September Dawn (2007)

September Dawn: Directed by Christopher Cain. With Terence Stamp, Trent Ford, Krisinda Cain, Shaun Johnston. A love story set during a tense encounter between a wagon train of settlers and a renegade Mormon group.

“I have been hearing many bad reviews for this movie, panning it for a perceived u0026#39;blanket condemnation of the Mormon Church.u0026#39; What so many of these reviews refuse to take into consideration is the actual character of territorial Utah in the 1850s and the rest of the historical evidence.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe plain simple fact is that Utah at the time WAS full of zealous religiosity. Every statement made by Brigham Young in the movie comes from his published sermons. Utah territory was a harsh and repressive society, and the movie portrays this accurately. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis movie is in NO WAY a blanket condemnation of Mormonism, though it IS a condemnation of the Mormon Church *IN THE 1850s.* To say that this movie portrays them like u0026quot;homesteading Nazis,u0026quot; is completely unfair.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJohn Voightu0026#39;s performance gives a perfect example of the sort of character found in Mormon authorities in the period, while his sons show us some of the various types of dissension, the outright rejection, and the horrified self-loathing obedience. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe only thing I can see wrong here is that they could have put some hostile people in the wagon company, as undoubtedly there would have been. I can understand why they did not however, in order to drive home just how terrible this massacre was. Whether or not Brigham Young was directly involved in the events is up for debate, but there can be no doubt that the teachings he espoused and the environment they engendered were a significant part of what caused the massacre.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn short, most of the negative reviews come either from Mormons or people who have very little background with regards to the history of Territorial Utah”