Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
Running with the golden plates

Running with the golden plates

Last updated on: November 13, 2019 at 10:46 am by Dan Peterson

Running with the golden plates 2019-11-13T10:46:20-07:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Joseph Smith, running through the woods and carrying the golden plates of the Book of Mormon under his arm while trying to evade local money diggers who want to wrestle the plates from him.
(Still photograph courtesy of James Jordan)

I spoke at a small “cottage meeting” on Saturday night, along with the Interpreter Foundation’s fundraiser, Ed Snow, and Mark Goodman, the director of the Foundation’s current Witnesses film project. It was a real treat for me to see two brand new clips from the principal dramatic movie, which is now taking shape. This was the first time that they’ve been shown.

The first depicted Joseph Smith, played by Paul Wuthrich, being chased by money diggers while he’s carrying the plates.

The second showed the first meeting of David Whitmer with Joseph, who has been working with Oliver Cowdery in Harmony, Pennsylvania, and who knows a great deal more about David’s travels of the previous two days from Fayette, New York, than he could possibly know by natural means.

Mark was very apologetic to the group before showing the two clips, saying that their color was off, that the music was too loud, and so forth, and that this was only preliminary work. However, I have to say that I was quite pleased.

One aspect of the first clip that I like very much:

I’ve seen the criticism that the plates were too heavy, that Joseph Smith could not possibly have run through the woods carrying them.

Well. There were two prop sets of plates at the disposal of the filmmakers. One of them was quite light, for convenience. The second was roughly the weight of the real historical plates themselves. When our people were filming the scene in which young Joseph Smith runs through the woods while being pursued by money diggers who are intent on gaining possession of the Book of Mormon plates, they gave Paul Wuthrich the option of using the lighter prop. After all, he would be running down the hill repeatedly, carrying the plates, jumping over rocks and logs, trying to avoid low branches. He would be doing this over and over again, for different takes. Repeating the effort so that filming could be done from a variety of angles.

He tested the lighter set of plates, and then chose to go with the heavier ones so that the scene would be more realistic. Thus, again and again, he had to run down the hill carrying the plates, then climb up the hill once more, then run down the hill, then climb up the hill.

At the end of the day, the producer tells me, the actor was utterly exhausted.

But the fact remains that he did it. Which proves that it can be done.

And Joseph Smith was a young man who spent his days doing heavy manual labor, who never rode in an automobile, who had a reputation for unusual physical strength. If Paul Wuthrich could do it, Joseph could have done it, too.

Posted from Park City, Utah

Uncategorized

Book of Mormon

Book of Mormon Witnesses

David Whitmer

film

Interpreter

Interpreter Foundation

Previous Post

November 10, 2019

You might as well pray to a rock

Next Post

November 10, 2019 Werner Heisenberg on Religion

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month November 2026 October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What Christian group is known for door-to-door evangelism?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Jehovah’s Witnesses Catholics Baptists Pentecostals