The Witnesses Gets Its First Professional Review

[Everybody Wang Chung]

And it's rotten:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/witnes ... er-reviews

[Bought Yahoo]

It isn't rotten. It is respectful.

But I have some comments:

1. The actor playing the young David Whitmer looked too ethnic for the role. (Italian or Jewish.)
2. The sound editing was poor. Too much rustling of starched clothing.
3. The video editing was mediocre. Almost approached the qualify of a seminary video.
4. The male characters were too groomed and clean shaven for the frontier.
5. The choice of topics too many and not well explained: Fanny Alger, Salt Sermon, Kirtland Bank etc and etc.
6. The acting was good; in particular the senior David Whitmer, the reporter, Joseph Smith and Martin Harris.
7. The cinematography was excellent for a film of this nature.

All in all I would say that this film was almost at the same quality of God's Army.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

And it's rotten:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/witnes ... er-reviews

Why do people keep referring to the transcription as a translation? Literally didn't happen within the given narrative. Taking the story at face value it was literally metaphysical forces causing words to appear on a rock. It was transcription, not translation.

- Doc

[Kishkumen]

It isn't rotten. It is respectful.

Yeah, the review seems pretty respectful and fair to me. His criticism gets at a problem one would expect to weigh the film down--the obtrusive presence of the heroic Joseph Smith. I still say that the cinema's best Joseph Smith was played by Richard Moll in the 1977 film Brigham. Here is the rough-cut, frontier character I think Joseph Smith probably was, instead of the cherubic-faced catalog model with a nimbus-like glow we often see in these productions. Too bad! But, that said, this review tells me there is still something worth seeing here.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

1. The actor playing the young David Whitmer looked too ethnic for the role. (Italian or Jewish.)

That’s interesting. I thought they matched him as a young my wife:





Whitmer gots dat Roman nose, yo.

- Doc