Review of Saturday’s Warrior, complete with movie times
Saturday’s Warrior.  My mother always thought since my sister was born on a Saturday during a rain storm this was really fitting.  Now my sister is 30 years old + it seems a bit odd that Saturday lasted so long.  I’m sure in another 20 years this will seem even sillier, and perhaps 20 years after that this movie will go down the memory hole it deserves.
“Who are these children coming down†song.  “Trailing clouds of gloryâ€Â comes from a William Wordsworth poem printed in 1919.  William Wordsworth was a contemporary of Joseph Smith, being born 35 years before Joseph, and dying 6 years after.  I don’t know if he ever encountered Joseph, or if Joseph read this poem before coming up with the pre-existence, but Wordsworth seems to be talking far more of “Potential†of humans rather than an actual existence before this one, just as the “Jail†in the next few lines doesn’t imply we all go to a literal prison.
Ah well, why write good lyrics when you can steal them, right?
Full review here:
The date you site, 1919, is the date of the particular edition of the version of the poem you link to, not its publication date. “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” by William Wordsworth was written in 1804, before Joseph Smith was even conceived, and published in 1807, before JS was old enough to speak, so there’s no chance that JS had any influence on this poem, unless he was one of the unborn babes Wordsworth saw in his vision. As for the possibility that the poem influenced Joseph, he wouldn’t have seen it if it had been published in 1919, as you state, would he?
I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that Joseph saw this version. The book I quoted was published in 1919, but you are correct the poem was written before Joseph was born yes.
My point is that the thought that there may be something before this life was a thought not unique to Joseph. This is a contemporary poem, and pre-dating Joseph, someone he knew may have read it and discussed it around him.
there’s virtually nothing Joseph created that is unique. From treasure seeking to an interest in pre-columbian battles and culture to ideas about a healthy diet to a belief in the moral superiority of communal living (Karl Marx was born 12 & 1/2 years after Joseph), everything Joseph concerned himself with was part of the zeitgeist and conversation of his time.
I think one of the funny things about “Saturday’s Warrior” is that the portrait of Mormons and Mormonism is not terribly positive. As you point out in your reviews, they play for laughs some stuff that isn’t funny when it happens in real life in Mormondom.
I wrote a bit about some of the funny things about Saturday’s Warrior here (in the part of my novel where the characters are putting on a production of it).
Personally, I played Emily in a production of Saturday’s Warrior put on by my stake — way back before they produced a movie of it. That was one of the high points of my entire Mormon experience. I feel like the play really captures what Mormonism is like on so many levels (positive and negative).
Chanson, that’s pretty good. I wish I’d been more self-aware at the time. >_>;