Brigham City (2001)

"Never trust a man with a neatly trimmed mustache." --Charles Bukowski

You know all those movies, like Footloose and Inherit the Wind, where small towns have only one church which exerts a totalitarian control over the community?

Then there was the Andy Griffith Show. Griffith was always pretty good at playing evil characters and this comes out in certain episodes of the show. He threw a woman in jail when she pointed out the obvious problem with him serving as both the cop who gave her a ticket and the traffic court judge when she tries to challenge it. He confiscates private property without legal basis, he chases people out of town who have every right to be there. He "protects" the people of Mayberry from things they want and have every right to have.

In this movie Brigham City (2001), the Mormon sheriff is also Bishop of the church. He decides that there's no reason for the people of the town to know there's been a sex murder so he keeps it secret from them. It turns out to the work of a serial killer. At one point, he sends Mormons out to search every house in town. An old women points out that they have no warrant and that they're not even police and refuses to let them in, so the sheriff pounds on her door and threatens to break it down. The woman's adult son lets them in and they physically attack him when he won't unlock the closet where he has a collection of dirty movies. They take him in for questioning.

When I looked it up online, I was surprised that this was intended to be pro-Mormon. Mormons were excited about the dawn of LDS cinema.

The writer/director/star Richard Dutcher is known as the Father/Godfather of Mormon Cinema. There's been regional cinema in Utah for years, most of it showing Mormon tendencies, but this is a bit different.

It's nice that he found a niche audience. He did quit Mormonism later.