Utah filmmaker T.C. Christensen’s latest dive into Latter-day Saint history, “The Fighting Preacher,” charms by focusing on a human story of a missionary family pushing back against prejudice with kindness and patience.
It’s 1915, and former pro boxer Willard Bean (David McConnell) and his young wife, Rebecca (Cassidy Hubert), are given an assignment by the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The calling: Take up residence in the farm that was the home of Joseph Smith, the church’s founder, in Palmyra, N.Y.
The town drove out the Mormons some 85 years earlier, but the church has bought back the farm and intends to re-establish a Latter-day Saint community in New York.