17 Miracles: Blu-Ray Edition

This is an outstanding movie. I highly recommend it. Many of my friends and neighbors agree. We watched it in a theater; now I am eagerly awaiting the DVD so we can watch it again and share it with other family members.

The incidents in the movie all depict actual events to actual people who were following their desire to follow Heavenly Father -that makes it even more amazing. Because there was much suffering and hardship for these handcart pioneers, you need to keep some tissues ready -this movie will touch you, but it will also uplift you.

The Mormon Handcart story of 17 Miracles deserves an Academy Award, for cinematography, for best screenplay, for editing, and for best acting by many of the cast who didn't have to act because the role they played was more real than life.

My daughter and I had minor parts in filming 17 Miracles. We played the part of a father and daughter that buried my daughter's dead baby in a shallow grave in the snow. For whatever reason, God only knows, it was not acting, but was an out of the body, beyond the veil experience where we literally became the handcart father and daughter. Only one other time in my life have I experienced anything so "real".

When I placed the dead baby in the grave and cried out to God, words came out of me that I had never heard before, never even thought of before, because I was another man in another time burying a dead grandchild in a grave that we would have to leave forever.

Most of our life, in fact all of our life, "We see through a glass darkly," if we see at all. (Brigham Young once said that his greatest wish for the Saints was that they would be able to see things as they really are.) While we were filming, the veil was parted for us, and for a short period of time, we saw and experienced things as they really were for the handcart pioneers. It seemed that we could see, experience, and live in, the past present and future all at the same time.

It was so hard for my daughter and I to leave her dead baby in the snow, even after the filming was done. Neither of us has ever wept like that, even over the death of a loved one in this life. I hope this will communicate on film and will be as "real" for those who see 17 Miracles. Others actors in the film, I am certain, had the same "out of the body through the veil experience." We didn't have to act because we literally lived the part. When the handcarts crossed the icy river, I believe some of the cast would have died, had they not been able to get out of their wet clothes and get warm.

The miracles shown in the film were true. I met a lady who was a direct descendant of the girl (who must have married after she got to Salt Lake) that left her fiance's body wrapped in her shawl in a tree; so the wolves wouldn't get it. It is as innocent and touching a love story as you will find in any film.

The husband, of the woman who was a descendant of the above girl, was a direct descendant of Francis Webster a member of the Martin Handcart Company who said, "Mistake to send the Handcart Company out so late in the season? Yes! But I was in that company and my wife was in it....We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism? Every one of us came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives for we became acquainted with Him in our extremities!"

FOOTNOTES:

It is through fiction and drama that we learn to "see things as they really are." We can vicariously experience life in another time or another place. Brigham Young said, "If I had a group of people in a wilderness that I wanted to civilize, the first thing I would do is build a theater (for live drama not for motion pictures). And that is exactly what the Mormons did. In Salt Lake City, before the Temple, the Tabernacle, and the Assembly Hall were completed by the pioneers, a theater was built to "civilize" the people that had come through the wilderness. Indeed, it is in the Temples of the Church that we can vicariously experience eternity.

Regarding how, through fiction, we can see or experience things as "they really are" (or were), see my review of "Boy In the Stripped Pajamas."

Satan also knows the power of drama, TV, and motion pictures to lead mankind by a silken thread or a flaxen cord, "carefully down to Hell." See my One Star Review of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'. The adversary 'takes in' and enslaves GOOD YOUNG PEOPLE in motion pictures like 'One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest', 'Love Story', and 'Grease'. What those films teach and MOST FIlMS TODAY, is that you must break free from the Ten Commandments, and the Judeo Christian values of parents and grandparents, to be liberated, happy, sophisticated, and popular.

DEATH:

After burying a dead grandchild in '17 Miracles,' I died pulling a handcart. Death can be a glorious experience. "If in the pre-existence we looked forward to our life on earth, how much more so must we have looked forward to our mortal death."

See all of my Reviews. I write only about books, events, or motion pictures that have changed the course of history or unforgettable books or motion pictures that will totally change peoples lives.

Darrell Stoddard, Founder Pain Research Institute and saveusa.biz

Buy 17 Miracles: Blu-Ray Edition Now

This is a movie that everyone must see. I have seen it in theaters four times and can't wait to buy the DVD. It was just as wonderful the fourth time, as it was the first. This will increase your admiration and love for the handcart pioneers. It will also strengthen your desire to have more faith, like they did. And, it will give you a better perspective about life.

Read Best Reviews of 17 Miracles: Blu-Ray Edition Here

I saw this movie in the theater. It is excellent. I loved it, great story telling, very moving, definitely gives you much to ponder. It is a must see!

Want 17 Miracles: Blu-Ray Edition Discount?

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints, so was very interested in this movie. It takes you back to the migration of the Willy and Martin Handcart companies as they trek to the Salt Lake Valley. This movie was realistically done. You can see the suffering of the pioneers as they are nearly starving, losing loved ones, and dealing with the frigid conditions. The acting was quite good, and believable. And the miracles you witness really did happen. It's a very worthwhile move.

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