Child Bride of Short Creek (1981)

Child Bride of Short Creek is a 1981 made-for-TV movie built around the 1953 raid on the Short Creek polygamist compound in Arizona. The Short Creek raid was the biggest on a polygamist sect in the US up until that time, not topped until the 2008 raid on the FLDS Church's 'Yearning for Zion Ranch' in Texas. While the Short Creek raid is interesting in its own right, that's not truly the focus here, but rather the forbidden, because its psychological healthy, romance between a young Diane Lane and the guy from The Blue Lagoon (Christopher Atkins). The film also stars a young Helen Hunt,   E. T. mom Dee Wallace, and the dad from 'Diff'rent Stokes' Conrad Bain, who is suitably creepy as the polygamist 'prophet'. Most notable for the appearance of some of the young stars involved, this movie is also a then rare depiction of post 19th Century polygamy in America, something we see much more of in our popular entertainment now (see Big Love and Sister Wives). Not bad for the kind of movie it is. **1/2