The villainous turns by Jon Voight (as a hard-hearted Mormon bishop) and Terence Stamp (as a bloodthirsty Brigham Young) would have been more fun if they weren't part of such a clumsy campaign to lay this tragedy at the church's doorstep.
September Dawn (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 53
Fresh: 7
Rotten:46
Average Rating: 3.4/10
Consensus: With its jarring editing, dull love story, and silly dialogue, September Dawn turns a horrific historical event into a banal movie.
Runtime: 1 hr 51 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: This independently produced drama is based on historical fact: In 1857, Mormon settlers, in an area near Cedar City, massacred 120 people bound for California. Jon Voight plays Jacob Samuelson, a paranoid religious zealot whose initial... This independently produced drama is based on historical fact: In 1857, Mormon settlers, in an area near Cedar City, massacred 120 people bound for California. Jon Voight plays Jacob Samuelson, a paranoid religious zealot whose initial hostility to the settlers is inspired partly by women wearing pants, and the fact that some of them come from Missouri (a state that drove the Mormons out). From this snowballs a fury of religion-based intolerance that leads to the historic Mountain Meadows Massacre of, prophetically enough, September 11th. Director Christopher Cain (YOUNG GUNS) shows skill in creating period detail and a sense of inescapable dread, even amidst the wide open spaces of the beautiful mountainous locations. Deep shadows caused by the stark sunshine contrast with lots of tense, sweaty close-ups of fear-stricken and hateful faces. Terence Stamp shows up as the Church of Latter Day Saints leader Brigham Young, who gets involved in the decision to massacre the settlers (a controversial detail, debated to this day). Offsetting the unease is a Romeo-and-Juliet-style romance between one of Samuelson's handsome young sons (Trent Ford) and Emily (Tamara Hope), a beautiful red-headed maiden from the wagon train. A nice score of acoustic guitars and strings blends suspense and rustic breeziness. [More]
Starring: Jon Voight, Terence Stamp, Trent Ford, Tamara Hope
Starring: Jon Voight, Terence Stamp, Trent Ford, Tamara Hope, Lolita Davidovich, Dean Cain, John Gries, Taylor Handley, Shaun Johnston, Krisinda Cain
Director: Christopher Cain
Director: Christopher Cain
Screenwriter: Carole Whang Schutter, Christopher Cain
Producer: Christopher Cain, Kevin Matossian, Scott Duthie
Composer: William Ross
Studio: Slowhand Cinema
Reviews for September Dawn
Drama may benefit from attention to history, but history doesn’t always make for good drama.
Contriving a faux Romeo and Juliet romance as a point of entry for the audience shows how unimaginative the filmmakers are, and how blandly and uninvolving it plays shows how fairly clueless they are in going about their game plan.
For all the guns fired in the film, [director] Cain aims the largest one at his foot—and pulls the trigger again and again.
The workmanlike craftsmanship of Cain's filmmaking almost (but never quite) smooths over the ham-fisted way he conceives the story.
An already thin veneer of historical truth wears off fairly quickly in this surprisingly dull and melodramatic low-budget western.
It's a toss-up as to whether September Dawn is more offensive as history, as allegory or simply as lousy self-important filmmaking.
With its complete lack of empathy for early Mormons and simplistic rendering of historical figures, September Dawn is that rare movie that actually deserves whatever condemnation might come from religious groups.
The director's overreaching attempts at social commentary with hackneyed devices weaken the veracity of the source material and leave the film open to interpretation as propaganda.
Often gripping and fascinating, it's bound to create waves of controversy.
An asinine chunk of Mormonsploitation that mixes historical fact with fictional romance and bald-faced anti-Mormon prejudice.
For all its cinematic weaknesses, I left the theatre weeping. “Now you know how I feel when I see holocaust films,” my Jewish husband told me gently as he wiped away my tears.
Religious and thematic issues aside, September Dawn is well-crafted as a revisionist Western with a message.
The maudlin, grotesque western September Dawn apes Schindler’s List in hopes of creatinga Christian Holocaust picture.
What could have been a galvanizing and all-too timely account of religious fanaticism turning violent has instead been reduced to the banal level of an Romeo and Juliet-type love story.
While we should always be suspect of history served up with popcorn, this is a story worth telling
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August 25, 2007:
Released at perhaps the worst time for presidential candidate Mitt Romney, this graphic Western sheds light on a shameful, long-suppressed chapter in the annals of Mormon history. ![]()
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Related Forums for September Dawn
by: Last Man Thinking 9/29/07
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