recommended

A Brilliant Conflict

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Did you ever wonder if the LDS church is deeply sexist? Good news, the answer is in short film format! Is selling people okay? Sure! Are women property? You bet! Is this a film and story that is so ingrained into this sexist religion that you will hear someone mention the 8 cow woman regularly if you live in Utah? Disturbingly, yes!But wait, there is more! Bizarre accent work? Yes! Impossible plot points? Yes! Insulting premise? Yes!And the best part? After all this, people watch this film and decide it is good advise for respect and self worth in a relationship! This film is all you need to know about Mormon culture: treat women badly enough that if they are told they might be a slave but at least they are expensive slave, and you might be LDS...

Are you guys kidding? This is one of the worst films ever! The acting is atrocious, and there is almost nothing morally redeemable about the film at all. Racist, sexist, imperialistic--c'mon, get a life! The little 'slave' boy, grinning lackey slacker? Who just won't work reliably for the white trader? The idea that women's worth is to be measured on the basis of her looks (though admitting we can sometimes be wrong about it)???? That men set the value of all things, including women? This is truly as bad as it gets. Too bad Mormon children --especially the girls-- have to grow up with this crap.

Of course the story of Johnny Lingo is one of the classics for Mormon children; the message it conveys is true and probably much more important today than it was at the time it was made. What makes it really watchable though, are the performances. Not their quality, but on the contrary, the lack thereof. The acting is so stiff and inept that You will laugh tears. I don't think, that Johnny Lingo was intented as funny as it comes out, but it is always worth watching. Beside trying to convey the message, that beauty is relative, inner beauty is that counts and that every one needs someone to believe in him to reach his full potential, there is no reference to the Mormon church or Mormon beliefs at all.

Johnny Lingo was shown a minimum of once a year at my grade school. It was light, memorable entertainment about a shrewd island trader who finds a wife for himself in a homely girl in whom he sees great beauty.We were unaware of the Mormon connection this movie had, because it had no references to religion, Joseph Smith or the Utah desert. It was insidious, though, for after three years, both student and teacher alike was heard rating other people by "cows". The highest compliment was to be an "8 Cow Woman" or an "8 Cow Man". I would not actively seek it out to shown my own child, as it does not rate as highly as the Ray Harryhausen fairy tale films, but it is well done, and conveys a wholesome message memorably.