The Oath- A Redeeming Love. A Transcending Mission- New Film

This is a long one, sorry :). Need to be thorough here.

First, I think it best to acknowledge nobody really knows what either people looked like (if we are taking the events as historical). Everything we have put into our film is derived from or inspired directly by the record itself (The Book of Mormon). This includes the necessary creative liberties that have been taken to fill story gaps and pertinent details. Sadly, much of what people believe with regard to how Nephites and Lamanites looked anciently and where Book of Mormon events took place is derived from outside of the record itself (from “Scholarly” sources), which inherently involve someone else’s interpretation. Moreover, embracing the temptation to view these events through modern political vernaculars would also be detrimental to their authenticity. It’s also important to note, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not have an official position on what the Nephites looked like, nor where Book of Mormon events took place. To get caught up in these matters would miss the mark and be exactly the kind of distraction the opposition would love to create. And certainly to withhold support based on such opinions would be an even greater advantage to the opposition.

That said, here is what we do know. There was a lot of mixing between the Nephites and Lamanites, per the record, throughout their 1000 year cohabitation in the New World. At times, the Lamanites were “more righteous” than the Nephites and visa versa. At times, the Nephites where “white” and the Lamanites “dark” and visa versa. As far as the way they looked and skin color, the prophet Nephi, the first (in the Book of Mormon), saw in vision the “Gentiles” taking possession of what is now America. We do know the Gentiles, or the people who established America, essentially looked (and still do look) like Europeans. We can readily observe this even today.

Nephi said in his vision:
“And I beheld the Spirit of the Lord, that it was upon the Gentiles, and they did prosper and obtain the land (the land that Nephi also possessed with his people) for their inheritance; and I beheld that they were white, and exceedingly fair and beautiful, like unto my people before they were slain.” 1 Nephi 13:15

Here Nephi describes the Gentiles in great detail and then giving us the astonishing link directly to his people by saying the Gentiles looked “like… my people before they were slain.”

There are three critical points to consider in this vision.
1. If Nephi was a prophet we must believe he had this vision and he meant what he said. His words should not have projections placed on them to mean anything other than what he wrote, even if it doesn’t fit modern political vernaculars.
2. Nephi himself professed to be one who “(gloried) in plainness” and therefore his words must be taken plainly to mean exactly what they were intended to mean. White means white, fair means fair, and beautiful means beautiful. We also know that Lehi (Nephi’s father) and their families came from Jerusalem so that means they were white and fair Hebrews, essentially.
3. Nephi says, very importantly, that the Gentiles looked like his people “BEFORE they were slain”. The Native Americans found in America when the Gentiles drove them off the land, as was prophesied would take place in the Book of Mormon itself, were not the way the Nephites looked. There were nearly 1400 years of war, conflict, decivilization, and degeneration that took place among the Lamanites after they had destroyed the Nephites off the face of the land; so even the Lamanites in Nephi’s time likely looked very different from those found here at the time of Columbus and the early explorers.

The Lamanites were described many times as having a darker skin color, shaved heads, and fighting in loincloths. So that gives us one image. But there were other times when the Lamanites looked just like the Nephites, a few years after Christ’s post-resurrection visit to the Americas, for example.

That said, again, there was much mixing so there were Lamanites who joined the Nephites and visa versa. Usually the white Nephites who dissented to the Lamanites did so for political purposes and used the Lamanites’ hatred of the Nephites to incite war. The ultimate end of such conflict was to supplant the Nephites’ free republic with a monarchy. This will all be portrayed in Reign of Judges: Title of Liberty.

Finally, the Nephites would not have looked Roman necessarily. The Nephites appealed more to Egypt than anything else. They spoke often of (and held in highest regard) Joseph of Egypt. This is why the armor we designed hints of Egypt. We also know there was Greek influence from the descendants of Mulek, son of Zedekiah, who also came to the Northern part of the Americas before Lehi’s group arrived. We have names like “Archeantus“, a Greek name, found among the Captains of the Nephites, for example. What is a Greek name doing in the pre-Columbian New World? As far as armor is concerned, we also know the Nephites had possession of breastplates from the fallen civilization of the Jaredites. These breastplates were likely highly influential in the armor designs that Captain Moroni developed for his soldiers. What influences did the Jaredites have, hailing from the Tower of Babel? There is much to consider but the armor we have designed and the actors who will be featured will reflect what we know, as taken from the Book of Mormon itself.

We want to strike a tone similar to Terrance Malick’s The New World for the Lamanites and Exodus: Gods and Kings or The Ten Commandments for the Nephites, with mixing on both sides.

There will be many people of color in our film. There will also be many white people, as described by the record. In this sense, Reign of Judges will be an extremely diverse saga and the first film, Title of Liberty, will feature a Lamanite group who joins the Nephites, laying down their weapons of war in a covenant of peace. A very moving story as a backdrop to the heroic action of Captain Moroni’s defensive warfare.

View the successful Short film, “Reign of Judges below.