Indeed, the ideas explored can apply to any religion and to any person of faith who grapple with squaring the worst parts of their particular religion (and all religions have their worst parts) with the aspects of it that still resonate in their modern lives. The 6-part miniseries is, in part, a true-crime story (and a damn good one, at that), but its main purpose, quite clearly, is to examine the complex history of Mormonism and what it means to be a modern-day practitioner of the faith. Nearly twenty years later, the same thing is happening again (if, admittedly, somewhat more quietly) with this powerful, if somewhat fictionalised, adaptation of the book.Īnd it's really not hard to see why. Indeed, the book (which I haven't read) actually recounts two narratives: that of the Lafferty murders and Mormonism's bloody history, and apparently draws a clear line between the two. Or, to be precise, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints – LDS, for short, who viewed the book as a slanderous hit job that not only pointed a hyper-critical eye towards Mormon Fundamentalists but was a ruthless and unfair attack on all forms of Mormonism. In particular, it provoked outrage from the Mormon Church. The book was met with major controversy on its release in 2003. Brenda Lafferty and her young child were brutally murdered by members of her husband's family, who had become increasingly radicalised into a severe, fundamentalist version of the Mormon faith. Under the Banner of Heaven is based on the true-crime book by Jon Krakauer that detailed the case of the Lafferty murders. Based on the real-life case that took place in 1984. The rising radicalism festering under the surface of his idyllic community for years finally erupts. A devout Mormon family man, Pyre's faith is shaken as he suddenly finds himself face-to-face with his religion's troubled history and present that appears to be increasingly defined by a corrupt Church. While Taba is a Native American dealing with his complicated relationship with the Mormon community, the case especially affects Pyre. The brutal murder of a young Mormon mother, Brenda Lafferty (Daisy Edgar-Jones), and her 18-month-old daughter, Erica, leads a pair of detectives, Jeb Pyre (Andrew Garfield) and Bill Taba (Gil Birmingham), into the darkest corners of Utah's Mormon community in their hunt for those responsible.
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