The Legend of Johnny Lingo is considered by many to be an LDS film, even though it contains no LDS characters nor doctrine. Thanks, though, to the 25 minute Johnny Lingo short film produced by BYU 35 years ago that has since become a ‘Mormon classic’, Johnny Lingo seems to have been “adopted” by Latter-Day Saints in the same way those who are baptized are considered “adopted” into the house of Abraham.
The existence of the Johnny Lingo short film, which most of this film’s target audience is familiar with, brings a blessing and a curse. The blessing is instant marketability — the recognizable Johnny Lingo name provides a larger built-in audience than an unknown character. The curse is since most everyone in the target audience (including myself) has already seen the previous film and knows its story elements — the eight cows, “Mahana, you ugly!”, etc — this new 91 minute version has to work hard to justify its existence. What does this new film have to add to the concise and enjoyable 1969 version other than the main story everyone is already familiar with? Now that the original short is available on DVD, why should anyone see this movie at all?
I would have suspected before viewing that this version of Johnny Lingo would prove to be unnecessary — a film that added unnecessary back-story and filler to pad the standard Johnny Lingo story to movie length without adding anything of value. Surprisingly, it turned out to be the opposite. The Legend of Johnny Lingo adds additional material that is valuable, but neuters the point of the original Johnny Lingo story we’re familiar with.
The tropical landscapes and cinematography are one of the movie’s strengths — you’ll probably be planning a Pacific island vacation in your mind before movie’s end — however, acting and dialogue are not a strength. There are a few acting bright spots — the original Johnny Lingo, and the older Mahana — but generally the acting and delivery is at best adequate…and at worst, cringe-worthy.
Part of the problem is that, like many ‘family’ movies, the dialogue eschews any sense of subtlety for broad, obvious declarations to make sure even the youngest child watching gets the point. (“Who could ever love you?” Mahana’s dad tells her, in one of the movie’s many get-the-message-across-with-a-sledgehammer moments…)
The middle sequence of the movie is the best, where the rebellious Tama meets the famous ‘Johnny Lingo’ who takes him in and raises him. When Tama does something wrong, Johnny frankly forgives him…but still makes him take responsibility for his actions and work to pay off his debt — a good lesson containing both justice and mercy. Even though the movie doesn’t have any outright religious content, Johnny (the elder) shows Christ-like behavior towards someone who might not necessarily deserve it — a sequence that’s reminiscent of “Les Miserables” in the encounter between Jean Valjean and the priest. This is one addition to the original Johnny Lingo story that works pretty well.
The main part of the Lingo story is not so fortunate. The original film had at its heart a lesson about self-esteem, with Mahana transforming into someone who believes she has great worth, after someone else treats her like she has great worth.
Mahana in this version of the Johnny Lingo story never seems to lack self-esteem, which is great for her, but removes the possibility of a marked transformation at the end. Granted, she probably SHOULD have low self-esteem since everyone from her dad to the other girls in the village tells her she’s worthless, but the movie never gives us a sense that she’s ever listened. Her dialogue with Johnny Lingo near the end shows quite a bit of self-worth in her refusal to debase herself in seeking after favors from a rich man. Good for her…but doesn’t that negate one of the primary lessons of the Johnny Lingo story?
In the original short, all the brides on the island were bought with cows (with dialogue of the form: “Four cows? My husband paid FIVE cows for me!”). In this version, Johnny Lingo is presented as the *first* person in the history of the island to buy a wife using cows — a curious change that seems to further weaken the main point of the film. Without having the eight cow price be significantly different than the price paid for the other women, the quantity of cows seems to be more of a symbol of Johnny’s wealth than an indication that Mahana’s value is higher than the other girls. Maybe Johnny Lingo would have simply paid eight cows for whichever of the women on the island he liked. Without a direct numerical comparision to the price paid for the other girls, the price Johnny pays to Mahana has no real meaning.
Another critical error is how rushed the end of the movie feels. Within a period of two or three minutes, Johnny has proposed to Mahana, met with her father, suggested the eight cow price, shown Mahana and her father the eight cows (where did they come from?), immediately releases her dad from the marriage agreement (which, technically speaking, he hadn’t accepted yet, since there was only thirty seconds between the two), and then Mahana and Johnny share a kiss. It’s almost as if the filmmakers were literally running out of film in the camera and had to pack the rest of the ‘Johnny Lingo’ stuff into one scene as quickly as they could, losing most of its effectiveness in the process.
Other additions/changes to the “Johnny Lingo” story were a little curious and not quite as effective either. The subplot about Tama’s real parents and his heritage as the rightful chief of a tribe turns out to be meaningless, as Tama meets them, then leaves with Johnny Lingo shortly after and his birthright is never mentioned again.
In spite of its flaws, The Legend of Johnny Lingo isn’t necessarily a bad movie. It’s pleasant, and has a message to share — albeit somewhat weakly. Fans of the original are welcome to give this a try, but I’d imagine the original short is still going to be the one pulled out of the DVD collection to share with family members in future years.
Final Grade: B-
Analysis and Other Comments (possible spoilers):
(1) The Legend of Johnny Lingo is rated G, although it contains just as much ‘thematic elements’ as other movies that received a PG (one character dies offscreen, another is threatened with execution). Johnny Lingo even has a little bit of partial nudity when Johnny’s birthmark on his rear-end gets shown off a couple of times…but hey, why not give it a G. It’s a perfectly inoffensive movie. I don’t know if parents really care about the differences between a G and a PG movie anyway…
(2) As mentioned above, The Legend of Johnny Lingo neutered the self-esteem lesson in the source story, but added an important one about forgiveness and the worth of a soul. In the middle section of the movie, young Tama is taken in by Johnny Lingo over the objection of his chief steward. Tama later attempts to run away while stealing many of Johnny’s possessions. Johnny frankly forgives him and despite the objections (again) of the chief steward, continues to raise him in his household.
There was undoubtedly a great temptation for Johnny to abandon Tama to his fate and figure ‘it’s not my responsibility anymore’ — which might have been justified given Tama’s actions early on. Earlier in the movie we had seen the people in Tama’s earlier home give up on him, many due to his inauspicious method of arrival on the island after a storm. The prevalent theory seems to be that men are inherently good or evil, depending on which God happened to create you. If you do bad things when you are young–or even if bad things happen when you’re around–that means you are an evil person by destiny and should be treated as such always and forever.
Johnny Lingo challenges this notion by refusing to reject Tama as a ‘bad’ person — looking at him more as a ‘good’ person who does bad things occasionally. Although he admits it will be a “challenge”, Johnny accepts the task of raising Tama, teaching him right and wrong. Importantly, Johnny does not excuse Tama’s improper actions — the appropriate punishment (to the extent that you consider seven years of servitude ‘appropriate’) is levied in Tama’s case — but Johnny does not allow Tama’s early actions to define his fate.
The lesson is still relevant today, where it is also common to condemn people as ‘beyond hope’ for their previous bad actions and/or poor decisions. Yet, the Lord knows the goodness and worth inherent in every soul, and there are many scriptural examples of ‘bad’ people turning to good through the power of the gospel.
Take the stories of Alma the Younger and Paul from the Book of Mormon and New Testament respectively: Both men were not just ambivalent in serving the Lord, they actively opposed the work of the Church and sought to lead many people away from it. While Paul’s actions could be excused somewhat by the fact that he was merely following his beliefs in his current faith at the time, Alma was clearly following the desires of the ‘natural man’ both in personal iniquitous behavior himself and in encouraging others to do the same. Yet, the Lord called both to be servants of God despite their shady pasts, and both of them went on to do great things for the Lord and His Church.
The scriptural record doesn’t say much about how other Church members responded to these turn of events for Alma or Paul; undoubtedly there were many who couldn’t accept them as real servants of God because, of course, they were ‘evil’ people…and ‘always’ would be. Many others, though, were willing to look past their previous actions and give them the chance to demonstrate that they had changed–in other words, that Alma and Paul were still inherently good people who just needed some not-so-subtle prodding to turn to the right path.
(3) Watching this film you may be reminded of Whale Rider which shares the same tropical settings, character ethnicity, and in fact a common actor (Rawiri Paratene — the grandfather Koro in Whale Rider) Unfortunately, this comparison comes down entirely on Whale Rider’s side — a much better movie.
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