The Oath (2023) Parent Guide

Moroni (Darin Scott) is the last of his people, the Nephites, and is writing their final record, which he has sworn to protect with his life. He is consistently hunted by Aaron (Billy Zane)—a Nephite defector who has become king of the Lamanites–and his main warriors Mahigana (Karina Lombard) and Cohor (Eugene Brave Rock). He rescues one of King Aaron’s mistresses, Bathsheba (Nora Dale) and their romance blooms.

Here’s the good stuff: As a Latter-day Saint (a.k.a. Mormon) myself, I am pre-disposed to root for Mormons making it big in the movies. It’s with this rose-colored lens that I can tell you that this movie has parts that are pretty good. The first third of the movie is constant slow-motion training montages of Darin Scott’s Moroni, but the rugged scenery and lighting set the stage well.

My genuine favorite part of the movie was Moroni’s description of his ancestral record to Bathsheba. It was a moment where I took an anthropologist’s lens to see how a script would boil down the history of one of my sacred texts–the Book of Mormon–for a movie audience. This scene was handled with some exceptionally deft writing, and I appreciated that. I must also point out that in no way does this movie accurately represent the Book of Mormon. It’s basically a fantasy riff on the record, taking one character and building an action-adventure tale from pure imagination. Aaron, Bathsheba, Cohor – none of these people exist in the text and even the real Moroni spent most of his time writing theology; not reminiscing about daring escapades.

Now for the nastygrams:

First, a couple of high intensity moments were so badly acted I broke into startled laughter in the theater. Moroni has a moment where he yells “Aaron, I’ll never call you king!” in the same tones of a peeved teen saying “I’m telling Mom!” Also for some reason King Aaron kept slipping into an Irish accent? I don’t know, y’all.

Second, a few good scenes and some slick cinematography can’t gloss over this movie’s overt racism. Bathsheba’s initial halting dialogue is written straight out of a 1950s western, until her literal White Savior Moroni teaches her to speak properly; then read and write. She is portrayed as infantile, then as a thief, then a seductress; then finally a tamed companion. [gagging sounds]

Third, this movie uses gratuitous violence against women as a plot device. This has been going on forever in the movies, and I am so tired of it. I am sick and tired of seeing women characters get raped, beaten and murdered–and then having their fetuses cut out of them–in order to get the Hero to Do The Right Thing. [more gagging sounds]

Seriously, if anyone from a faith-based movie studio reads only one line of this review, let it be this: for the love of Our Fathers’ God, stop sacrificing women in your movies. Stop raping them, stop slitting their throats, stop cutting their unborn out of their bodies. It’s callous, it’s disgusting, and we hate it. Stop it.