This is partly in response to Eric Thompson’s review of Piccadilly Cowboy at AMV, but I thought it might be worth a new topic here.

There’s a trend LDS cinema that I find disconcerting (it may be present in written works as well, but I haven’t noticed it there so much). Pride and Prejudice: A Latter-day Comedy was released on DVD, without the subtitle, and an option to watch with or without the LDS references. Similarly, The Dance was reported to have actually been filmed in LDS and non-LDS versions. There doesn’t appear to be a non-LDS version of the DVD, but Piccadilly Cowboy seems intended to fit the double route as well – in fact, the website for the film is without any LDS references. With perhaps just a few short scenes, the movie could easily transition as movie void of Mormonism – in spite of the many allusions and events throughout.

One way to understand what is occurring here is that filmmakers understandably want their films to appeal to a larger audience and thus produce more generalized products to do so. But after seeing Piccadilly Cowboy, I’m feeling more pessimistic. It felt rather like an ordinary film with Mormon references tacked on and squeezed in on the edges. As interested as I am in seeing Mormonism reflected in film and literature, I can’t say I appreciate this.

From the purely commercial standpoint, it feels cheap. It’s not easy to get independent films in multiplexes; Mormon films are very much at an advantage on this point. Most novice/mediocre filmmakers would love to get their movies into 30+ theaters, backed up with retail chains that will highlight their DVDs. When filmmakers build in some Mormon references into their essentially non-Mormon films, it really just feels like they’re exploiting the system – and weakening that system as they pass through it.

More importantly, from an artistic perspective, tacked on Mormonism also weakens the film itself. As Eric T. effectively argues in his post about Piccadilly Cowboy, the utter insignificance of Mormonism to either the film’s story or themes makes its frequent presence all the more jarring and ultimately fruitless. Given that this movie is already pretty weak on its own terms, it amounts to a rather troubling experience.

Having said all of the above, I realize that many LDS writers actually fear making Mormonism too prevalent in their works. I think there’s a difference between works that are essentially non-Mormon, yet casually involve LDS characters and experiences – and works where the Mormonism is just tacked on. But I’m not sure how to delineate that difference.