| Spirit of the Game | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Darran Scott aka Darran Page |
| Written by | Darran Scott aka Darran Page |
| Produced by | Steve Jaggi Spencer McLaren Kate Whitebread |
| Starring | Aaron Jakubenko Kevin Sorbo Wade Briggs Grant Piro Anna McGahan |
| Cinematography | Brian J. Breheny |
| Edited by | Adrian Powers |
| Music by | Ned McPhie Matt Rudduck |
Production companies | The Steve Jaggi Company McLaren House KW Films |
| Distributed by | Samuel Goldwyn Films Purdie Distribution Momo Films Sony Pictures Home Entertainment |
Release date |
|
Running time | 98 minutes |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
Spirit of the Game is a 2016 biographical film written and directed by Darran Scott aka Darran Page with cinematography by Brian J. Breheny ( The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert ). The film is based on the true story of the Mormon Yankees, an American basketball team which played in exhibition games before the 1956 Summer Olympics. The film stars, Aaron Jakubenko, Kevin Sorbo, Wade Briggs, Grant Piro and Anna McGahan.
It’s 1956 and 20 year old Delyle Condie travels to Melbourne, Australia, on a Mission for his Church in an attempt to recover from a broken heart. He leaves behind a promising basketball career and finds himself in a city gripped with Olympic fever. Delyle struggles to maintain his spirits when faced with the indifference of the locals, but when an opportunity to help train Australia’s first Olympic basketball team arises, Delyle sees his chance to connect. His passion leads to the formation of the Mormon Yankees basketball team, and in the run up to the Games, fierce competition with the French leads to a bloody rematch, through which Delyle and his Yankees are able to prove their faith - and their mettle - to the world.
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The Deseret News criticised the "stiff acting" in the movie, but highlighted Piro's performance and described the story as "compelling". [1] The Salt Lake Tribune thought the film was full of "ponderous piety" but praised Sorbo for adding some gravitas to his role. [2] The film was nominated for best dramatic cinema in the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.
The Angel Moroni is an angel whom Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, reported as having visited him on numerous occasions, beginning on September 21, 1823. According to Smith, the angel Moroni was the guardian of the golden plates buried near his home in western New York, which Latter Day Saints believe were the source of the Book of Mormon. An important figure in the theology of the Latter Day Saint movement, Moroni is featured prominently in its architecture and art. Besides Smith, the Three Witnesses and several other witnesses also reported that they saw Moroni in visions in 1829.
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Mormon fiction is generally fiction by or about members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who are also referred to as Latter-day Saints or Mormons. Its history is commonly divided into four sections as first organized by Eugene England: foundations, home literature, the "lost" generation, and faithful realism. During the first fifty years of the church's existence, 1830–1880, fiction was not popular, though Parley P. Pratt wrote a fictional Dialogue between Joseph Smith and the Devil. With the emergence of the novel and short stories as popular reading material, Orson F. Whitney called on fellow members to write inspirational stories. During this "home literature" movement, church-published magazines published many didactic stories and Nephi Anderson wrote the novel Added Upon. The generation of writers after the home literature movement produced fiction that was recognized nationally but was seen as rebelling against home literature's outward moralization. Vardis Fisher's Children of God and Maurine Whipple's The Giant Joshua were prominent novels from this time period. In the 1970s and 1980s, authors started writing realistic fiction as faithful members of the LDS Church. Acclaimed examples include Levi S. Peterson's The Backslider and Linda Sillitoe's Sideways to the Sun. Home literature experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s when church-owned Deseret Book started to publish more fiction, including Gerald Lund's historical fiction series The Work and the Glory and Jack Weyland's novels.
Russell Marion Nelson Sr. is an American religious leader and retired surgeon who is the 17th and current president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Nelson was a member of the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for nearly 34 years, and was the quorum president from 2015 to 2018. As church president, Nelson is recognized by the church as a prophet, seer, and revelator.
Lowell Tom Perry was an American businessman and religious leader who was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1974 until his death.
Latter Days is a 2003 American romantic comedy drama film about the relationship between a closeted Mormon missionary and his openly gay neighbor. The film was written and directed by C. Jay Cox and stars Steve Sandvoss as the missionary, Aaron, and Wes Ramsey as the neighbor, Christian. Joseph Gordon-Levitt appears as Elder Ryder, and Rebekah Johnson as Julie Taylor. Mary Kay Place, Khary Payton, Erik Palladino, Amber Benson, and Jacqueline Bisset have supporting roles.
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The history of the Latter Day Saint movement includes numerous instances of violence. Mormons faced significant persecution in the early 19th century, including instances of forced displacement and mob violence in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. Notably, the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, was shot and killed alongside his brother, Hyrum Smith, in Carthage, Illinois in 1844, while Smith was in jail awaiting trial on charges of treason and inciting a riot.
Fred Emmett Woods IV is a Brigham Young University professor of Latter-day Saint Church History and Mormon Doctrine, an author specializing in Mormon migration and the Globalization of Mormonism.
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Spencer Joel Condie has been a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1989. Condie previously worked as a professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) and also served as a mission president for the LDS Church in Eastern Europe. In 2010, he was designated as an emeritus general authority.
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In the theology of the Latter Day Saint movement, an endowment refers to a gift of "power from on high", typically associated with the ordinances performed in Latter Day Saint temples. The purpose and meaning of the endowment varied during the life of movement founder Joseph Smith. The term has referred to many such gifts of heavenly power, including the confirmation ritual, the institution of the High Priesthood in 1831, events and rituals occurring in the Kirtland Temple in the mid-1830s, and an elaborate ritual performed in the Nauvoo Temple in the 1840s.
The Book of Mormon is a musical comedy with music, lyrics, and book by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone. The story follows two missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as they attempt to preach the faith to the inhabitants of a remote Ugandan village. The earnest young men are challenged by the lack of interest from the locals, who are distracted by more pressing issues such as HIV/AIDS, famine, female genital mutilation, child molestation, and oppression by the local warlord.
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