Review of 8: The Mormon Proposition (2010) by Darryl K — 15 May 2011

It is so sad how much time people spend directly on preventing others (people they don't even know) from achieving happiness. 8 focuses on the proposition that band same sex marriage in California and blames it on Mormon campaign funding.

However, sub-par filmmaking hamper this film that at its heart has an important message. Lackluster editing and bad synth music is pumped up a little too high in an attempt to squeeze out the audience's tears in emotional scenes.

And parts of the film come off as simply a condemnation of the Mormon church rather than focusing on the issue. While it's obvious that the Mormon church tried extremely hard to erase same sex marriage from the books, the film doesn't show any direct correlation of how their campaigning effected voters.

It was a very close outcome and the makers should have done a survey of the voters who voted for Prop 8 and why they did so. I have a feeling most who did were not Mormon and probably weren't effected by commercials and propaganda put out by them.

(This aspect was not investigated at all). The most interesting part of the film were interviews and information about the Mormon church itself and its shady past and effects on people. While I think that should have been the focus of the documentary itself, it is used sparsely as part of an attempted plea to the audiences emotions to condemn the Mormon church.

The thing is, I think a majority of people out there already have negative feelings for the Mormon church, leading one to wonder if this one small group really did the massive damage the makers portray them to have done.

So then the question has to be asked -- was this documentary made simply trying to place blame because someone was angry, or was this an honest attempt to change something?