Customer Reviews

Child Bride of Short Creek

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I saw this movie repeatedly in the 80's. My little sister and I used to watch it because it had gotten videotaped after something else we had taped off the TV (long before tivo and dvr, young people). Anyway, we were young and sheltered; grew up in a pretty strict home, and there wasn't anything objectionable about this movie. I just happened to look it up in light of all this FDLR business in the news to see if it was out there. I must say, though, that the previous review that described the plot made such as mishmash of it that I have my doubts they saw it. I do remember it quite clearly as we watched it repeatedly. In fact, I remembered it so well, that the first time I saw Mad About You, I called my sister to tell her that 'Naomi' was on a sitcom now. I didn't recognize Diane Lane, but I have been wondering for years who that girl was.

The movie is about a young girl (Lane) dealing with coming of age and making a personal decision about polygamy. The compound is raided, and rather than elope, she goes back to face the raid with her mother. After they are allowed to return to the compound years later, her mother encourages her to escape rather than be taken back. Her mother also is facing her demons with the life that she has chosen, and you get to see her struggle as the wife of a polygamist.

To wrap it up, very tastefully done--could be shown to a youth group--with good character development and plenty of room for discussion, not just about polygamy, but also about tolerance, and learning to make responsible decisions as one matures.

Once again, Televista, a video/DVD pirating operation, gives us another homemade DVD-R with cruddy quality, color Xerox sleeve art - the usual "high" standards that all of their garbage products exhibit.

Don't be a sucker. Don't buy their junk. And, Amazon, quit letting them sell their illegitimate crap here!

This is a dramatization of a historic raid on a polygamist community. I grew up in Utah as a non-Mormon, but I went with my best friend to all kinds of LDS church meetings, conferences and dances. The main LDS church will excommunicate you for polygamy, but off shoot churches have continued this practice to this day. The "Big Brother" feel of everyone knowing everyone else's business, and being expected to do as everyone else does, in every little thing in your life, is very true. It is a realistic glimpse into a tightly woven religious sect (cult if you will). Very young girls are married off to men the age of their fathers, or even grandfathers, and often they are already related in some way, because of the small size of the community. I love this line; the girls are doing hard chores in above 100(f)degree heat. One of the girls had dared to roll up the sleeves of her very modest, below the knee, dress to just above her elbows to cool off a bit. Her mother says "roll those sleeves down!-you want to show everything you've got!?"

I haven't seen this and have no idea of whether it's good or not. I'm writing this entirely because the product listing for the DVD release shows it to be 'Unrated', while the film was actually made for television - so potential customers should realize that if it was submitted to the MPAA for rating, it'd be either G or PG (perhaps PG-13) - not what one usually expects in an 'unrated' flick.

A girl, a young Diane Lane, is being groomed to be a child bride to a man old enough to be her father. She is unsettled by this because she is in love with her intended's son, Christopher Aiken. She is reluctant to leave her home, until her best friend, a young Helen Hunt, is caught escaping the compound. Her friend is then forced into a marriage as soon as she arrives home. This has the two young lovers making a break to the real world.