L'Odyssée des Mormons

The story of Brigham Young and his faithful's journey to Salt Lake City in the mid-19th century looks and functions like a classic biblical epic in the Hollywood rendition of the time. There is no shortage of symbolic magic at the end, the only "minor" difference being that we are following the first era of Mormonism and not a biography of Moses. As a supplement to education, it's not a bad experience; the context of modern American history and the development of American film in the 1940s is important. Any viewer boredom is prevented by the young love interest played by Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell, but it really is skillfully shot, so if you know what you're getting into, it can be a solid experience. A little epic and a little pathetic. Considering that Mormon stories are part of the classic western narrative, I'm slightly surprised I didn't know about it before. That’s probably due to the European romantic view of Wild West stories that were never about more than Old Shatterhand or Elke Sommer. (07/08/2020)