Review
THE OATH – Review
A historic drama about the descendants of two brothers from Egypt battling for control in North America, sounds like the premise of an imaginative action film. But THE OATH is not really an action film – its only action sequence comes very late in the film – but a romance/heroic drama based in Mormon (more properly the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) belief, by writer/director/star Darin Scott. Scott stars in and directs THE OATH, and co-wrote the script with Michelle Scott. THE OATH joins a long cinematic tradition of religious movies, a genre that has existed since the beginning of movies and includes films like BEN HUR. Like all cinematic retelling of religious stories, the greatest appeal is for members of that particular faith but THE OATH seems like it might be aimed to a more general audience, with ads suggesting it is an action epic set in a time long ago that do not mention its source material. However, THE OATH is not an epic but a slow, drawn-out romance/drama with a little action near the end.
Set in North America in the 400s AD, THE OATH tells the story of Moroni, the last remaining member of Nephites, after their millenium-long battle with the Lamanites. THE OATH bills itself as a “historic epic” but it is actually more a Mormon one, as it is based on the story of Moroni, who according to Mormon/LDS beliefs, was the ancient prophet who protected and buried the gold plates that were discovered by Joseph Smith and that he translated into the Book of Mormon.
While LDS audiences might enjoy THE OATH because they are already familiar with the basics of the premise and might enjoy seeing the story on screen, for the more general audience, things are more confusing. Therefore, this review is for that non-LDS audience. It will not focus on the faith-based story itself but the movie THE OATH as a piece of cinema. That means analyzing the acting, direction, photography, script, pacing, and other aspects of how the story is told, rather than on the story itself.
An entertaining action epic inspired by the Mormon/LDS foundational story would have been a fine thing, if the film told that story well. However, THE OATH is not that film. Not only is it not the epic it’s advertising suggests it might be, it is a slow, dull, often predicable drama with little style that is less informative than one might expect, but also a film peppered with moments that look improvised and make little sense.
First, let’s start with the good points of THE OATH. The film was shot in beautiful locations that effectively suggest the New England setting for the story, and it has an attractive cast and nice drone photography. But as an entertainment movie, that’s about it. There are a number of problems, largely due to an underwritten script, uncertain direction, slow pacing and too-often stiff acting. Despite what the film’s ads might lead audiences to expect, THE OATH is not really an action film nor an epic but more of a drama centered on a few people, with the only action coming late in the film.
THE OATH opens with title cards giving us the story’s background, about a millennium-long conflict between the Nephites and the Lamanites, the descendants of two brothers, the sons of Joseph of Egypt, who had traveled to North America and formed a partnership with the Native Americans there. At the point the story starts, the Nephites have been reduced to one surviving member, Moroni (writer/director Darin Scott), a fugitive who lives alone in a cave, in hiding from his enemies the Lamanites.
The film opens with sweeping aerial photography of the handsome, muscular, middle-aged Moroni, as he mediates in a gorgeous natural location filled with trees, rocky vistas and lush meadows. This sequence goes on for some time, often focusing on Moroni’s face as he appears lost in thought or contemplation, about what we don’t know.
The sequence is pretty but it makes for a long, slow start without telling us much. Eventually, the film moves on to the Lamanites, whose king, Aaron (Bill Zane) lives in much more comfort with his Native American subjects. Aaron is a rather nasty fellow, and so brutally mistreats one of his concubines, Bathsheba (Nora Dale), that she runs away. Far away, the injured young woman collapses in the woods, where she is discovered by Moroni, who takes her back to his cave to nurse her back to health.
Naturally, when Bathsheba regains consciousness, she is terrified to find she is in the cave-home of the Lamanites’ most feared, hated enemy, the last surviving Nephite, Moroni. But Moroni is gentle and kind, and she eventually relaxes, and the two bond.
We know where things will go from here but the film spends half its running time on this slow-paced section, although it also allows the film to introduce the gold plates into the narrative.
Meanwhile, Bathsheba’s sister Mahigana (Karina Lombard) is determined to find her, leading a search group of King Aaron’s followers, include his advisor Cohor (Eugene Brave Rock), even though it appears that months have passed and Bathesheba’s trail has gone cold, now that she is hidden away in Moroni’s cave.
Eventually the Lamanites and King Aaron do meet up with Moroni, and we get the movie’s sole action scene near the film’s end.
Writer/director/star Darin Scott does not deliver much with THE OATH. The dramatic story of two brother coming from Egypt and fighting a millennium-long battle had the potential for an interesting religious action-epic film – but that story is not shown, only told, summarized briefly in opening title cards. Even then, the summary is so brief that it leaves the viewer unfamiliar with the story with lots of unanswered how-and-why questions. Once the film’s story starts, we have that long if pretty sequence that just gives us images of Darin Scott’s Moroni in a lovely, natural landscape, but little about him otherwise.
Once Moroni brings the injured Bathsheba home, we know they will inevitably fall in love, but the film bogs down in this slowly-developing romance, plodding along without developing either character for the first half of its running time. The film does have Moroni to reveal the secret golden plates and other documents in his keeping during this section, but telling that story is dragged out over several scenes unnecessarily. In between, we get weird scenes where Bathsheba teaches Moroni about how to live in the woods, which one would think he already knew, and puzzling skills like shooting a rolling rock with a bow and arrow.
Eventually, King Aaron and his Lamanites do track down the runaway Bathsheba and mayhem ensues – but off-screen. The grand battle we had anticipated from the film’s start finally occurs in the film’s last 20 minutes, but it is not as grand as anticipated.
While lead actors Darin Scott as Moroni and Nora Dale as Bathsheba are certainly attractive, their performances are stiff and they never develop much chemistry between them. Too often director Scott just has actor Scott, or other actors, stare into the camera without giving us a hint about what they are supposed to be conveying beyond gravitas. The best performance comes from Billy Zane playing Aaron, who actually injects a touch of humor into his villainous role, although why he has a hint of an Irish accent is puzzling.
This could have been a more exciting film, or even the epic is seems to promise, if writer/director Darin Scott had taken a different approach, perhaps including some of the earlier story described in the title cards. Of course, that would have been a more expensive film to make. Instead, THE OATH is a rambling, dull one that seems to draw out scenes for no reason, and has moments that seem improvised and make no real sense. One example of that is when the Lamanites are hunting for Bathsheba in the woods, but are turned back by – bees. As if that were some insurmountable obstacle. At other times, the characters speak in an unspecified language and there are subtitles – before they suddenly switch to English. This happens at the start of several scenes. The writing is just weird like that, time and again.
THE OATH is peppered with failures of filmmaking, unrelated to any lack of cinematic potential in the story. Director/co-writer Darin Scott, who clearly spent money on its beautiful locations, attractive cast and drone photography, should have spent more time on the script and maybe a different director or star. As is, there is not much to recommend THE OATH as a movie.
THE OATH, partly in an unknown language with English subtitles, opens Friday, Dec. 8, in theaters.
RATING: 1 out of 4 stars
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