Just watched Child Bride of Short Creek a 1981 dramatisation about the Short Creek raid, centred around 15 year old Jessie Rae (Diane Lane) engaged to the geriatric Prophet who just happens to be the father of her paramour, Issac King (a very adorable Christopher Atkins, who was super hot stuff in the early 80s thanks to his star turn in The Blue Lagoon, opposite Brooke Shields) .
Ah what can I say? Besides the mind explosion of seeing kindly Mr. Drummund from Different Strokes (Conrad Bain) playing a lecherous old man trying to marry a 15 year old, it was standard early 80s TV movie fare. Bad production values, no real sense that it was the 1950's, cheesy dialogue and a rushed denouement but I have seen far worse and YMMV.
As for the treatment of Polygamy and the raid....well, I liked how they did not portray the raiders as Heroes. Many present day Mormon Polygamists like Christine Brown and members of the Darger family are descended from men imprisoned in the raid and many state how devastated their families were by it, mostly the families being broken up. It is a bit strange really, one wondered what the point was of portraying the raid, since it added very little to the (mostly fictional) story. What is portrayed rather ridiculously as a sickness of 'Polygamy' in general in the film (what stops a Polygamist from learning to swim or drinking a milkshake??) was actually more an aspect of their cultish ways as is, of course, the more topical issue still in the news associated with the FLDS, Child brides....check out the title....Polygamy = Child Brides.
At least they had one character who stuck to her stance without seeming like a victim but she was a lone voice amongst the misery.......
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