The Legend of Johnny Lingo
Grade:
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Plot Summary:
The story of a young boy who learns about his heritage, and the value of love.
Opinion:
"The Legend of Johnny Lingo" is considered by many to be an LDS film, even though it contains no LDS doctrine, nor are any of the characters Church members. Thanks, though, to the 25 minute short film produced by BYU 35 years ago that has since become a 'Mormon classic', Johnny Lingo could be considered to have been 'adopted' by Latter-Day Saints (in much the same way people who are baptized into the Church are considered 'adopted' into the house of Abraham).
The existence of the previous short film, which most of this film's target audience would have already seen, brings a blessing and a curse. The blessing is instant marketability and name recognition--Utah residents will instantly recognize the Johnny Lingo name which will provide a larger built-in audience than a movie based on a no-name character. The curse is since most everyone in the target audience is already familiar with the earlier version with its story and memorable lines (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 impactful 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?
Seeing this new version wasn't high on my 'Must See' list upon initial release (and it didn't help that the ads proudly proclaimed that it was made by the same people who made the tragically useless
"The Other Side of Heaven") but now upon release on DVD the Baroness and I gave it a try. Before viewing, I would have guessed that in this new version the main Johnny Lingo story would be fine, but that the movie would be adding unnecessary back-story and filler to pad the run time to movie length without adding anything of real value.
As it happened, it turned out to be the exact opposite--the additional material did have something of value, but the actual 'Johnny Lingo' story we're all familiar with was the least effective part of the movie.
The tropical island landscapes and cinematography are one of the movie's strengths, and will probably have you planning a Pacific island vacation in your mind before movie's end. The acting and dialogue are not, however--in fact, frequently poor and amateurish. There's a distinct difference in quality (including acting and screenplay) between this movie and, say, "Whale Rider"--a movie which may come to mind while watching this one considering it has a similar tropical setting, the same ethnicity of its characters and, in fact, one of the same actors (Rawiri Paratene--the grandfather Koro in "Whale Rider"). There are a few acting bright spots: namely the original Johnny Lingo, and the older Mahana--but generally the acting and delivery is at best adequate...and at worst, cringe-worthy. The actor's cause is not helped by the often clunky dialogue, which like many 'family' movies, eschews any sense of subtlety for broad, obvious declarations just 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 which contains 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. This sequence (which might remind you of "Les Miserables" in the encounter between Jean Valjean and the priest) is one of the additions to the original Johnny Lingo story, and it works pretty well.
Not so fortunate is the treatment of the parts of the Lingo story with which we are familiar. The original film had at its heart a lesson about self-esteem as we see Mahana 'transform' into someone who believes she has worth after someone else treats her like a woman of value. The problem with this film is that Mahana is portrayed as
never lacking self-esteem, which removes the possibility of a marked transformation at the end. Oh, 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 there's never a sense in the movie that she ever listened. Her dialogue with Johnny Lingo (the new one) 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 it happens to negate one of the primary lessons of the Johnny Lingo story.
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 like the filmmakers spent so much time putting in the additional material in the beginning of the movie and then--suddenly remembering they only had a few minutes of movie left--had to rush to put the rest of the 'Johnny Lingo' stuff into one final scene, 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 turns out to be somewhat pointless as we discover that Tama is actually the rightful chief of a tribe of people we've never met before, but then Tama leaves with Johnny Lingo shortly after and his birthright is never mentioned again.
Also, unlike the original short, where every bride was paid for in a certain number of cows, cows appear to be a little scarce in this version of Johnny Lingo, and Johnny is in fact the
first person to buy a wife using cows in the history of the island. This, again, weakens the main lesson of the movie, because there's no easy comparison between the price paid for Mahana and any of the other, supposedly better, girls. Eight cows still seems like a lot, but without anything to directly compare against, the quantity of cows seems to be more of a symbol of Johnny's wealth, than a sign that Mahana's value is greater than other girls.
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. If you can get past the amateurish acting and dialogue, it may be worth a view for those who like tropical island settings and are fans of the original, but I'd imagine the original short is still the one you'll be pulling out of your collection to share with family members in future years.
Content Analysis: PG for 'thematic elements'
"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" 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...
In-depth Analysis:
Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God--D&C 18:10
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.
