Customer Reviews

September Dawn

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

Been waiting for this DVD to come out since first seeing it in the theatres- and having since read several histories about the historical event. There already have been numerous website slugfests about just how accurate the movie is, with most of the debate just re-emphasizing how, 150 years later, the Mormon community still struggles to reconcile this documented part of their church history.
But before the DVD is even released, and before the anticipated subsequent storm of prejudiced-laced customer "reviews" ( and it doesn't even matter which side they are for), let me just say that the "editorial review" summary ought to at least introduce the topic fairly. For one, it is hardly an issue of uncertainty whether or not Mormons participated in the massacre- indeed, the valid histories (even the source work by Juanita Brooks, herself a devout Mormon)all confirm that Mormons did most of the killing, and even eventually owned-up to that, but only after years of trying to pawn it off on the Paiute Indians. I've seen the movie and read the histories, and the only aspect of the movie which is somewhat "over-the-top" is its clear portrayal of Brigham Young as a main architect of the massacre; the available histories at least conclude that there is some doubt as to his actual role. Whether viewers of the movie liked the love story subplot or not isn't really what this movie is about, after all....it's just a cinematic technique used to make the history more personal (much like Cameron did with "Titanic", and Kate Winslett and Leonard DiCaprio).
But having said that, I'm sure the DVD release of this movie will again spark all the prejudicial comments about Mormons, etc.....but none of that changes the facts, and the movie does a fair job with that. But don't believe me- don't believe ANY reviewer: read the published histories, then you decide.

Surprised to see this film currently has a rating of 4.5 stars. I guess Mormon advocates haven't realized this item is up and open for comments. Glad I can get mine in before the comment wars begin. I liked the movie overall. As a professor of religion I know the story accords with historical facts of the Mountain Meadows massacre as well as we know them. It truly does show how human beings can do the most atrocious things to one another if they believe they receive the blessing of God in doing so. I would only wish they ask some basic epistemological questions about the justification of their claim to knowledge that it is God they are truly hearing. The film mentions possible motives like the belief the federal government was about to start a war against the Mormons and payback for the murder of Joseph Smith in Missouri. One explanation for the massacre the film does not address but needs to be explored is using religious justification for plain old greed. There was a lot of wealth, cattle and horses with that wagon train. The Paiutes didn't get it. Who did? The film nicely points out how John Lee is the only Mormon forced to suffer penalty for the event. As for the film itself, it is beautifully filmed. I thought the Davidovich character was shallow, and her death is left unexplained. The real clinker in the film, though, and the reason I reduce its rating to a three star, is the clumsily melodramatic love affair between the son of the Mormon Bishop and the daughter of the wagon train's minister. As part of that story you have the son being imprisoned by the Bishop by being chained at the ankle in a barn. The chain, though, is around his boot. Why doesn't the kid just remove his foot from the boot? That's the kind of silliness that creeps in when you import melodrama into this tragic story. My greatest concern: The Mormons (with the exception of the lovestruck son of the Bishop) were uniformly caricatured as the embodiment of hate, while those on the wagon train were uniformly portrayed as the embodiment of sweetness and light. That's too simple-minded an approach. There are other comments to be made, but I don't want to turn this into a lecture on religion. Good film, but not great by any stretch.

SEPTEMBER DAWN by Carole Whang Schutter, a historical
novel, is a riveting portrayal of the Mountain Meadows
Massacre, "the first act of religious terrorism in the
United States". Eerily having occurred on September
11, only 150 years ago, it will, for the first time,
be released under the same title as a Hollywood style
feature film. Having co-written the screenplay with
director Christopher Cain, Schutter showcases an
extensive historical knowledge in the telling of her
story. As a result, "SEPTEMBER DAWN", the movie, will
not be your stereotypical Hollywood hype flick.

My great great grandfather was the Mormon bishop of
Cedar City, Utah in 1857 and whose character is played
by Jon Voight in the film. He was a participant in the
massacre, a crime which is said to have "disgraced
humanity". My grandmother told me of it 43 years ago
with tears in her eyes and since, I've been obsessed
with discovering the facts of it.... facts which
powerful forces have worked very hard to keep covered.

Schutter uses a fictional love story and a novel
format to place the reader at the scene of what was,
without overstating, the crime of the century. This
takes nothing away from the authenticity of the event,
or from the responsibility assigned to those an honest
history would implicate. Neither does she shrink from
hard hitting depictions of the horrid details, or from
illuminating the role played by the then theocratic
Mormon church. In so doing, she honors the victims and
descendants of this horrific transgression. She honors
American History. Perhaps most importantly, she honors
the truth.

If you want to be fascinated by a historical episode
of monumental importance, as it is accurately
protrayed by SEPTEMBER DAWN, the movie, then treat
yourself to a thrilling page turner in SEPTEMBER DAWN,
the book.

Reviewed by Wayne Atilio Capurro
Author: WHITE FLAG: America's First 9/11

I bought this book for my book club. I read it and tried to like it, but it just isn't written very well. The subject matter is fascinating, but the author could have done so much more. It really felt like a high school student could have written it. Nothing, not characters or plot or anything, were developed very well. Very disappointing.

The makers of September Dawn did not have a big budget, and are not contending for Oscars - they only wanted to tell a story from American history that most people never heard - the Mountain Meadows Massacre. 140 members of a wagon train, passing through Utah in 1857 - men, women and children - were murdered in cold blood by the Church of Jesus H. Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Mormons, under the direction of church president and territorial governor Brigham Young.

Two veteran actors turn in worthy performances - Jon Voight is righteously authoritarian as the Cedar City bishop, and Terence Stamp is an imposing Brigham Young. Unfortunately, the screenwriting is weak, especially the dialogue in the opening scenes, but the narrative of events is what counts, and the filmmakers took great care to be historically accurate. The fictional romance is simply the vehicle to tell the story from both points of view.

The bishop's son is developing his own identity as a young man, questioning his father's ideas, and potentially serving as a peace broker, while he courts a young woman in the wagon train. Like any rational person would, he begins to see the "immigrant" party as a means for his own escape from his father's cult.

The irony that this savage mass murder occurred on September 11 is not lost - at one point the Mormon prophet is quoted saying "I will be the new Muhammad" and the church leaders openly rationalize how they are doing "gentiles" a favor by killing them so they can be redeemed by Jesus.

The film also provides insight into the fear and hatred that the Mormon leaders felt towards these "immigrants" - they came from Missouri, where a Mormon leader was killed earlier that year. They regarded Utah as their own Promised Land, and feared President James Buchanan was preparing to send the US Army to depose Brigham Young as territorial governor. So the film explains the motive for the massacre without justifying it.

The ending is shocking, even if you know the story, and the message is how ruthless people can be when motivated by religious fanaticism, whether on 9/11/1857 or 9/11/2001.

The Mormon Church has undertaken a smear campaign against this film, accusing the producers of trying to undermine their presidential candidate. The church disputes the level of involvement by Brigham Young as portrayed in the film, but they do not dispute the fact that the massacre occurred and was conducted by Mormons.

This film tells an important part of the history of "how it was moving west." It is well worth your time.

This is a great movie. In an age of extreme political correctness, here comes a movie that dares to look at a fully home grown 19th century massacre (on September 11, no less) in the name of a paranoid religion.

I'm sure there will be an organized group of critics (Mormons?) who will post their one star reviews. Don't be duped. This movie may be a scathing look at a shameful incident in the history of Mormonism -- the so-called "mountain meadows massacre" -- but the real theme of this film is something much greater.

World events suggest there is coming a time when we will be forced to face in a public way the problem of irrational religions based on lies and fear and hate. What if the unthinkable happens and the West wages an all out war against a religion hell-bent on cleansing the planet of "infidels." Whose God will win? Or is that the wrong question?

Under what circumstances can we have this urgent conversation? A start is by going to see this movie and talking about what it means to Americans today. How do we deal with the conflicting issues of freedom and security? Especially freedom of religion?

Is there a subjective way to even talk about a religion being "authentic"? Is there a way to "love our enemies" or should we kill them before they kill us? This unexpected and unsettling movie about a Holy War on a small scale deserves consideration and conversation on a large scale.

September Dawn by Carole Whang Schutter is in my opinion a Romeo and Juliet type novel, two nineteen year olds fell in love and would let nothing come between them. It is not just a love story mind you, it is about the Mountain Meadow Massacre in the year 1857. Based on some true events, and even turned into a movie, September Dawn is out to show the truth of what may have happened over 150 years ago between two religions.

Jonathan Samuelson was the son of a Mormon Bishop and the girl he was head over heels in love with was the daughter of a Christian Pastor. Now you know back in the day these two religions could not mix without a huge uprising. And the Mountain Meadow Massacre was a huge uprising! With the journals now in hand, the story must be told to all of the family that will listen in hopes that they will uncover and understand what exactly happened in Utah so many years ago.

September Dawn was a book that really gets you thinking, I don't know what I would have done if I were put in some of these positions had I lived back in the year 1857. Love is love and you can't help who you fall in love with. Sometimes the book was a bit slow to keep my attention, although it all came together at the very end. 3.5 Hearts

An interesting event, but not particularly well told. While this is "inspired" by a historical event, as the film itself proclaims at the beginning, the overly sharp contrast in the film between the "Gentiles" in the doomed wagon train and the Mormons seems overdrawn to the point of propaganda. The Mormons or at least the church leadership are essentially evil while the wagon train folks, gather a lot at the river, sing a lot of hymns and do their best to just get along with one and all, sort of Little Wagon Train on the Prairie, before being literally led as lambs to the slaughter. It just gets to be more than a bit too much after a while. I don't know if Lolita Davidovich's liberated pistol packing Western Woman in Pants in particular is based on any historical personage or not, but she seems more like a device to contrast with the Mormons and give them something more to dislike about the immigrants. Terrance Stamp as Brigham Young is interesting to watch, but most of the acting, along with the script and direction is more on a TV movie of the week level.

To be very honest and to the point, this novel quite haunted me. I found the entire piece of history being covered in the work to be morbidly fascinating. I was drawn to the end like a magnet even though I knew before I opened the first page what the outcome would be.

Did the book have weaknesses? I believe it did. Many times, especially when the narrative is brought into the modern day scenes of the novel, I felt like the book was either written for an evangelical Christian audience or that there was an assumption made from the author's side that all of the readership is coming from this same point of view. Also there are places where I felt that the narrative was pushed along a bit and especially too forced when trying to drive several of the author's points home. For instance, when the final massacre was taking place, the author often gave full names and ages and family relationships which to me seemed quite out of place. It made the narrative seem a bit too unreal for my comfort. I could see what Ms. Schutter was trying to do; to drive home that these were real people who were killed in the book, but at the same time I feel like it actually took away from the flow of the action.

Carole Whang Schutter did not cut the Mormon Church any slack in her vivid portrayal of their history. She told the story from Joseph Smith's childhood up until the Mormons had arrived in Utah in fairly poignant detail. At best, she painted the LDS's followers as simple folk who were looking for acceptance and a place to belong, but as with any cult or fraud religion, these people are misled by charlatans all along the way. The leadership of the Latter Day Saints were tarred and feathered by this book, having been indicted as schemers who would stop at nothing to achieve their selfish and often paranoid demands. They took their followers' property, their wives, fiancées, etc., and had those who dared to speak up or speak out excommunicated, executed and even castrated. Ms. Schutter minced no words here.

And in the midst of it all we have an ill fated love story... These were two innocents who unwittingly but willingly fell into love at first sight - a love that would be doomed as much by their backgrounds as the tragic events yet to unfold. The two young lovers, Jonathan, son of a local Mormon Bishop, and the young Emily, daughter of a minister in the doomed wagon train trying to make their way to California, would be caught in a crossfire of retribution for past wrongs against the Mormons in Missouri and Arkansas as well as the Mormon resistance of Federal authority in their desert regions. Having only read the book and not having seen the film I assume that this is the main story being told, but I believe that with all of the historical background added to the novel, there is actually a dual plot in the book - that of the fate of the two lovers and that of the history of the Mormon Church. In an odd way, the events leading to the actual massacre could be described as a subplot.

The aforementioned weaknesses of the book I believe could be put down as the birth of a novel from a screenplay rather than the other way around, which is more usual, but I believe that the plot is strong enough and the history behind the story is compelling enough that this is still a good, interesting read.

Now that I have read the book I just have to buy the DVD!

The Fancher-Baker wagon train travels from Arkansas and Missouri through Utah on their way to California. They'd stopped to rest their cattle and horses in a valley called Mountain Meadows. Little did they know, this valley is within the Iron County Military District of the Nauvoo Legion, the popular designation for the militia of the Utah Territory. The author goes to great lengths detailing the hostility of the Mormon people towards the citizens of Missouri as well as the federal government, giving the reader a glimpse into the mindset of the characters.

In the middle of this aggression romance blossoms between the son of a Mormon Bishop and the daughter of a Christian pastor. Both believe in true love and its power to overcome all obstacles giving the story a western day Romeo and Juliet feel.

Based on actual events, "September Dawn" is politically and emotionally charged. In the author's note, Carole Whang Schutter says "Every major world religion has bloodied its hands because people are flawed. Through the ages, religious radicals have justified horrific deeds by piously announcing that their crimes against humanity were done in the name of God." I couldn't agree more.

"September Dawn" is also on DVD. If you like the Hallmark channel, which I do, you'll enjoy both the book as well as the movie. If possible, read the book first and then watch the movie.