Pluskylang Great Film overall

Console best movie i've ever seen.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

abrafocus Based on Book One of a nine-book series, this is one of the most touching movies I have ever seen. The Steed family is fictional, but it provides real historical background. The story of Joseph Smith, the vision, the Book of Mormon, all of that is true.\ The character of Nathan is portrayed wonderfully. His brother Jon, doesn't accept Joseph Smith and his stories, so he turns against his family, and joins some evil men, attempting to steal the Gold Plates. Of course, they are not successful, and the plates are translated.After reading The Book of Mormon, Nathan is baptized. His father objects to this, but he doesn't do anything violent.This is a great movie. Even if you're not LDS, I'm sure you'll find this movie well worth your time.My Score: 9/10.

pgspat Okay first I am non religious and Gay also. But I do support anybody having beliefs that help them in life. I do have an interest in the historical aspects of religion and probably Joseph Smith is the most important American historical religious leader having founded a major and ever growing denomination.Having read the recent Newsweek cover article on the Mormon religion I was rather excited to find this DVD in the bargain bin. The restoration story being in 19th century America you could relate to it in a more interesting and historical fashion than the Biblical times. But the movie seemed to want to soft peddle the Joseph Smith story and focus on a rather boring love triangle between the Steed brothers and the girl.There are plenty of evil doubters in town, all actually wearing black hats and the Book of Mormon gets thrown in the garbage. People who believe Joseph are shunned and caste out by the towns people...mmm kinda reminded me of how gay people are shunned by LDS. I didn't mind the movie's point of view that Joseph's visions were real but we got no understanding his journey from man to prophet.The movie was visually interesting and the music worked well. There is one commentary on the DVD but not much else... the LDS missed a chance to add some extras about their religion.

Bill Polhemus My wife and I had just completed reading all nine volumes of TW&TG just a month or so previous to our taking in the motion picture. We are fortunate that we live in one of the few areas outside the Wasatch Front that is privileged to get these films for short engagements at one single Mega-plex here in west Houston.I had read reviews here and elsewhere that had led me to believe the quality of the acting would be "below average," but I have to say that I cannot agree. No one is bucking for an "Oscar" here but the acting is at least on the level of your typical made-for-TV miniseries, the like of which were popular in the late-70s and 80s. Even some of the minor characters like that of "Will Murdock" were played quite believably; I did not note much in the way of "hammy" quality even in those scenes where you might expect it (crowd scenes e.g.) With minor changes the story was faithful to the first volume of Lund's "nonology," and although I thought the part of Joseph Smith Jr. was ably played the focus really was on the Steed family and friends and the reactions of those protagonists to what was transpiring.They spent a good amount of script-time on the conflict between the family members--especially Joshua and his father--and I thought did a good job of efficiently moving the story along without the benefit of "backstory" that the novel affords.I think I enjoyed most of all the seemingly accurate depiction of American frontier life in the 1830s (even though like the book, the dialog is glaringly "modern"), and the score.The music's effectiveness was accompanied by a very good audio track that allowed a clear understanding of what was being said (even asides by "extras" during crowd scenes). The sound quality overall was just superb.The camera work was likewise. I am amazed at how well-lighted even a low-budget film like this can be given current technology. There were a few scenes that were rather dim, but I thought this actually contributed to the feeling of being there at a time when coal-lamps were the source of light after dark. One scene of this type that comes to mind was that of Mary Ann Steed reading the concluding verses of the Gospel of John early on an Easter Sunday.All in all, I quite enjoyed this film and will be sure to pick it up on DVD when it is released. I am quite critical of independent LDS films because I think too many of them fail to measure up to the standards set by the BYU Film Department/LDS Film Studios' official releases for the Church, most of which are about as good as they come.I thought The Work and the Glory set the bar a little higher, and hope that the production company is able to realize a profit on the release so that we might possibly look forward to a continuation of the Steed saga in future releases based on the Lund series of books.

luvintex This was very well done and is obvious that a much larger budget was used than what is typically used on an LDS movie. The setting was beautiful and the acting was very good also. The actor that portrayed Joseph Smith left us with a greater sense of the kind of person he may have been and some of the persecution he endured (although I believe it was on a much larger scale than what was shone). The characters that played the part of the Steed family couldn't have been a better cast. I also enjoyed the occasional subtle humor that rounded out the movie. I will definitely add this one to my DVD collection when it is released. Go see it! Now, excuse me while I "go get some more eggs"!