Under the Banner of Heaven starts almost idyllically. Two girls in old-fashioned dresses cycle down the street of their quiet suburban town in a small Utah town. Their father works in the garage on his car as the sun sets and “Let’s Hear It For the Boy” plays on the radio. It’s July 24, 1984 and in a few hours fireworks will be set off all over Utah. The American state, where a majority of the residents belong to the Church of the Latter-day Saints, celebrates Pioneer Day on that day, the holiday that commemorates the moment in 1847 when the first Mormons settled in Salt Lake City settled. Hence the dresses.
Only the girls will have to miss the fireworks this year. Their father, Andrew Garfield-played police detective Jeb Pyre, has to move to another house in another quiet suburb of the same small town. A house in which a young woman and her 15-month-old daughter were brutally murdered just before.
The scene that follows, in which Pyre visibly inspects the crime scene with lead in his shoes, is one of the most poignant of the seven-episode miniseries. Which is remarkable because the camera doesn’t even really look at the huge pool of blood on the kitchen floor, the woman’s body, or the bloody handprint on the door. Instead, the focus is on the detective’s face and the chain of emotions that can be seen on it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDRqWtwbiSM
heartbreaking
The moment when Pyre cautiously and reluctantly opens the nursery door to look away after a quick glance, his face ached, tears in his eyes, is heartbreaking. Sometimes the suggestion can be stronger than the image. Under the Banner of Heaven was written by Dustin Lance Black, who won an Oscar for his script for the film milk. He based the crime series on Jon Krakauer’s 2003 non-fiction bestseller of the same name, which centers on the double murder. Black, who himself grew up with the Mormon faith, tried for years to translate the book into a movie until he realized that he needed more than an hour and a half to tell the story. It ended up being almost eight o’clock. A decision that generally works out well, because there is now enough space to explain not only the investigation into the horrific murders and the motives of the Mormon perpetrators, but also the life of the victim, Brenda Wright Lafferty (Daisy Edgar-Jones ), to expose. Something that is often forgotten in comparable series.
While many things are based on truth, Detective Pyre’s character — a role for which Garfield rightly earned an Emmy nomination — is a Black creation. Pyre and the police investigation provide the necessary tension. But the existential crisis that the detective is going through because the heinous crime was committed in the name of the same faith he adheres to, a belief that has impressed him all his life not to ask questions, is also an interesting addition to the story. .
The least convincing moments in the series are the scenes that go back to the 19th century and the moments when the first prophet, Joseph Smith, shaped the Church. Although the average viewer probably needs this history lesson about the Mormon faith, the chosen form feels like a less successful and cheap costume drama. The scenes are in too sharp a contrast to the main story that takes place in the eighties and in terms of atmosphere is reminiscent of the first season of True Detective. Not a perfect series. But one that impresses, especially thanks to Garfield.