Review
Title: Witnesses
Director: Mark Goodman
Actors: Michael Zuccola, Caleb J. Spivak, Lincoln Shoppe, Paul Wuthrich
Studio: Excel Entertainment
Genre: Historical Drama
Year Released: 2021
Run Time: 1 Hr 50 Min
Format: Blu Ray & DVD
Price: 19.98
Reviewed by Mark Tensmeyer for the Association of Mormon Letters
The Gold Plates hold a special place in the foundational story of the Restoration. Their tangibility is considered evidence that Joseph Smith’s claims of communion with the Divine and his commission to produce new scripture were not merely his imagination or delusion. However, since the plates are not available for view and this privilege was only ever available to a select few, the witnesses’ credibility is central to the validity of the truth claims of Mormonism. Ironically, that each of the Three Witnesses left the Church has become a point that enhances their credibility. To many Latter-day Saints, the fact that they had major fallings out with Joseph Smith and left the Church and yet maintained their testimony that the plates were real indicates that they were not coconspirators in a fraud. In 1968, the Church produced a film called the Three Witnesses that dramatized this narrative. The investigators I showed that movie to as a missionary in 2005 and 2006 enjoyed it but found it to be terribly dated. Witnesses by the Interpreter Foundation is a much-needed update to that film.
Like the 1968 film, the frame story in Witnesses involves a skeptical non-Mormon. In this case, the framing character is a reporter who interviews an older David Whitmer. He asks Whitmer about his experience as a witness to the plates and his history with Joseph Smith and the Church. Whitmer then relates his story and that of his fellow witnesses.
Witnesses incorporates sourced accounts where possible, including New Mormon History, which I personally found very refreshing. It shows Joseph Smith translating the plates by means of a brown rock placed in a white hat and explained that he did not need to look at the plates to translate. Though the film did not go into much detail, it did mention Joseph’s history as a glass looker.
Significantly, this film makes strides to retire the tired old trope that all those who dissented from the early Church left over only petty personal squabbles. Whitmer and Cowdery confront Joseph about his forbidding them to sell their lands in Jackson County, an action they see as overstepping the place of an ecclesiastical leader. At another point, Joseph confronts Oliver about why he was suddenly so hostile. My jaw dropped when Oliver answered, “Fanny Alger.” Having grown up watching movies about Joseph Smith like Legacy and The Work and the Glory, that is a name I never thought I would hear in a movie intended to be faith-promoting.
Witnesses does, rightfully, show that ego did play a role in the witnesses’ disaffection. Cowdery, Whitmer, and Harris felt they had been pushed aside in ecclesiastical positions and spiritual roles in favor of Sidney Rigdon and the Ohio converts. This comes across as, if not justified, understandable, especially as Rigdon is not depicted in a positive light. One especially sympathetic moment to the witnesses comes during Rigdon’s Salt Sermon, where he dramatically leads the congregation in chanting “cast them [the dissenters] out!” while a visibly disturbed Cowdery and Whitmer watch. Cowdery and Whitmer’s worries increase when they read the Danite manifesto warning them to leave Far West, and they abruptly leave under the cover of night.
As a movie produced by The Interpreter Foundation, naturally, Witnesses favors more faithful interpretations of historical events. With Fanny Alger, Joseph explains that the relationship was a sealing for eternity in response to Cowdery’s question, “Is she your maid or your wife.” There are very few sources on the Fanny Alger incident, and among scholars today, there is considerable debate about whether the relationship was consummated or if it was even a marriage or a sealing. Cowdery described it as a “nasty, filthy affair,” though the word “affair” did not necessarily mean what it does today. Witnesses also distances Joseph from the activities of the Danites in Missouri; and the failure of the Kirtland Safety Society in Ohio or at least leaves the extent of his responsibility unknown. In my opinion, the film does make assumptions in favor of a faithful narrative but does not cross a line into being overly apologetic.
A historical dramatization, like all mediums, has its limitations. The Eight Witnesses are only lightly touched on. This is no surprise as the stories of Whitmer, Cowdery, and Harris are more than enough to take up a feature film. It has been my experience, though, that many find the Eight Witnesses account to be the more compelling of the two. Their naturalistic experience with the plates counterbalances the supernatural/visionary experience of the Three Witnesses. The two experiences taken together, if believed, show the plates were neither an imagination of religious fanatics nor a convincing forgery of a con man. This is an important part of the witnesses’ significance to the truth claims of the Restoration that, unfortunately, the movie is not able to explore.
The production values of Witnesses are good, especially for an independent religious film. I thought the confrontation between the Missouri mob and David Whitmer was a bit overacted. Some of the antagonistic individuals such as Warren Parrish, Lucy Harris, and her lawyer, were slightly cartoonish. However, the scenes between Joseph and his friends are well acted. Paul Wuthrich is perhaps my favorite on-screen Joseph Smith. He captures the charisma and strength that inspired the religious faith of the Latter-day Saints then and now. I also enjoyed his portrayal of Joseph Smith frequently clashing with those close to him. I would love to see Wuthrich and Paul Spivak, who played Oliver Cowdery, reprise their respective roles in future works. I would also love to see Wuthrich portray a Nauvoo-era Joseph Smith navigating the complex conflicts that existed in the last three years of his life.
For better or worse, the writers and producers crammed a great deal of historical facts into the narrative. I am an amateur Mormon historian, and I had a much easier time following the narrative than my family members who are active, knowledgeable Church members. They were frequently asking me to identify people on screen. While the the film introduced who everyone was, my family members had a hard time keeping track of who they were. I would recommend watching this movie more than once. Something I noticed during my second time watching was the effort to include Emma Smith, Elizabeth Cowdery, and Julia Whitmer as part of the story, reminding the watcher that this was their story, affecting their lives as well as their husbands’.
The movie wisely does not overplay the significance of the Three Witnesses by pretending that their testimony, no matter how credible it might be, proves that the plates were real. In the end, the reporter walks away not convinced that the plates were real; but convinced that David Whitmer was a man of integrity who believed that he had seen the plates, and that is really all that Whitmer expects. A conviction that the plates were real or of divine origin is ultimately up to the individual to decide for themselves, but the testimony of the witnesses could serve as a reason to take a leap of faith.
Tackling a topic like this on film in such detail is a difficult task, and I believe Excel Entertainment produced a quality product. Rank and file Church members will find much to learn and enjoy in Witnesses and may find themselves reframing their understandings of Church history to accept difficult facts. Those coming at the film from a more academic perspective will no doubt find much to object to but hopefully will appreciate the steps the film takes to incorporate facts that the Latter-day Saint faithful have set aside. I, for one, hope there will be more Church history films like this.