This post was originally published at StandardNET:
Who remembers “Man’s Search for Happiness,” the 1964 LDS 13-minute film on the “plan of salvation?” That movie played constantly when I was a child and into my teens. It played at LDS visitors centers, in church, at firesides, as a missionary tool. I must have seen it 20 times.
And then it disappeared, replaced by a newer version. In the pre-Internet days, the original “Man’s Search for Happiness” became so scarce you couldn’t find it at a Deseret Industries. So, one day I was leafing through a catalog for Something Weird, a Seattle mail-order DVD and online cult film operation that traffics in everything from old 1930s melodrama to skin flicks. In the “Christian Scare Films” category at SW, Volume 14, surprise, you can buy “Man’s Search” (sic) for $10, $9.99 for an online download. Indeed, it is the old Mormon flick of my youth.
The catalog reads: “Man’s Search (color) actually shows us what Heaven looks like (well, actually, a glimpse of our “pre-life”) and, yup, it’s surprisingly psychedelic: lots of pretty colors and angels milling around. And this trippy, Mormon-made short shows us this pre-mortal life as a way of explaining where we came from and where we’re going in this “Earth life.” So don’t be distracted by the “Funland” amusement-park of sin (where you can zoom around on a cartoon ride, ogle women, and stare at distorted mirrors). Join the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints and keep things dull until your Spirit-Self can walk straight up to Heaven (yes, literally, we see it!) and hug lots of dead people.“
Part of me loves the irony of seeing ”Man’s Search ...“ literally go to out-of-date religious film purgatory (could you imagine what RiffTrax could do with this?) Part of me is sad to see a film I have an affection for being sold as a joke by SW. Another part of me relishes the irony of my faith’s big 1964 film, which premiered to millions at that year’s World’s fair in NYC, being sold by a ”dirty films“ seller during the same era of my faith waging a highly publicized campaign against pornography. Finally, I remain surprised that the LDS Church leadership allowed its copyright to expire so ”Man’s Search ...’ would enter the public domain. After all, it’s narrated by an apostle, Richard L. Evans.
Or maybe it’s not in the public domain? Maybe a copy was dumped somewhere, or a print found its way into a SW buy of “old, obsolete film?” As mentioned, the LDS Church filmed a newer version in 1987 but retained Evans’ narration and the original script. Are those copyrighted? It would be amusing if SW received a “cease-and-desist” letter from LDS Church attorneys.
If you haven’t seen the 1964 version of “Man’s Search ...” in a long time, it’s easy to find. YouTube has a few copies, including a five-minute “teaser” from SW. I’ve watched it a couple times a year the past several years and was able to share it with my wife and children, who hadn’t seen it. If you grew up on this “Man’s Search For Happiness,” you’ll enjoy it. But, not surprisingly, it has become very dated. The BYU-produced film, directed by the late Disney animator Judge Whitaker, does use psychedelic screen-over colors to portray pre-mortal life, and that’s funny.
The film is very campy and unintentionally cultish. Given the many dysfunctions and sins to choose from, it’s pure camp that a mere carnival would symbolize “the evils of the world.” Viewers are advised to stay away from roller coasters, fun house mirrors, wheels of fortune and shooting galleries.
I’ve saved the most amusing camp for last, where a gaggle of men gaze hungrily at the ankles and calves of burlesque dancers dressed as modestly as Shirley MacLaine in “Can Can.” The late Russian leader Kruschev’s well-publicized objections notwithstanding, that was pretty old-fashioned “indecency” even for 1964.
The rest of the film, which involves the birth of one individual and the death of a grandfather, provides a pretty good overview of the LDS Plan of Salvation. Near the end, when grandpa walks slowly into the spirit world (SW has it wrong, he’s not in heaven) things get funny. A Facebook friend is on target when he compares the spirit world inhabitants that grandpa greets to the possessed souls in the old Brit shocker flick “Village of the Damned.”
Still, I’m glad that “Man’s Search for Happiness” lives on, whether on the Net or through a mail-order company. (The Salt Lake Tribune mentioned this post soon after its original posting in 2011.)
--- Doug Gibson
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