Plan 10 from Outer Space |
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USA • 1995 • 80m •
  • Directed by: Trent Harris. • Starring: Stefene Russell, Karen Black, Patrick Michael Collins, Curtis James, Deva Cantrell, Gyll Huff, Jeff Price, Karen Nielsen, Burnadette Leroi, Alex Caldiero, Theron Read, Dale Angell, Bridget Bedard. • Music by: Fred Myrow.   A woman accidentally discovers the Plaque of Kolob which leads her to discover an insidous alien plot for world domination documented by a disreputable early Mormon prophet.
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Review:
Basically, it's a science-fiction film about Mormonism. I have no idea how it plays to non-Mormons; but if you ever wanted to sing "Maybe!" during the first verse of "Shall the Youth of Zion Falter," or giggled when the congregation sang "Yoo-hoo unto Jesus" in the old version of "How Firm a Foundation," it's definitely a must-see.
With what I can only call affectionate blasphemy, it pays homage to the inventive weirdness of 19th C. Mormonism. Most people know about the polygamy, but if you're not familiar with the background, you might think a lot of the other stuff that gets mentioned along the way was made up for the film. Not so. The Deseret Alphabet exists. God's home planet really is called Kolob, in Mormon theology at any rate. Porter Rockwell is widely held to have been one of Brigham Young's chief enforcers (it's a controversial point), and by all accounts was a very rough customer. Beehives are in fact a characteristic Mormon motif; Brigham Young was very big on them. And the ritual gestures and postures are real, but... let's not talk about that.
The song about Kolob you hear throughout the movie is "If You Could Hie to Kolob," an early Mormon hymn. It's normally sung to the tune hymn geeks know as "Kingsfold," but you can also sing it to the tune of "The Beverly Hillbillies."
Some of the details are right -- and funny -- in ways I can't begin to explain, like having characters named Larsen and Talmadge; but I promise that if you were to say "The spaceship looks like a giant flying Liahona," every veteran of Mormon Sunday School would know exactly what you meant. And to my mind the funniest line in the movie is one that goes straight to the heart of the Mormon experience: "Just because it's made up doesn't mean it isn't true!"
I'm sure Plan 10 shocked some of the brethren and sistren. Tough noogies. Any robust religion will have jokes made about it by its members. The ones who can't bear humor of any kind are the religionists who secretly fear the jokes might be right.
Review by tnh-2 from the Internet Movie Database.
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