{"id":3566,"date":"2009-02-10T00:07:16","date_gmt":"2009-02-10T08:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=3566"},"modified":"2009-02-13T08:34:23","modified_gmt":"2009-02-13T16:34:23","slug":"follow-the-prophet-drew-ann-rosenburg-2009-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=3566","title":{"rendered":"Follow The Prophet (Drew Ann Rosenburg, 2009): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Darryl Walden<\/a>. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2009.<\/p>\n

\"Follow Polygamy, child molestation and incest are all legally prohibited in this country. Yet, protected by the First Amendment under the cloak of free religious practices, all three flourish in Downey, Utah through the precepts of Mormonism;\u00a0\u00a0at least, according to the film, Follow The Prophet<\/em><\/a>, directed by Drew Ann \u00a0Rosenburg. \u00a0The film was written by Robert Chimento, who also stars in the protagonist role of Army Colonel Jude Marks, who loses a daughter serving in Iraq at a crucial time of reconciliation, then encounters Avery Colden (Annie Burgstede), who escapes from incestuous and predatory practices enacted by her own father (David Conrad), who professes to do so in the name of the Mormon religion.<\/p>\n

Avery’s father, Roger Colden is arrested and faces criminal prosecution for business fraud. \u00a0He beseeches the Prophet (Tom Noonan) to intervene on his behalf with the judge hearing the case. \u00a0The Prophet agrees to do so for a percentage of the business in question.\u00a0 He also insists that\u00a0Roger bequeath his daughter Avery, who will soon be fifteen, as a wife. \u00a0This requires that Roger deflower Avery before handing her over to the Prophet. \u00a0So begins the plot on this immoral note.<\/p>\n

On her fifteenth birthday, Avery rejects her father’s advances, gets beaten for the effort, but manages to flee, stowing herself into Jude’s truck, who’s en route to a remote ski resort. \u00a0When Jude discovers her and the true circumstances of her plight, he forms a pyschological nexus between the loss of his daughter and Avery. \u00a0This, in combination with Jude’s empirical observation of a secreted encampment of runaway Mormon kids compels his effort to expose the Prophet.<\/p>\n

However noble the effort, the film like the reality it is based \u00a0is unpleasant, difficult and controversial. \u00a0To his credit, Chimento at least exposes some serious challenges that are faced in approaching this matter. \u00a0Over the years, the Mormons have erected a corporate infrastructure that generates billions of dollars for the State of Utah. They are Utah’s economy, and one of the reasons this narrative did not fly for me. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Also, to prosecute the Prophet is to set up a serious First Amendment violation. We can morally disagree with its practices, but Mormonism is recognized as a religion and not a cult in this country. \u00a0Brigham Young is an accredited University established on precepts retraced to the founder of the religion. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Polygamy is one thing. \u00a0 Incest and child molestation, however, is totally\u00a0despicable. Yet, reality still demands greater numbers to come forth for moral change from within their own ranks. \u00a0Insightful as it was, the film left me more disgusted than hopeful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Darryl Walden. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2009. Polygamy, child molestation and incest are all legally prohibited in this country. Yet, protected by the First Amendment under the cloak of free religious practices, all three flourish in Downey, Utah through the precepts of Mormonism;\u00a0\u00a0at least, according to the film, Follow The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":193,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2009"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/193"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}