I wanted to like this show, but only in the first episode you are exposed to a graphic sex scene without warning. I know other people won't care about this and will see me as a prude, but I'm not out to watch people graphically and violently abuse procreation as entertainment. We all know sex happens, we don't need to see the pornographic details this shouldn't be available, just a click away for kids surfing Netflix. I wish I could turn back time and not have this imagery in my head for the rest of my life. I wish I could talk about the rest of the show, I'm sure there are good things about it. It was years ago when I wanted to try it out and I still regret what I saw. The End.
Reviews
8 Reviews
Under the Banner of Heaven
(2022)
"Perspective: Under the Banner of Hollywood"
30 April 2022
First found out about this show through this article:
"Perspective: Under the Banner of Hollywood"
By Hal Boyd , April 25, 2022 9:32 a.m. MDT
Too much real-life anger comes out of Tinseltown. It's time for Dustin Lance Black and company to let go of the angst toward Latter-day Saints.
As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints my faith teaches me to forgive 70 times 7. "Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek," Jesus Christ says, "turn to him the other also."
My faith admonishes me to love my enemies, to bless those that curse and to do good to those who hate. The current president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the 97-year-old former heart-surgeon Russell M. Nelson, recently pled with fellow Latter-day Saints "to do all you can to end personal conflicts that are currently raging in your hearts and in your lives."
And yet, FX's new serial drama "Under the Banner of Heaven," a redux of Jon Krakauer's book by the same name, is built on the premise that my faith is dangerous - violent even.
It's an odd thesis.
But the logic goes something like this: By placing "revelation" above "reason" religionists are particularly susceptible to violence.
The irony, of course, is that Krakauer extols "reason" while committing a fundamental logical fallacy - the fallacy of composition - assuming that what's true of the parts (some religionists are violent) is also true of the whole (all religions/religionists are violent).
But, in fact, when it comes to Latter-day Saints, statistics support the idea that communities with a high percentage of Latter-day Saints tend to have lower-than-average rates of violent crime. Utah, the state with the highest percentage of Latter-day Saints in the country, ranks as the 13th least-violent state in the nation, according to annual FBI statistics. Idaho, the state with the second-highest percentage of Latter-day Saints, ranks as the 10th least-violent state.
Some of the safest cities in Utah (Bountiful, Farmington, Pleasant Grove, Spanish Fork, etc.) are communities with higher-than-average Latter-day Saint populations (between 70%-90%). Meanwhile, the safest city in Idaho, Rexburg, is home to Brigham Young University-Idaho with a population that's 90% Latter-day Saint.
When Krakauer's book first arrived in the years following Sept. 11, 2001, violence and religion were still on the minds of many Americans. Some commentators thankfully drew careful distinctions between the very small group of violent terrorists who carried out the attacks and the millions of Muslims for whom faith inspires peace.
But Krakauer, Richard Dawkins and other atheistic types (Krakauer says he's a nonbeliever, not an atheist) often displayed the limits of their own rationality by painting with too broad of brushstrokes and, ipso facto, equating religion with violence.
In his book, Krakauer uses the Lafferty murders, and the conflicts of early Mormons, to weave together a clever narrative that makes for an entertaining read, but ultimately presents an irrational argument.
The redux of "Under the Banner of Heaven" commits similar sins, depicting a fictional detective who gradually becomes disillusioned with his faith while investigating the Lafferty murders. But these sins seem less justified coming more than two decades after Sept. 11. With a release date in 2022, the schtick comes across as anachronistic at best, and just plain bigoted at worst.
There's an actual war in Ukraine right now. Latter-day Saints are sending humanitarian aid. Meanwhile the self-styled auteurs behind "Under the Banner of Heaven" are doing media junkets.
In fact, if any American community has the nation's attention today for its acts of violence and irrationality, it wouldn't be the suburbs of Salt Lake City. It would probably be Hollywood.
From the steady stream of Kevin Spacey-type #MeToo revelations to the recent right hook heard around the world to Johnny Depp's ramblings on a witness stand to the shocking events on the set of "Rust," the one culture that seems closer to producing "dangerous men" - a phrase used in the first episode of "Under the Banner of Heaven" - would likely be Tinseltown.
So while there's certainly room for reasoned critiques of religion in general, and my faith in particular, Hollywood today lacks the moral authority and "Under the Banner of Heaven" simply misses the substance.
But none of this is all that surprising.
When the Deseret News asked if any active Latter-day Saints were hired to help with the production of "Under the Banner of Heaven," a publicist said they would check. They later confirmed that no active church members were paid to write or produce the show. But they did find some active Latter-day Saints working in costume design and with the "crew."
So, there's that.
Imagine Hollywood spending millions of dollars to produce a series focusing negative attention on a minority faith in America and then deciding not to integrate their voices into the writing or production.
You don't need to imagine. Hollywood just did that.
To be fair, the show's 47-year-old writer-producer Dustin Lance Black grew up as a member of the faith. And they had two other former church members involved. But Black's career has also been punctuated by projects needling his childhood church.
For those not attuned to the oh-so-important happenings of Hollywood, Black cut his teeth (and a few checks for himself) while working on HBO's "Big Love," a drama about a polygamist family, as well as the not-so-friendly documentary titled "8: The Mormon Proposition."
"Perhaps it's controversial," Black recently said about his latest work, "Under the Banner of Heaven," "but listen, if you do a deep dive into any religion, but I think particularly the Mormon religion, there's only two ways to go. It is either going to become a musical comedy or it's going to turn to terror and horror."
Seems pretty even-handed.
Utah has actually been in a nearly-two-century "deep dive" into the "Mormon religion" and today the state has one of the strongest economies in the country (The Wall Street Journal dubbed it an economic "star") as well as one of the highest rates of upward mobility. By at least one measure, the state ranks as the happiest in the country and has the highest percentage of children being raised by two parents under the same roof.
Oh, the terror. Oh, the horror.
It's public knowledge that Black takes issue with the church's past political efforts to define marriage as being between one man and one woman (reminder: In 2008 Barack Obama believed the law should define marriage as being between one man and one woman). Black was angered by the politics of California's Proposition 8.
But we're now almost a decade and a half removed from Proposition 8. Same-sex marriage is the law of the land. As recently as 2019, Utah ranked second in the nation in terms of overall support for LGBTQ nondiscrimination laws. The church is pushing for federal legislation that seeks to balance religious liberty and LGBTQ rights. Noted thinkers and longtime advocates of same-sex marriage such as Jonathan Rauch, of Brookings, and William Eskridge, of Yale Law School, among others, have publicly encouraged such efforts.
Despite the constant drumbeat in some quarters that gay Latter-day Saint kids are far worse living in Latter-day Saint homes, researchers from Bowling Green State University recently published findings suggesting that gay Latter-day Saint kids may actually have lower suicidality than non-Latter-day Saint kids in Utah. Scholars attribute these findings to lower rates of drug use - Latter-day Saints eschew drugs and alcohol - and more stable two-parent households.
Utah, of course, isn't all glowing statistics. It has plenty of flaws. And so, too, do Latter-day Saints.
But "Under the Banner of Heaven" doesn't take much of an interest in the contemporary issues that could actually foster a better understanding of my faith tradition. Instead, the production comes across as yet one more mile marker in a decadeslong trail of angst.
In old times you heard the words "thou shalt not kill," Jesus says in his sublime Sermon on the Mount. But anyone who is "angry," he continues, is in danger of judgment and in need of reconciliation. So leave your offering at the temple, he tells his followers, and go and make things right.
America is in desperate need of reconciliation.
We must work to foster genuine peace. But it won't happen if our entertainers continue to sell us fear and resentment. Sadly too much of the latter is what's produced these days under the banner of Hollywood.
Samuel Benson contributed to reporting in this piece.
"Perspective: Under the Banner of Hollywood"
By Hal Boyd , April 25, 2022 9:32 a.m. MDT
Too much real-life anger comes out of Tinseltown. It's time for Dustin Lance Black and company to let go of the angst toward Latter-day Saints.
As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints my faith teaches me to forgive 70 times 7. "Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek," Jesus Christ says, "turn to him the other also."
My faith admonishes me to love my enemies, to bless those that curse and to do good to those who hate. The current president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the 97-year-old former heart-surgeon Russell M. Nelson, recently pled with fellow Latter-day Saints "to do all you can to end personal conflicts that are currently raging in your hearts and in your lives."
And yet, FX's new serial drama "Under the Banner of Heaven," a redux of Jon Krakauer's book by the same name, is built on the premise that my faith is dangerous - violent even.
It's an odd thesis.
But the logic goes something like this: By placing "revelation" above "reason" religionists are particularly susceptible to violence.
The irony, of course, is that Krakauer extols "reason" while committing a fundamental logical fallacy - the fallacy of composition - assuming that what's true of the parts (some religionists are violent) is also true of the whole (all religions/religionists are violent).
But, in fact, when it comes to Latter-day Saints, statistics support the idea that communities with a high percentage of Latter-day Saints tend to have lower-than-average rates of violent crime. Utah, the state with the highest percentage of Latter-day Saints in the country, ranks as the 13th least-violent state in the nation, according to annual FBI statistics. Idaho, the state with the second-highest percentage of Latter-day Saints, ranks as the 10th least-violent state.
Some of the safest cities in Utah (Bountiful, Farmington, Pleasant Grove, Spanish Fork, etc.) are communities with higher-than-average Latter-day Saint populations (between 70%-90%). Meanwhile, the safest city in Idaho, Rexburg, is home to Brigham Young University-Idaho with a population that's 90% Latter-day Saint.
When Krakauer's book first arrived in the years following Sept. 11, 2001, violence and religion were still on the minds of many Americans. Some commentators thankfully drew careful distinctions between the very small group of violent terrorists who carried out the attacks and the millions of Muslims for whom faith inspires peace.
But Krakauer, Richard Dawkins and other atheistic types (Krakauer says he's a nonbeliever, not an atheist) often displayed the limits of their own rationality by painting with too broad of brushstrokes and, ipso facto, equating religion with violence.
In his book, Krakauer uses the Lafferty murders, and the conflicts of early Mormons, to weave together a clever narrative that makes for an entertaining read, but ultimately presents an irrational argument.
The redux of "Under the Banner of Heaven" commits similar sins, depicting a fictional detective who gradually becomes disillusioned with his faith while investigating the Lafferty murders. But these sins seem less justified coming more than two decades after Sept. 11. With a release date in 2022, the schtick comes across as anachronistic at best, and just plain bigoted at worst.
There's an actual war in Ukraine right now. Latter-day Saints are sending humanitarian aid. Meanwhile the self-styled auteurs behind "Under the Banner of Heaven" are doing media junkets.
In fact, if any American community has the nation's attention today for its acts of violence and irrationality, it wouldn't be the suburbs of Salt Lake City. It would probably be Hollywood.
From the steady stream of Kevin Spacey-type #MeToo revelations to the recent right hook heard around the world to Johnny Depp's ramblings on a witness stand to the shocking events on the set of "Rust," the one culture that seems closer to producing "dangerous men" - a phrase used in the first episode of "Under the Banner of Heaven" - would likely be Tinseltown.
So while there's certainly room for reasoned critiques of religion in general, and my faith in particular, Hollywood today lacks the moral authority and "Under the Banner of Heaven" simply misses the substance.
But none of this is all that surprising.
When the Deseret News asked if any active Latter-day Saints were hired to help with the production of "Under the Banner of Heaven," a publicist said they would check. They later confirmed that no active church members were paid to write or produce the show. But they did find some active Latter-day Saints working in costume design and with the "crew."
So, there's that.
Imagine Hollywood spending millions of dollars to produce a series focusing negative attention on a minority faith in America and then deciding not to integrate their voices into the writing or production.
You don't need to imagine. Hollywood just did that.
To be fair, the show's 47-year-old writer-producer Dustin Lance Black grew up as a member of the faith. And they had two other former church members involved. But Black's career has also been punctuated by projects needling his childhood church.
For those not attuned to the oh-so-important happenings of Hollywood, Black cut his teeth (and a few checks for himself) while working on HBO's "Big Love," a drama about a polygamist family, as well as the not-so-friendly documentary titled "8: The Mormon Proposition."
"Perhaps it's controversial," Black recently said about his latest work, "Under the Banner of Heaven," "but listen, if you do a deep dive into any religion, but I think particularly the Mormon religion, there's only two ways to go. It is either going to become a musical comedy or it's going to turn to terror and horror."
Seems pretty even-handed.
Utah has actually been in a nearly-two-century "deep dive" into the "Mormon religion" and today the state has one of the strongest economies in the country (The Wall Street Journal dubbed it an economic "star") as well as one of the highest rates of upward mobility. By at least one measure, the state ranks as the happiest in the country and has the highest percentage of children being raised by two parents under the same roof.
Oh, the terror. Oh, the horror.
It's public knowledge that Black takes issue with the church's past political efforts to define marriage as being between one man and one woman (reminder: In 2008 Barack Obama believed the law should define marriage as being between one man and one woman). Black was angered by the politics of California's Proposition 8.
But we're now almost a decade and a half removed from Proposition 8. Same-sex marriage is the law of the land. As recently as 2019, Utah ranked second in the nation in terms of overall support for LGBTQ nondiscrimination laws. The church is pushing for federal legislation that seeks to balance religious liberty and LGBTQ rights. Noted thinkers and longtime advocates of same-sex marriage such as Jonathan Rauch, of Brookings, and William Eskridge, of Yale Law School, among others, have publicly encouraged such efforts.
Despite the constant drumbeat in some quarters that gay Latter-day Saint kids are far worse living in Latter-day Saint homes, researchers from Bowling Green State University recently published findings suggesting that gay Latter-day Saint kids may actually have lower suicidality than non-Latter-day Saint kids in Utah. Scholars attribute these findings to lower rates of drug use - Latter-day Saints eschew drugs and alcohol - and more stable two-parent households.
Utah, of course, isn't all glowing statistics. It has plenty of flaws. And so, too, do Latter-day Saints.
But "Under the Banner of Heaven" doesn't take much of an interest in the contemporary issues that could actually foster a better understanding of my faith tradition. Instead, the production comes across as yet one more mile marker in a decadeslong trail of angst.
In old times you heard the words "thou shalt not kill," Jesus says in his sublime Sermon on the Mount. But anyone who is "angry," he continues, is in danger of judgment and in need of reconciliation. So leave your offering at the temple, he tells his followers, and go and make things right.
America is in desperate need of reconciliation.
We must work to foster genuine peace. But it won't happen if our entertainers continue to sell us fear and resentment. Sadly too much of the latter is what's produced these days under the banner of Hollywood.
Samuel Benson contributed to reporting in this piece.
Katochan Kenchan gokigen terebi
(1986–1992)
Kato Chan Ken Chan/Detective Story
1 April 2021
Yes this show was inspiration for America's Funniest Home Videos, however the best part of the show was their section called "Detective Story," with highly inventive and ridiculous comedic adventures of two roommate detectives. It was such a huge part of my childhood living in Japan, along with Shimura Ken's "Daijyobuda." So sad to hear about Shimura's death from covid. I only wish more than anything that there was a complete collection of this show out there somewhere. Someone please make these episodes available!!!!
The Last Airbender
(2010)
Way better than I expected
1 June 2020
I really enjoyed this film. I have not watched the animated version so I can't compare, but I don't understand the dislike of this film. No movie absolutely perfect, but if this is a bad movie, I don't think that people don't know what a bad movie is. I loved the sets, the costumes, the creatures, loved the performance of the lead actor, and the rest of the acting wasn't bad either. I was entertained and thought it was way better than half the films that continue to be released..
Split
(IX) (2016)
I Loved it!
25 May 2017
I don't know what it is with all the bad reviews. This movie rocked and was the most fun I've had at the movie theater this year (and I'm writing this 5 months later). It's a breath of fresh air to see something that isn't a remake first of all, but the storytelling and acting was fantastic. Besides the film's lead, I especially thought the woman who played the doctor did an amazing job. All in all, I base movies on entertainment value. Did it entertain? Yes! Was it fun? Yes! Should you see it without expectations? Yes! Others may disagree, but I also loved M. Night's last film "The Visit." Sure he has made a couple stink bombs, but these last couple films make up for it in my mind. He's still one of my favorite directors and I hope me makes many many more films to come :) Get that chip off your shoulder and have fun watching films, lighten up! Life's too short not to ;)
George and the Christmas Star
(1985 TV Movie)
Fantastic!
22 December 2016
Abosulutley wonderful. If you want something different than the usual Christmas fluff check this out. Love the experimental Canadian animation and ridiculous story line. Just accept it. It's meant to be silly escapism. One of the better Sci-Fi Christmas specials. I loved it. It's fun. Odd to hear Paul Anka do the music as well. This VHS will get played each Christmas for sure :) I wanted to keep my review simple but they say that I need to add more lines, so here's another. And another. And another. Another line is about to come up right about now. Here it is. Anyway I'll definitely be sharing this film with friends. Looks like I need one more line. Here is line number 10. See ya folks!
Celery Stalks at Midnight
(1951)
Love it!
3 March 2013
As a work of art and a moving painting, I absolutely love this film. I find it very beautiful, quirky and very nice to look at. I love the music and the design and the very watery/gel look of it all. I also don't know how these types of effects were accomplished in 1951, so unlike the other reviews on here, I was personally wowed by this film! I love this film and will be sharing it with friends at a "Lost Media Archive" event this coming week :)
I don't know what else to say about this very simple and short film without spoiling it for you, so I'm going to keep typing until IMDb accepts my length requirement for a review ;)
I don't know what else to say about this very simple and short film without spoiling it for you, so I'm going to keep typing until IMDb accepts my length requirement for a review ;)
One of my favorite movies of all time!!!
19 November 2012
I've shown this film to friends WITHOUT the MST3K commentary and they LOVED IT!!! There was a time when I watched this film over and over because I was so addicted to it.
Raul Julia really carries this film. His acting is charming and fun and it's probably my favorite performance by him! Yes the special effects are campy and the computer art is cheap but that only makes it better and more hilarious :)
The perfect made-for-TV camp Sci-Fi movie. I really love what people are able to accomplish with a little imagination on a budget, and I also love the cheap 80's vision of the future that makes me want to visit.
Love love love! This film also makes me want to read the short story it came from.
Seriously, I really love this movie and so do many of my friends :) PS. I like the MST3K version as well, but one of the reasons it's such a great episode is because this film already stands on it's own.
Raul Julia really carries this film. His acting is charming and fun and it's probably my favorite performance by him! Yes the special effects are campy and the computer art is cheap but that only makes it better and more hilarious :)
The perfect made-for-TV camp Sci-Fi movie. I really love what people are able to accomplish with a little imagination on a budget, and I also love the cheap 80's vision of the future that makes me want to visit.
Love love love! This film also makes me want to read the short story it came from.
Seriously, I really love this movie and so do many of my friends :) PS. I like the MST3K version as well, but one of the reasons it's such a great episode is because this film already stands on it's own.
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