This Streaming Sunday, we bring you the binge-worthy true crime mini-series, Under the Banner of Heaven. This gritty drama is now available for your streaming pleasure on Hulu.
Under the Banner of Heaven is the latest true crime series that places the focus on the people most impacted by the devious acts of others. Set in Utah in the early 1980’s, we follow Detective Jeb Pyre (Andrew Garfield) – a devout member of the LDS – as he investigates religious extremism within his own LDS community spurred by the gruesome murder of Brenda Wright Lafferty (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her infant daughter. This show succeeds where other true crime portrayals fail because we spend a significant amount of time on the lives that were taken on July 24th, 1984. This show explores the line between faith and reality as well as religion and misogyny. If you missed this series when it aired on FX, you are in luck – it is now streaming exclusively on Hulu!
Why you should watch: True crime stories – whether its on television, a movie or a podcast – make the most fascinating stories simply because they are true. The severity of the crimes often have a way of living somewhere in our conscience long after the “show” is over. They are also, in a sad way, the most educational. These stories remind us that there are truly deranged human beings among us, but also shed some light on the victims. Where news coverage of murderers and their victims can come off a bit impersonal, you could argue that true crime stories in entertainment media formats (ironically) allow the victims to be acknowledged more as human beings. Still, the time we focus on the victims of the crimes are very limited.
As we see more and more of these stories come out with A-list performers re-enacting a real person’s last day living, there is a sense that these stories can be more exploitative than they are educational. These stories usually focus more on the person who committed the murder and not the actual victims. We seem to be fascinated with giving context to the killers because we always want to know the why – it’s completely understandable. Yet, in these true crime television shows and movies, there has been a noticeable shift where we have been spending a lot more time getting to know the victims. Dare I say, as much time as we are spending with the murderers?
Under the Banner of Heaven took the time to articulately peel back the layers of a religion, while at the same time, explored how hard it is to find the balance between reality and devout faith. We re-examine the beliefs of the LDS and it’s history through Detective Pyre, who up until the murder of Brenda Lafferty and her baby has very strong ties to his religion. Things start to get muddy when he learns that other devout members in his community have started to reject the modern practice of their faith and resorted to practicing the Mormon beliefs from over a century ago. We learn that the majority of the LDS community at that time was being guarded from its own grisly fundamentalist history by their leaders. Although Pyre is a purely fictional character, as well as his partner, Bill Taba (Gil Birmingham), the character’s ties to the Mormon community as well as Taba’s Paiute heritage help paint a picture of the history of the Latter-Day Saints in relation to other Americans.
Daisy Edgar Wright masterfully portrays Brenda Wright Lafferty, the young woman who seems to shake up her husband and her in-laws’ perspective surrounding the future of the faith. Brenda, as we see her in the show, was committed to making her new LDS community better by empowering the women to be more outspoken and ensure that the men do not lead everyone astray. Brenda is assertive and does not restrict herself to the role previously played by the majority of women in her community. In fact, Brenda had a vision of marrying the traditional with the modern American woman. Following that ideology, she could have a career and serve her community just as any other Mormon man can. Brenda gives audiences insight into where the church was headed and acted as a whistleblower when she noticed that her brother-in-laws were being led astray. Unfortunately, her church community failed to support her, which ultimately led to the murder of herself and her child. A truly unfortunate end to a woman who was only trying to make her community a better place for women and men, equally. Brenda’s actions and viewpoints are central to the story and it is only through her character that we see a recognizable version of the modern day woman. Her murder was representative of men stuck in the past, trying to prevent the unavoidable future, where women are not restricted to roles of pure submission.
With all the negatives of the religion being highlighted in this show, viewers will also be able to recognize that all prevalent religions practiced in the United States have a very turbulent history. You can even argue that none as controversial as Christianity and Catholicism – both were used to justify slavery and take out the vast majority of our Native population. Unfortunately for modern-day Mormons, this show forces everyone who watches to look back at the brutal history of the LDS community this time around. Whether or not it paints a bad picture of the faith, one thing that must be acknowledged is that real people were impacted by those fundamentalist beliefs. Brenda Lafferty and her daughter did pay the ultimate price for the religious extremism of her brother-in-laws. No matter how you view it, stories like Under the Banner of Heaven are always worth telling.
“Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” – Winston Churchill