the last taboos in motion pictures. Rarely do mainstream Hollywood films deal with matters of economics or faith, unless to portray them in a satirical or humorous manner or as an alien world (usually that is reserved for the more extreme branchs of a faith, like the Hassidic Jews of movies like A Stranger Among Us, A Price Above Rubies, Left Luggage). Or when those issues are addressed, groups protest or picket them, like the Catholic League's condemnation of Kevin Smith's Dogma, which, while irreverent, was also one of the most probing looks at a crisis of faith depicted on screen.
So it comes as no surprise that a certain band of independent movie makers is moving to fill what they perceive is a void in the marketplace. When The Omega Code opened in 1999, it placed in the Top Ten that week, surprising many with its grassroots, word-of-mouth marketing campaign among Christian groups. Similarly, God's Army, which examines the daily trials and tribulations of Mormon missionaries in Los Angeles, has proven an unexpected success as well. That it is a sometimes fascinating, well-told tale may also be taken into account.
God's Army is effectively the work of one man, Richard Dutcher, who wrote, directed and co-stars in the film. A member of the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints, Dutcher fulfilled his duties by working for two years as a Mormon missionary in Mexico then spent four years raising the money to make his film. Loosely inspired by his own exploits, he has fashioned a script revolving around Elder Brandon Allen (Matthew Brown), a callow 19-year-old recruit from Kansas with family problems and a striking laid-back attitude. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Allen is thrust into an unfamiliar world, journeying door to door to preach the church's message and sharing living quarters with five others. The motley group includes the African-American Banks (DeSean Terry), the Hispanic Sandoval (Louis Robeldo), Kinegar (Michael Buster), who has his doubts, and the unofficial father figure Dalton (Dutcher), nicknamed "Pops," because at 29 he is the oldest. A former medical student, Dalton came to the faith late in his life and his unshakable faith, determination to "do some good" and silent suffering (we learn he has a brain tumor) all add up to an intriguing portrait.
Much of the film is given over to the relationship between Dalton and Allen, who doesn't share his partner's commitment. Indeed, after only one day, Allen is back at the bus station ready to head home but Dalton and Banks manage to persuade him to return. Allen may have his qualms but, compared with Kinegar, he is downright pious. Kinegar is a fifth-generation Mormon who passes his time reading books that raise questions about the religion and its tenets, much to Dalton's displeasure. When he goes AWOL, he cannot be persuaded to return and Dalton takes his leaving personally. His departure also sparks something in Allen, forcing him to come to terms with his own crisis of faith.
This film is a bit schematic and Pollyanna-ish (especially in its treatment of a pair of street prostitutes) but still manages to achieve what it set out to do by raising significant questions about what constitutes a system of beliefs, what does it take to live a moral life and whether miracles are possible. (Again, the latter stretches credibility a bit as it involves a crippled Asian man (Doug Stewart) in the process of converting.) Dutcher takes pains to make each of the main characters three-dimensional and most of the cast of unknowns do their best.
God's Army may put many off with its blatant religiosity while others may embrace it for the same reason. As it gives an insider's view on what it means to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the motion picture achieves a small step in rectifying how members of that denomination have previously been portrayed.
There may be a temptation to overpraise Richard Dutcher's smart, earnest and -- above all -- professionally realized God's Army that arises from the film's stubborn refusal to succumb to expectations. While you might not know what to expect from a movie called God's Army made by a Mormon filmmaker primarily for a Mormon audience, chances are you wouldn't expect it to be this well-made, measured and entertaining to a general, secular audience.
God's Army isn't a documentary -- it shouldn't be confused with the excellent Soldiers in the Army of God -- though at times it feels like one. It is a drama with comedic elements and a message. One needn't accept the message to admire the movie.
Dutcher, a Brigham Young University graduate who spent four years raising the money to make the film, has crafted a canny investigation of the lives of Mormon missionaries -- those clean-cut young men in the white shirts and ties who occasionally turn up on your doorstep. While the dramatic arc of the story is more or less predictable -- there's a certain thematic similarity to, of all things, The Green Mile -- the film succeeds in raising some interesting and often unasked questions about the underexplored worlds of work and faith. While Dutcher works from an unrepentantly Mormon viewpoint, it's clear he respects all faith and understands the skepticism.
As the film opens, 19-year-old Brandon Allen (Matthew Brown) has just arrived in Los Angeles, ready to begin his stint as a missionary. Elder Allen, as he's called by his fellow missionaries, is soon introduced to Elder Dalton (played with polish by Dutcher himself), a 29-year-old missionary who will be his companion and mentor.
Dalton -- nicknamed "Pops" for his advanced age (he actually looks older than 29) -- rides herd over a brood of college-age men in an environment not too different from your average fraternity house -- minus the booze, sex and bad language.
In typical movieland fashion, each of the inmates has a defining quality. One, Kinegar (Michael Buster), is a doubter given to perusing anti-Mormon literature. Another, Banks (played with affecting vulnerability by DeSean Terry), is black. A third, Sandoval (Luis Robledo), is Hispanic.
As missionaries, their job is to make converts, and like the salesmen in Glengarry Glen Ross, they suffer performance anxiety, especially in regard to the kind of cold calling they perform. Los Angeles is not the most hospitable place to strangers going door to door. Dalton is a tough taskmaster and it's not immediately clear if Allen is going to make it.
There are some nice scenes with some of the people the missionaries come into contact with, and the viewer is cheered by Dutcher's apparent tolerance of other paths. In one of the movie's best scenes, a Mexican-American father patiently explains to the missionaries that his family is Catholic and he can't permit his teen-age daughter to convert. And while he eventually does give his blessing to her conversion -- as he becomes closer to the missionaries -- he never converts himself.
Toward the end, the movie loses some momentum as it devolves into something more predicable and credulity-straining. The obligatory miracle seems like a cheat, and its consequences are painfully obvious. The coda is borderline ridiculous.
Yet there's not a markedly bad performance in the relatively untried cast, and the production values are better than a lot of mainstream releases. Dutcher has an unmannered approach to directing; he keeps things moving and it's obvious that he could have a future in Hollywood if he so chose. (Incidentally, in the press materials, Dutcher claims that only about 10 percent of the cast and crew are Mormon, and he challenges us to pick them out.)
It's a genuinely independent film, one of the new niche-marketed Christian indies that get rolled out on a city-by-city, theater-by-theater distribution scheme, a strategy that has already made it phenomenally successful -- though it took Dutcher four years to raise the reported less than $1 million, in the months since its spring release it has reportedly made nearly 40 times that much.
There are several reasons a non-Mormon might want to see God's Army, and curiosity is not the least of these. It's sort of like watching a film from Pakistan or Taiwan -- it provides a glimpse into another culture, a dispatch from a world most of us will never experience.
CALGARY -- The uniform is unmistakable. Freshly-pressed black pants, crisp white shirt, perfectly straight tie and a little backpack.
Fresh faced, a Church of Latter Day Saints' missionary can be spotted blocks away.
But how much do we know about these pavement pounders, other than they are as persistent as phone solicitors?
Richard Dutcher is hoping his directorial debut, God's Army, will clear up a few misconceptions about the Mormon religion.
A practicing Mormon and former missionary, Dutcher -- who also wrote and stars -- has had countless doors slammed in his face. He uses these experiences to weave an interesting, witty, thought-provoking and surprisingly entertaining tale of young missionaries trying to "do some good" in the seedy Los Angeles.
God's Army is a well-done and extremely well-acted, low-budget production.
Although God's Army was made with a Mormon audience in mind, Dutcher has tried to attract as wide an audience as possible by keeping the religious rhetoric to a minimum.
However, there is still a strong religious overtone that peaks during the last half hour of the movie.
God's Army won't convert many, but Dutcher's deftly worded script is better than a lot of Hollywood's mainstream fare.
Rating: *** [3 out of 4 stars]
Movie type: drama
By Bob Curtright
Knight Ridder News Service
You don't have to be Mormon to like independent filmmaker Richard Dutcher's semiautobiographical "God's Army."
Actually, it's probably more enjoyable if you aren't because this low-budget tale of a fledgling missionary from Kansas getting his feet wet on the wicked streets of Los Angeles is sort of a short course in the Mormon church and its teachings, which would be somewhat simplistic and deja vu to folks already in the know.
It's an earnest little film, one that's sometimes a bit naive in its artistic pretensions. But it is a surprisingly likable comedy-drama that is more concerned with showing the human side of Mormon missionaries than in proselytizing.
"We don't convert anybody," one missionary explains to the newcomer. "All we do is tell of the spirit. We just hook them up and they do the talking."
Dutcher, a Mormon and a Los Angeles-based filmmaker ("Girl Crazy" for cable, "Eliza and I" for PBS), finally rebelled at stereotypically colorless and stodgy film portrayals of his faith. For his third film, he decided to combine his skills and his beliefs because he wanted Mormons to recognize people just like themselves on the screen.
"God's Army" is the result -- and the byproduct is that it also shows non-Mormons that fun and frolic are not anathema to young men and women who devote two years of their lives to missionary work.
The clean-cut, conservatively dressed teens and early twentysomethings are serious about their calling but they are still very much human. They laugh, they tell jokes, they play pranks, they flirt (well, very carefully because they can't follow through until their two years are up).
The film is broad-minded enough to allow soul-searching, self-doubt and even failure as the missionaries confront a generally hostile and suspicious world. It's hard to keep smiling when doors are slammed in your face, particularly in wide-open L.A., which they are warned is "the greatest mission in the world."
The film also boldly addresses controversial questions such as the lack of minorities in the church and women in the hierarchy until only recently.
But it mostly celebrates curiosity, compassion, camaraderie and the joy of doing. It's a coming-of-age tale with a religious flavor that will amuse, touch and cheer audiences of all persuasions because it's just plain nice.
The story, based on Dutcher's own experiences as a missionary in Mexico, follows the fledgling mission work of Elder Allen (Matthew Brown), a reluctant newcomer from Kansas (yes, there are the usual "Wizard of Oz" jokes).
The product of a broken home, he is shy and unsure of himself. His mother hopes the two-year mission will help him find his direction and maturity.
He's not so sure it will be anything but a waste of time. His first few hours on the mean streets convince him it's all a mistake. He's ready to throw in the towel and go home.
But he is paired with the irrepressible Elder Dalton (writer-director-producer Dutcher himself), an older missionary who gave up medical school because of failing health to devote himself to guiding and molding young missionaries.
Dalton is dedicated but also impatient and driven. He feels he has a million things to do and not nearly enough time. "Thou shalt not whine," is his guiding philosophy.
Both an older brother and a task-master, he is determined to make his charges believe in themselves -- and believe that they are not to do good for themselves but for others, "one door at a time."
Dutcher's ambitious but unpretentious film may prove to be one of the widest doors.
Hard knocks. Elder Dalton (Richard Dutcher, from left) Elder Allen (Matthew Brown) put faith to work.The riveting God's Army draws audiences into a missionary's world of struggle and sacrifice.
Ever wonder about those clean-cut young men in the black pants and ties who work in pairs, knock on your door and want to open your eyes to the miracles of Mormonism? They're just kids, and they're called "Elders," and few of us know enough about them to get past the uniform. To most of us, they're an alien culture in our midst; working for a creed that is as likely to get them ridiculed as respected.
Writer-director-actor Richard Dutcher takes us into the world of these young Mormon men on a mission in his film, God's Army, a fascinating, polished and well-acted film about a rite of passage that many young men go through for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It won't convert anyone. But it may make you a little less willing to slam the door in the faces of these passionate proselytizers.
Elder Allen (Matthew Brown) is a 19-year-old, uncertain of his faith but fulfilling his obligation to his church as he begins his two-year hitch in "the greatest mission in the world," Los Angeles. In the American Gomorrah, and under the guidance of Elder Dalton (Dutcher), he will knock on doors and hand out pamphlets, trying to win converts in this Babel of languages, moralities, cults and religions.
Elder Allen shares a house with a mixed crew of missionaries, including Elder Banks (DeSean Terry) and ever-questioning Elder Kinegar (Michael Buster). Meals are simple, budgets are tight and discipline is strict as they march through days of door slamming and the occasional baptism. There's also time for a little chaste flirtation with some impossibly pretty and clean-scrubbed young women missionaries. Dutcher, both as writer-director and as an acting presence in the film, lets the audience know that what might be the focus of your typical teen movie is a frowned-upon distraction here. First, these kids have to grow up a little with some serious soul-saving and soul-searching.
Dutcher plays Elder Dalton as piously self-righteous, a man who has bought into a belief system so deeply that any questioning of it only makes him angry and fearful.
Kinegar is his polar opposite, reading the Mormon-debunking books that point out how the church's first prophet kept changing his story about golden tablets he was shown by an angel and how the historic record riddles Mormon beliefs. Banks, who is black, is there to remind us both of that prophet's sacrifice (Joseph Smith was lynched) and that church doctrine has only recently shed some of its racism -- and hasn't gotten over its sexism.
But faith is a form of myopia, and the movie lets us see how it can make a difference in people's lives. Played right, scenes of faith and religious ritual can have the seat-squirming intimacy of love scenes, which is pretty much what they are. Dutcher the director does very well by these quiet, leap-of-faith moments, even as he ignores the intellectual holes in Mormonism (and Christianity) which he shows us are there. The acting is sympathetic and sharp as well.
Try as he might, Dutcher can't make these pathological door-knockers into victims of rude would-be acolytes. In a just universe, the Southern Baptists will hold a convention in the cradle of Mormonism -- Salt Lake City. They'll give the faithful there a taste of what it's like to be hassled at home by 19-year-olds who want to tell them how their belief system is wrong and theirs is right and they know it.
Still, it's a sympathetic story and an intriguing peek into a rite of passage that most of us don't know much about, despite its being right under our noses.
*** [3 out of 4 stars]
A recent preview screening of God's Army contained more guys in short-sleeved white shirts and ties than a high school math teacher's convention.
They had come to see their counterparts onscreen.
God's Army is a dramatic feature film about the young men who knock on your door, uninvited, in hopes that you'll let them inside to talk to you about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormons.
God's Army is not a great movie, but it's a fascinating one, especially for people who know these missionaries only as occasional doorbell-ringing annoyances.
The film is a dispatch from the other side of the door. Like a foreign-language film from Iran or China, God's Army illuminates a culture and lifestyle that will be alien to most movie-goers. It opens a door to an otherwise hidden world, revealing a group that is no more oddball and no less worthy of understanding than any other.
Whatever its merits, God's Army is an example of a true independent film, produced by private investors and distributed on a city-by-city basis without the support of any major studio. Mormon writer-director Richard Dutcher, who also appears in the movie, reportedly spent four years raising his production budget, and then shot the film in 18 days - a remarkable accomplishment, considering the movie's technical achievement and the quality of the performances. Thanks in part to its popularity in Utah, the movie already has made a profit, earning about $2 million so far at the box office.
Until a final twist that stretches credulity for the non-believer, God's Army is remarkably straightforward and nonproselytizing, even if many of the stock characters and situations would be less interesting in a more familiar context. Turn these people into members of a football team, and their problems - broken homes, illness, personality conflicts - collapse into cliche. But as Mormon missionaries, the details of their daily routine are interesting enough to overwhelm the predictable nature of the storyline.
These door-to-door salesmen of the Mormon faith are shown washing their white shirts in the sink and polishing their practical-soled but dressy black shoes. Lights out is at 10:30. Alcohol is forbidden, of course, but so is coffee.
As for women, one "Elder" - as these unpaid volunteers are called - puts it this way: "If you don't look once, you're not a man. If you look twice, you're not a missionary."
The film's story concerns several Elders who live together in a cheap little house in "the greatest mission in the world," Los Angeles.
The focus in particular is on 19-year-old Elder Allen (Matthew Brown), who arrives in L.A. from Kansas to join a group of missionaries led by veteran Elder Dalton (Dutcher), who, at 29, is known as "Pops" by his college-age colleagues.
In Los Angeles, Elder Allen is startled to see prostitutes and hoodlums. He's not sure if he's committed enough to his faith to knock on strange doors and be rewarded more often than not with insults and threats. But as one church leader tells Elder Allen: "You're not here to do good for yourself. You're here to do good for other people. Your job is to help people make some right decisions."
The film is filled with casual lines that may startle those unfamiliar with tenets of Mormonism, as when Elder Dalton says to a prospect: "Did you know that Christ came to the Americas after his Resurrection?"
As a writer, Dutcher doesn't skirt controversy. The secondary status of women in church life is acknowledged. A black Elder struggles with the awareness that the church didn't allow black priests until 1978. A black non-Mormon tells him, "Boy, they are making a fool out of you," and Dutcher allows the remark to stand.
Unfortunately, the cancer-stricken Elder Dalton - the film's Christ figure, a sometimes short-tempered leader who has battled temptation to devote the rest of what could be a short life to his disciples and humanity - becomes increasingly self-righteous. As the story progresses, the movie's candid and disarming atmosphere begins to succumb to the judgmentalness suggested by the certainty of its title.
Some viewers may object to a subplot involving the conversion of a Catholic. But at least God's Army is honest enough that it offers grist for those who would condemn Mormonism even as it seeks to increase interest in the faith.
God's Army is playing exclusively at the Hollywood 20 Cinema.