Kieth Merrill Body Slams Richard Dutcher

[Indy Coug]

http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/218036/1/

[Solon]

Originally Posted by Indy Coug

http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/218036/1/

Hey, I don't know enough about this argument, but I'm going to side with Kieth, despite his orthographically challenged name. This is the guy who directed Mr. Kruger's Christmas (a must-see every December), Harry's War (a hit every tax season), and Take Down, the greatest wrestling movie ever made (featuring Olympus High School's Bob Kawa as the coach of the bad guys). With credentials like these, his word is gospel to me.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0581303/#producer

[Jeff Lebowski]

"Body slam" is an appropriate term here. It reminds me of professional wrestling. What a disaster. I suspect Merrill will regret writing that letter for a long time.

[All-American]

I will not regret him writing it.

[Indy Coug]

You may not like what Merrill had to say as a whole, Jeff, but there are some good quotes in here:

With his latest tirade, Dutcher has become a wonderfully ugly poster child for the pitfalls of Mormons who want to play in the movie business but don't take seriously the warnings of scripture, prophets and GOD -- that seeking "the honors of men" and "riches of the world" are paths into darkness. Read apostasy. Dutcher's pompous pronouncement is perfectly timed to spice up my commencement address to the wannabe Mormon filmmakers in the BYU Department of Fine Arts and Communications.

You honestly have to wonder if there was an open bottle of airplane glue around when Dutcher shared this bit of wise counsel with the rising generation of LDS filmmakers: "Passionately adhere to the guideline that it is better to tell an R-rated truth than a G-rated lie."

Does Dutcher honestly feel trapped between those two extremes? It is possible he doesn't really know that between "an R-rated truth" and a "G-rated lie" there is a vast and untapped treasure trove of wonderful characters and stories that both tell the truth and entertain.

[non sequitur]

Pretty ironic that Merrill kept attacking Dutcher's ego. Who's got the bigger ego here? Sure, Dutcher is a hack, but Merrill is also a hack. He's just been a hack for a longer time. Merrill taking shots at Martin Scorsese is priceless. I know Keith would like to think that people see movies like The Departed over his schlock only because Satan has blinded them, but the truth is that Scorsese's movies are entertaining and Keith Merrill's movies are not. Yeah Dutcher is a deluded hack, but Keith Merrill is the wrong person to point that out.

What I find most interesting in this whole Richard Dutcher debacle is that Dutcher has been slamming the Halestorm crowd for several year, but it wasn't until he announced his departure from Mormon orthodoxy that people turned on him. Everything Dutcher has to say about Mormon cinema is basically true, and everyone knows it. The only reason he is under attack right now is because he dared to express doubts in the Church. Why are so many mormons so insecure in their beliefs that they melt down anytime a former believer stops believing? Why are they so desperate for validation?

[RockyBalboa]

Originally Posted by non sequitur

Pretty ironic that Merrill kept attacking Dutcher's ego. Who's got the bigger ego here? Sure, Dutcher is a hack, but Merrill is also a hack. He's just been a hack for a longer time. Merrill taking shots at Martin Scorsese is priceless. I know Keith would like to think that people see movies like The Departed over his schlock only because Satan has blinded them, but the truth is that Scorsese's movies are entertaining and Keith Merrill's movies are not. Yeah Dutcher is a deluded hack, but Keith Merrill is the wrong person to point that out.

What I find most interesting in this whole Richard Dutcher debacle is that Dutcher has been slamming the Halestorm crowd for several year, but it wasn't until he announced his departure from Mormon orthodoxy that people turned on him. Everything Dutcher has to say about Mormon cinema is basically true, and everyone knows it. The only reason he is under attack right now is because he dared to express doubts in the Church. Why are so many mormons so insecure in their beliefs that they melt down anytime a former believer stops believing? Why are they so desperate for validation?

So who is the right person to point that out?

[non sequitur]

Originally Posted by RockyBalboa

So who is the right person to point that out?

Does it even need to be pointed out? It seems pretty self-evident that Richard Dutcher has melted down and that he is severely self-deluded about his own talents. But Merrill comes off sounding just like Dutcher. It's like Brittany Spears calling Paris Hilton a whore.

[RockyBalboa]

Originally Posted by non sequitur

Does it even need to be pointed out? It seems pretty self-evident that Richard Dutcher has melted down and that he is severely self-deluded about his own talents. But Merrill comes off sounding just like Dutcher. It's like Brittany Spears calling Paris Hilton a whore.

lol...true, but having said that the question still stands. Of course not that I care if Dutcher is a member of the church still or not, cause I admittedly have liked some of his movies. I liked God's Army, Brigham City and States of Grace.

[SteelBlue]

Originally Posted by non sequitur

What I find most interesting in this whole Richard Dutcher debacle is that Dutcher has been slamming the Halestorm crowd for several year, but it wasn't until he announced his departure from Mormon orthodoxy that people turned on him. Everything Dutcher has to say about Mormon cinema is basically true, and everyone knows it. The only reason he is under attack right now is because he dared to express doubts in the Church.

I have made this same observation. I have no idea though HOW Dutcher got that free pass until this point. Dutcher, though infinitely better than the Halestorm crowd was nothing special. He made average films at best and catered to a small niche. He's certainly not the guy worthy of cleansing the temple of mormon cinema. Though many or most of the criticisms he brought were valid ones, I think he was the wrong guy to deliver that message.

So, who should have delivered that message? I don't know that a really good mormon genre film has been made yet. I'd submit that the persons delivering the message should have been the LDS public and it should have been done with their wallets. That message should have been delivered loud and clear years ago. "These films are bad, and we're not going to give you our money." Until the formula of: invest a small amount of money in a crappy film about some piece of lds culture, double/triple that money in ticket and dvd sales to this limited audience fails I'm afraid we're stuck with it.