8: The Mormon Proposition (2010)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Let's be realistic.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

I recognize that Mr. Cowan when he created this documentary was attempting to take on the Mormon church with a personal hatred that you could almost taste while watching this film. However just because he thought that horrible tales of genital mutilation and BYU would somehow prove his point doesn't make it so. It felt that Mr. Cowan's main agenda was to attempt to make us all hate Mormons with a mix of accurate facts and wildly grossly inaccurate disgusting hate speech. As far as Mormon's and the LGBT community, I'll admit the relationship is tenuous at best however to persecute and single out Mormon's as the only people to support proposition 8 is both short sided an inaccurate. I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone.

I thank the whole crew and courageous interviewees for this important film. I had no idea how bad it was, and am grateful to be informed. Before I saw this documentary, I knew that the Mormon church had poured money into California to get Prop 8 passed. It bothered me. I think churches should pay taxes when they act like that. To think of all the charitable things that could have been done with that money! What I did not know before I saw this documentary is the depth to which the Mormon church is involved, and the horrible way they have treated their own different children. This is a must-see film for every voter who thinks Prop 8 is a good idea, and for anyone who is thinking about converting to this religion.

Hey, did you hear the good news? Jesus Christ did in fact return to life and was here in these very United States! Also, this guy, Joseph Smith said he found some tablets in the forest or something like that, but nobody ever actually saw them other than Mr. Smith, and now he can have as many wives as he wants! Oh, you didn't hear this? Well, then you're either a logical human being or, more likely, simply not a member of the Mormon church.So God said that one guy making out with another guy is wrong, so it HAS to be an absolute truth, right? Well, in that case once my daughter hits a certain age I'll be sure to pimp her out, that is if she doesn't mouth off to me and I stone her to death, two things that are promoted in the Bible as God's word; and lets not forget that wonderful concept of man's domination of all on earth leading to such marvelous things as species extinction and global warming (but that's just made up, right? Sort of like an all powerful being; IRONY ALERT.) In case you couldn't get the hint, I am an Atheist, have been for about 10 years now. It wasn't particularly hard work to realize that there is, was nor will there ever be a god in any sense. Sure, some of the mythology from some religions are interesting from a purely story telling aspect, loves me some Norse mythology, but to read a book and take every word written as factual truth is just beyond ridiculous and, obviously, dangerous to the rights of human beings.Watching the documentary, and seeing the Morons, I'm sorry, Mormons go from door to door surveying people one can't help but recall the treacherous and manipulative methods of the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1900s; they would go from door to door and ask people vague questions; do you love your country? do you love god? do you love your children? etc, etc. Well if you do, SIGN THIS AND JOIN OUR CLUB! and, unfortunately, a ton of people fell for this scheme. It's all about misinformation and fear, really; control the fearful and you have power absolute. Tell them that their children are in grave danger if a man is allowed to marry a man and, unfortunately, 8 times out of 10 they'll vote for whatever you're pushing. This idea that if homosexual couples are allowed to marry will bring about the demise of the United States and all it stands for, you know...the whole every man born equal thing, is so unbelievably absurd that it's making Camus role over in his grave.I'm not a Stalinist Atheist. I don't feel that if you eliminate religion from the world it would make it a better place (I don't have enough faith in the human condition to be so naive.), you can believe whatever you want, you can preach whatever you feel to be your seriously hilarious truth (like not allowing blacks into your religion until 1978) but once you take your beliefs and use them to manipulate the public into voting for something that is in your best interest then you're a problem through and through. Really, though, it's, again, all a matter of controlling the fearful. I believe in an afterlife because I'm scared to death of...well, death; what happens after we die? Oh, nothing? Total darkness and no more? Well, that's too bleak, so I'll just believe that when I die I'll get all the tang I could ever want; hell, I'll even become a GOD after I die, but in order to get to this point that somebody made up 100 or so years ago I have to be a slave to a group of megalomaniacs.Seriously? The documentary didn't tell me anything I didn't already know from reading noted science fiction author Orson Scott Card's appalling essay railing against homosexual rights; the fact that these people think that sexuality is a choice that can be reversed just goes to show how intensely they're living in their own little worlds, if this is the case, if something born into a human being is actually a choice....well, in that case you better start rounding up the blind, the deaf, the autistic and, gosh golly, why not the horizontally impaired? Yes, the Mormon church, proponents of eugenics: fantastic.Oh well, no matter if the church was involved or not the people of California VOTED for the proposition to be put into play; yeah, and Hitler was elected in a democratic system.

As a voter living in SoCal, I'm tired of hearing that I should be barred from making whatever legal donations to political and social causes that I wish because I'm LDS (Mormon). As repeatedly stated without refutation, the LDS Church contributed a total of about $200k to defending marriage in Prop 8's victory -- most of which was non-cash support. The rest of so-called Mormon money, on both sides of this issue, came from private voters. So what? Under what pretense am I to be denied my right to participate?Please consider the following:* 10% more money was contributed to oppose Prop 8 than to support it ($44 million vs. $40 million). Any Mormon influence on donations to support Prop 8 only served to narrow Prop 8's di$avantage, but did not overcome it. Now we have this film that would have us believe that the side spending *less* money bought the election.* Donations from outside of California opposing Prop 8 were double the amount supporting it. This means that Californian donations were more supportive of Prop 8 than were funds from the outsiders who sought to influence us. This is another indicator that Californians supported Prop 8 generally -- not just the Mormon minority -- in opposition to the noisy minority that sought to buy this election with greater spending.* Some say that Mormons donated too much in this election. By what standard? I agree that others did not donate their fair share but I do not see how our donations should be curtailed because of others' stinginess -- at least until celebrity donors also are curtailed.Given that Prop 8 won 52% to 48% and that total donations were $40 million in favor to $44 million against: $1.20 was donated for every opposing vote vs. $1.00 donated for every supporting vote. So, which side donated in excess? It would be more reasonable to complain that the losing side donated too much, based upon their spending per vote.* The total adult Mormon population in California only equals about half Prop 8's margin of victory. If all of us had voted and had voted for Prop 8 (polls showed that 1 in 10 Mormons opposed it), our votes still would not have affected the outcome.* The kind of pressure to support Prop 8 this film propounds was not known among us in reality. E.g., in my local ward (congregation), a man that spoke out against Prop 8 in our scripture class every week was allowed to drone on uncensured and uncensored. Shortly after the election, he was called to be president of our Sunday School (which admittedly could be seen as punishment).* The Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco contacted the Mormon leaders to ask for our help with Prop 8. We were happy to make common cause with them (well, as noted above, 9/10 of us were).* Mormon support for Prop 8 is based in, as the bumper stickers said, supporting marriage. The Church supports equal civil rights for homosexuals, including parity of civil unions: the Salt Lake City council recently passed an anti-homosexual-discrimination measure. The LDS Church endorsed it; apparently, there wasn't room in this film for this inconvenient truth.* Polls showed that 70% of California's black voters and ~ 52% of our Hispanic voters supported Prop 8 and their votes -- not the pro-Prop-8 90% of the 2% Mormons make of California's population -- are enough to account for Prop 8's margin of victory.* Prop 8 garnered 1 million more votes in favor than did the similar Prop 22 in 1998.Film makers are free to write and produce whatever they want. I just wish they wouldn't confuse the audiences of this one with their street theater of *acting* like this was a documentary.But this, too shall pass. To review:1986. Mark Hoffman is arrested for murder and for forging documents that appeared to relate to LDS history. A national publication says that this "rocked" the Church's foundation. People breathlessly awaited the collapse of the restored Church. Now, nobody remembers him.And the caravan moved on, healing souls.2006. "September Dawn," a fatuous movie claiming to be based upon the massacre at Mountain Meadows is released. People breathlessly awaited the collapse of the restored Church. It shortly was seen as too specious to be taken seriously. Now, nobody remembers it.And the caravan moved on, healing souls.2010. "8: The Mormon Proposition," a fatuous movie claiming to be based upon Prop 8's campaign and election is released. People breathlessly await the collapse of the restored Church. It shortly will be seen as too specious to be taken seriously. Soon, nobody will remember it.And the caravan moves on, healing souls.(BTW, this is nothing new: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Victim_Of_The_Mormons_3.jpg)