A stirring love story that dabbles uncomfortably close to hate.
Comment
08/24/07
September Dawn (2007)
13
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:54
Fresh:7
Rotten:47
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... [More]
Starring: Jon Voight, Terence Stamp, Trent Ford, Tamara Hope
Director: Christopher Cain
Reviews for September Dawn
The real problem is that September Dawn isn't a very good movie. It moves too much like a public-school history pageant and gives us mono-dimensional characters who speak dialogue that fairly reeks of printer's ink.
06/21/07
While we should always be suspect of history served up with popcorn, this is a story worth telling
08/24/07
Muddled, sloppy, and obfuscating.
08/31/07
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.
08/27/07
Such ham-fisted earnestness does no one any good, least of all those who believe there's a big difference between historical fact and emotional screed.
08/24/07
Earnest but misguided attempt to generate political allegory from the horrific Mountain Meadows Massacre of 9/11/1857 would have benefited from a more straightforward retelling.
08/23/07
It's waxy Classics Illustrated cinema.
08/24/07
An already thin veneer of historical truth wears off fairly quickly in this surprisingly dull and melodramatic low-budget western.
08/30/07
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.
12/03/07
What a strange, confused, unpleasant movie this is.
08/24/07
Top CriticThe 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.
08/26/07
If the Western genre is struggling, it's because of terrible movies like this one.
08/23/07
The film Mitt Romney does not want you to see. And it's easy to see why.
08/24/07
The filmmaking here is so incompetent and laughably awful that it recalls the work of schlockmeister Ed Wood.
08/24/07
It turns a complicated story of religious bigotry and paranoia, with visitations from God, self-appointed prophets and 'divine' instruction into a dry history lesson.
08/24/07
[Director Cain] stops short of calling Osama bin Laden a Mormon sympathizer, but maybe that'll be on the DVD.
08/24/07
Cain has co-written and directed a film that only the most bigoted of Mormom detractors could enjoy. Most viewers, if any are willing to part with their money or time, will simply laugh derisively.
08/23/07
Cain has turned the Mormons into baby-eatin' Nazis to suit his argument, parading around these black-clad, chin-bearded, testicle-slicing gunslingers without any thoughtful consideration.
08/23/07
Predictable, obvious, often silly.
11/08/07
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