“You can’t trust anyone from Missouri.”
A film determined to show Mormons as bloodthirsty savages and mad killers might’ve succeeded if it wasn’t so laughable and hamfisted. The film seeks to tie this September 11th (1857) with a more recent September.
In 1857, a wagon train led by Captain Fancher (Shaun Johnston) wants to stop and replenish themselves in a meadow. A group of armed men led by John D. Lee (Jon Gries) basically tells them to move on. However, Bishop Jacob Samuelson (Jon Voight) and his sons Jonathan (Trent Ford) and Micah (Taylor Handley) happen to ride up and on further talking with the Captain decide to let the traveler’s camp in the nearby Mountain Meadows.
The Bishop is a follower of the Mormon Church and was present when founder Joseph Smith (played by a puffy Dean Cain, the director’s son) was killed by Missourians and since the wagon train consists of them he trusts them not. He tells his sons to keep an eye on the gentiles (as the Mormons refer to them) as he goes to consult with Mormon leader Brigham Young (Terence Stamp).
Young basically says to slaughter them and that all those at the meeting should be sworn to secrecy. Meanwhile, Jonathan has started falling for one of the party, Emily Hudson (Tamara Hope), and the two plan to run away and marry. Fate intervenes as the Bishop returns and gins up his followers, along with the local Paiute Indian tribe and some of the faithful disguised as Indians, to attack the settlers and kill all the members of the party old enough to remember the event.
It’s pretty obvious that director Christopher Cain isn’t exactly a big fan of Mormonism. He paints them in villainy worthy of the Darth Vader school, he even chooses Zod (“You will kneel before Zod”) to portray their leader.
But seriously, it is without argument that the Mountain Meadows massacre did happen in 1857, but historians have argued whether Brigham Young truly did order it or had a hand in it.
This film basically states that he gave full orders that the gentiles should be massacred (full of righteous indignation to boot). The author interviewed on the special features goes over the laundry list of Young’s responsibilities (governor, head of the Indian board, leader of the Mormons) and basically says that there wasn’t anything that happened in the state that he didn’t know about.
The author seemingly gives Young the godlike status that Stamp stumps about in the film. It’s probably not helpful that the Mormon Church has an air of secrecy about it. Cain plays his hand early on as the righteous Christians give a prayer of thanks for their Mormon hosts who have given them shelter is intercut with the prayers of the Bishop basically praying that these “emigrants” are evil and should be damned to hell. The problem is that it’s really obvious and not exactly good filmmaking.
The performances are all over the map. Trent Ford is not very good as the young Jonathan and Tamara Hope seems pretty green to acting as well. Terence Stamp snarls and hisses his way through his role and definitely paints Brigham Young as a villain and even denies his filmic role to an inquiry into the massacre. Jon Voight does add some gravitas to his role, but since it’s in such a terrible movie it doesn’t add much.
The attack cumulated on September 11, 1857 and they try to tie this with September 11, 2001 but again it falls flat. In a July 9, 2007 article in the Aspen Times the screenwriter made the statement that she believed God told her to write the screenplay. Oddly Joseph Smith also made the same claims as to hearing the voice of God.
I think that if God had truly communicated with this screenwriter that he’d led her to create a better screenplay. The massacre was truly appalling, but the movie doesn’t do much in the way of anti-Mormon propaganda because it’s not very well done.
A scene that was supposed to be touching made me guffaw with a shot character says “I don’t think that I’m going to make it to California.” God doesn’t write such laughable pap.
September Dawn is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include the 10 minute “Descendents: Remembering the Tragedy” which interviews descendants of Fancher and others and also an author who appears to have been the source for the film’s view of history. They seem to make a case that this historical event is a conspiracy of epic proportions.
Oddly for an event that only those young enough not to recall it were spared, these distant relations seem to relay quite a bit about the event. Next is the 8 minute “True Events: A Historical Perspective” which interviews the filmmakers as well as the same author. I would’ve preferred an unbiased look at this historical event. It’s pretty obvious that sides have been chosen by those interviewed, although I can’t blame the descendants too much.
The conspiracy behind the Mountain Meadows massacre has been debated for 150 years and this film doesn’t really resolve anything and the debate will continue. It only gives those that have something against the Mormon Church something to rally behind. I really don’t have a horse in that race, but it should’ve been a better-done movie if you want to win over the uninitiated to your side.
September Dawn is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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