Posted on 08/23/2007 5:45:11 PM PDT by Reaganesque
"This handsome indie Western damningly recounts the 1857 slayings of 120 settlers passing through Utah, but the didactic presentation, grim speechifying and tacked-on love story all signify a less-than-healthy regard for the audience's intelligence."
Variety Justin Chang
1/4 "The film feels less like historical drama than a venomous religious tract printed on celluloid." Minneapolis Star Tribune Colin Covert
"September Dawn has the ham-fisted lyricism of political ads and pharmaceutical commercials." Village Voice J. Hoberman
"When the movie isn't doling out ham-fisted history...it gives us magnificent vistas of a pristine prairie...and there's a deep sweetness to the subplot of Jonathan and Emily falling in love." Film Journal International Frank Lovece
1.5/4 "When watching the screen depiction of a historic event in which 120 people were murdered, giggling is not the appropriate response." Salt Lake Tribune Sean Means
1/5 "It has the chilling certitude of the self-righteous." Orlando Sentinel Roger Moore
2.5/5 "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." Arizona Republic Richard Nilsen
1/5 "The jarring MTV-style filmmaking is so distracting and the 'messaging' so unsubtle that after two long hours you find yourself leaving the theater with a massive headache, wondering when you started to hate Mormons." Orlando Weekly Brett Register
1/4 "Forget Grindhouse. September Dawn is the year's first honest-to-goodness exploitation flick." Slant Magazine Nick Schager
1/4 "Bombastic, slow-drying dramatization with lead-weight dialogue and a turgid romantic subplot." Newsday Gene Seymour
D- "Has serious problems in historical terms. But in this case they're exacerbated by the simple ineptitude of the filmmaking." One Guy's Opinion Frank Swietek
"Even if one gets past the movie's controversial depictions, there is the matter of its second-rate, made-for-television fare -- the poor battle choreography, the wooden editing and the cheesy writing." Washington Post Desson Thomson
2.5/4 "If September Dawn is a kind of Western, it's a Western utterly devoid of heroism or the usual archetypes. But the core message transcends time: Hatred laced with religious fanaticism is a toxic blend." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Dave Tianen
1/4 "Doesn't even measure up to an episode of your typical, cowboy TV show from the Fifties like Roy Rogers or The Lone Ranger. Get my drift, Kimosabe?" NewsBlaze Kam Williams
Click here for links to the full reviews.
FC, I meant to ping you to pst 221, I talked about you...
“Take a look at your quote again. It’s a call to arms against religion, and religiousness, and the religious. It’s a liberal shibboleth.”
It isn’t my quote it is Rameumptom’s.
Thank you for the link. Very interesting.
Or, the story of the arduous and deadly trek across the plains and over the Rocky Mountains to build a society the hub of which was Salt Lake City.
The Mountain Meadows Massacre was a tragedy and a stain but based on fear, isolation, disinformation, and sinfulness of several who were not sanctioned by Brigham Young, who was more than three hundred miles to the north when it happened.
No, we spend our tithes on the building of churches, temples, and universities and give millions upon millions of dollars worth of goods -- via Catholic Charities, I might add. We also proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, whether or not ignoramus hurls baseless accusations having never even attended a Church Sunday meeting or watching a single biannual General Conference in the comfort of their own living room via cable TV.
The venom-spewing producers of this "film" have shot themselves in their feet and then stepped in piles of $#!t with their bloody appendages.
Their "film" has trailed at the box office from the get-go and has been universally panned by critics. $2.6 million at the box office during the first and possibly the "epic's" last week amounts to a financial and PR disaster for those involved.
And their earthly "reward" for their vile offal is only the down payment on what awaits them. Way to go!!!!
You are correct. We do not meet the majority’s current definition of what it is to be a Christian.
“John D. Lee was deservedly executed at Mountain Meadows in 1877 for what he did.”
Fat chance of a Moslem committee ever deciding to execute a Moslem for bombing some non-Moslem locale.
Oh wait, they kill themselves anyway in the process. How convenient!
I have to ask, are you really a poser, or are you just pretending to be one?
Here is his statement on your question of access to the churches archives.
I must say that LDS Archives was amazingly open with me, and they did provide me with any number of wonderful sources, and the professional staff was excellent. And the professional staff is all now engaged in researching the Mountain Meadows Massacre, at enormous expense.
He then went on to say this.
Mormon archives do contain a lot of "embarrassing information", but they were long ago purged---I've been informed, and I've never seen his journal, but Andrew Jenson, long-time assistant church historian, describes "consigning documents to the flames" because they were so embarrassing.
So he praises the openness of the Archives and then in almost the next breath accuses the church of destroying damaging information. He admits that he never actually saw Andrew Jenson's statement regarding this destruction but has chosen to believe that it happened based on someone elses telling.
He also had this to say in the opening of his address.
But I'd also like to address the charges that I'm an anti-Mormon. They're preposterous, because I am still a Mormon. I'm a heritage Mormon, and I have a great-great-grandfather, grandfathers and grandmothers on all sides, who crossed the plains, most of them before the railroad, and I'm very proud of that heritage, and very proud of the Mormon people.
That said, I've never believed the theology since I was old enough to think about it. (audience laughter) But at the same time, I don't hold any grudges. I have many dear Mormon friends, and I do not believe that this book will take anyone's testimony away from them. Although I do believe that the book the church is putting out might well shake---might well lose the church any number of people.
It sounds as though Will believes that the coming history will provide a more illuminating history. As I said before I hope that the church is totally forthcoming in this.
“Romeny was hinting a bout a run during the Olympics, I believe that was well before the movie was shot...”
I know that is part of the anti-Mormon conspiracy, but a vain man revealing his desire to be president before he had ever even won an election, and the left wing, anti-Mormon machine deciding at the same time that they had to start work on a movie to bring down that man of destiny, is a big chunk of group think, or indoctrination, that the rest of us find hard to swallow.
An instant city on the plains, Winter Quarters served as the headquarters of the Church for less than a year, until the leadership moved west in 1847. By Christmas 1846, Church members had constructed a large stockade and about 700 homes ranging from solid two-story structures to simple dugouts in the bluffs. For many, however, the rigors of the Iowa crossing, exposure, and poor nutrition and sanitation proved too much, and several hundred saints died during the winter of 1846–1847.The article says that several hundred people died. Here is more information on Winter Quarters, if you would like to read it.
“No, because they were eye-witnesses to the events they wrote about.”
And we believe Nephi and the other prophets in the BoM were eye-witnesses to the events they wrote about, so we won’t toss aside the word of God that came to us from them, including the first hand account of the Savior’s visit to them after his resurrection, and the visions and prophecies of Christ that came to those prophets.
“I pray you soon come to the realization that Joseph Smith was a man with an over-active imagination”
And I pray you soon come to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and like all prophets he has been slandered and falsely accused.
So you consider any LDS scholar in any field to be oxymoronic? Interesting, cc.
I didn't know Udall was related......of course, you're right. It would have been in bad taste to have "Swift-boated" Udall with something like that. Scurrilous, even.
I've noticed, however, that Hollywood does like to pop big, spectacular "message" movies in election and pre-election years. Have you noticed?
Waterworld (1995) and The Day after Tomorrow (2004) come to mind. Both qualify for the sobriquet, "ham-fisted". Both were released on the eve of presidential political campaigns -- Waterworld right in the middle of Bill Clinton's rehabilitation and sub rosa campaign to set the agenda for the 1996 election.
Also timed a year pre-election was the "I Hate Rush Limbaugh" screed, Arlington Road, which featured Mr. Susan Sarandon with Joan Cusack as an ultra-creepy nuclear-waste family of actual (brrrr!) conservatives. Who, of course, kill people and blow up FBI men.
Then there was Gary Oldman's portrayal of a Republican senator as a portrait in Ultimate Loathesomeness in The Contender, which he also produced, in 2000 (that year have any resonance?).
I'm surprised Hillary couldn't get Susan Sarandon and Oldman and Mr. Sarandon to come out with an epic new production of Oliver Twist this year. After all, it would be so.....timely.
Well... Here I am posing with Andy
And here's my license plate
Thanks for the links, they flesh out the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints links, I provided in posts 136 and 137.
Cool answer
Yeah, it’s hilarious.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.