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Mormon Film: Key Films of the Fifth Wave
After serving a mission in Holland Scott Anderson wrote the stageplay "The Best Two Years of My Life," which premiered in Utah around 1983. That year a live performance was videotaped and sold on VHS tapes (along with many other LDS-themed stage productions between 1974-1989); portions of this production are available on the DVD. In rewriting the screenplay he attempted to open it up beyond the single set of the stage production, but its theatrical roots can still be felt; for instance, in the fact that the missionaries conveniently find an American investigator (keeping Dutch and subtitles to a minimum) and that they teach him in their own apartment.
Anderson decided to make the play into a feature film after the success of Richard Dutcher's "God's Army." He produced it independently, shooting locations in Holland and interiors in Utah, and then found himself in a strong position in choosing between distributors Excel Entertainment and HaleStone (the distribution arm of HaleStorm). He went with the latter, entering general distribution in February 2004, and this competition and the postiive reviews the film received seem to mark the high point of the post-"God's Army" surge of LDS feature films, as after this point audiences and critics have been more hostile/apathetic and the number of LDS feature films has dropped. Still, "The Best Two Years" is generally regarded as one of the better films from the movement in its mixture of comedy and religious sentiment.
