"Ham-fisted" and "venemous religious tract": Reviews for "September Dawn"

RottenTomatoes.com ^ | 08/23/07 | Various

[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.

[saganite]

Well I have to say that is one of the stupidest things I have ever read on FR. I have to see a movie to know if something is historically accurate? Good grief. Think about what you wrote.

[MEGoody]

I have to see a movie to know if something is historically accurate?

Uh, no, you have to see the movie to know if the movie is historically accurate.

Sheesh, untwist your panties.

[rogers21774]

If my memory serves me well I’ve been in that very canyon several times. It was so many years ago I can’t be sure of name, but it sounds very familiar.