Review
Title: His Name is Green Flake
Genre: Historical Drama
Studio: Mauli Studios, LLC
Distributor: Excel Entertainment
Director: Mauli Bonner
Actors: Yahosh Bonner, Clotile Yanna, Alex Boye, Casey Elliot, Dalln Bayles, Stephen Jones
Run time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Price: DVD 17.99; Blu Ray 24.99
Reviewed by Mark Tensmeyer for the Association for Mormon Letters
I volunteered to review the movie His Name is Green Flake with excitement and some apprehension. I had wanted to see a portrayal of enslaved pioneers produced by black Latter-day Saints. On the other hand, I knew it was a passion project by Mauli Bonner of the famous Bonner family, who had no experience with script writing or film production, and that the film had a very limited budget. Given the social and cultural significance of this movie, I did not want to have to write a bad review if the movie turned out to be terrible. Overall, I enjoyed the film, but there are serious flaws that I cannot fairly overlook.
First, the limited budget shows. Many of the costumes, particularly the women’s dresses, are cheap and inauthentic. Almost all the sets are outdoor, wooded areas, and dark interiors of log cabins. It seems the lack of budget prompted some poor script choices such as the lack of covered wagons in a movie about pioneers. In one particularly strange scene, Flake and his companions are attacked by a party of Native Americans who are invisible except for one man who is clearly a Caucasian man in indigenous clothing and body paint.
Second, the script is heavily flawed in the story and pacing. The film jumps between events in 1861 Utah and a linear narrative of the life of Green Flake from his childhood through 1846. The 1861 Utah events are largely vignettes from Flake’s life and are easy enough to follow. The other narrative is a different story. For most of the movie, I was trying to figure out what was happening and why, and then I was constantly second-guessing myself when I thought I had it figured out.
For example, Brigham Young sends Flake and three other enslaved men along with a white leader west, to build shelters in Winter Quarters prior to the arrival of the Saints there. At least, that is what I thought at first. The dialogue was confusing after that with Brigham Young talking about building way stations along the way to the Salt Lake Valley. It is winter with heavy snow when they leave. The men are constantly cutting wood along the way, but it was not clear to me that they were building shelters. Once arriving at their destination by a river, Flake immediately turns around to go back to save his love interest and future wife Martha. She talked about planning to escape in the near future and about how her enslaver physically abused her, but I never could figure out what was endangering her life. An aerial shot shows Flake trudging his way back to Martha through a snowy mountain range. It is a fantastic shot, but it is clearly not Iowa. My current theory is that the filmmakers were trying to combine Flake’s part in establishing Winter Quarters with his participation in the vanguard party into the Salt Lake Valley. Evidently, this is supposed to be what he did in the trek to win the respect of the Saints and Church leaders.
Another strange sequence is when Joseph Smith in June 1844, contemplates the morality of forming a posse to fight “the Missourians,” who, I guess, are attacking Nauvoo after Joseph destroyed the Expositor. There are two awkward conversations with Elijah Abel and Emma Smith in which Joseph tries to convince them that violence is what needs to happen for the visions the Lord has given him to come to pass. Emma even calls him “Joe” at one point. It is in the middle of this that Elijah Abel introduces Flake to Joseph to use as muscle in said extrajudicial, morally questionable posse. Joseph and Green Flake spend the next few weeks saving each other’s lives and fighting and killing Missourians before Joseph gives himself up and is killed in jail.
Violence in the early Church and how it relates to Joseph Smith is an important topic, but Green Flake and the black pioneers had, as far I know, no involvement, and its inclusion in the film is unnecessary and not to mention unnecessarily off-putting to the audience this movie is supposed to reach. Moreover, none of these events in the last two months of the Prophet actually happened.
This along with other fictional depictions of the life of Green Flake are an odd choice. To be fair, there are many blank spaces in the life of Green Flake, and many of the historical sources available are late, conflicting, and unreliable. This leaves room for creative liberties in the script. However, it is a great missed opportunity that the filmmakers chose not to depict major parts of Flake’s life that are known such as his arrival in the Valley and his complicated relationship with his enslavers James and Agnes Flake
Now to the positive.
It is a breath of fresh air to see the story of historical African American Latter-day Saints told by African American Latter-day Saints. For a man whose life’s story is notoriously elusive, this film brought the person of Green Flake, his personality, character, and motives to life. I have read a fair amount of the man’s words and descriptions of him by those who knew him, and I felt like this was an accurate portrayal. Yahosh Bonner gave an outstanding performance worthy of the man. This is also true of Stephen Jones’s portrayal of Elijah Abel. In fact, this is true of practically all the African American figures in the film. Mauli Bonner has said in many interviews that the purpose of this movie was to make forgotten enslaved pioneers come to life and tell their stories. Bonner did his research, and it shows. As the lives of many of these individuals are poorly documented, this required using fiction to flesh them out. Bonner did so in an appropriate and effective way. There are great liberties taken with historical events taken to include as many of the known black pioneers as possible including Jane Manning James and Biddy Mason, but this is again done so in a needed and effective manner.
While the plotting of the script is problematic, the depiction of race relations and the difficulties experienced by enslaved and non-enslaved black Church members are effectively portrayed in both the major story elements and subtle details. The urbane, educated Elijah Abel plays the part of the activist who tries to win support for full inclusion of black members through speeches and direct confrontation. Green Flake avoids confrontation when he can and tries to help himself and his people by earning the respect of white members through his contributions to the Church. This is in large part due to his genuine faith in the Restoration and the promise of being reunited with his parents and family that he was separated from as a child. This attitude of Flake’s often draws the ire of Abel and his enslaved comrades who frequently encourage him to escape with them. The successful and fiery Biddy Mason compliments that Flake’s actions had improved the situation for black people in Utah, such as it was.
Flake’s relationship with Brigham Young, who is portrayed in a surprisingly positive light, is even more complicated. President Young respects Flake for his work in the trek and ultimately gives Flake and Martha their free papers in 1861, apologetic that he did not do so earlier. Flake is grateful for this rapport with Brigham Young but acknowledges his responsibility for slavery in Utah and the priesthood ban.
Like many things of America’s past and present, the “otherness” of Mormonism has allowed American Church members to disclaim many of our country’s sins. This movie helped bring home to me how slavery and prejudice are a part of my people’s history that I need to own. As someone who often dislikes films and television shows that focus on social issues, this movie did not feel heavy-handed or trite. The flaws of this movie, unfortunately, do distract from its important message. However, Mauli Bonner and the cast and crew of His Name is Green Flake succeeded where they needed to in that they effectively brought these black pioneers to life and told their stories.