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.
Enjoy!
I think I’ll stick with the South Park “All About Mormons” episode.
What was the real motivation for the movie, since you mentioned it, don’t you think it would be good to explain?
I am wondering about why someone would want to make this movie now. Is Hillary and/or the DNC or their Hollywood friends behind it? I wonder how long it took to make the movie, when it was planned. I think that this needs to be explored and investigated. Because if there is any connection to the upcoming Presidential elections then this needs to be addressed, if nothing else, at least to expose the underhanded and subversive tactics of the DNC and or their Hollywood Friends. I am very serious.
At least it had a sense of humor.
I am amazed how a massive massacre of innocent American men, women, and children gets treated as an insult to Mormons by Romney campaign supporters.
For some of us the real story is the loss of innocent American life at the hands of murderers.
Stop! Stop! You're making me snort Diet Pepsi on my keyboard. I'm not a Mitt supporter, but I know a hit piece when I see one, as do you. Your indignant act isn't fooling anyone.
Condolences? Couldn’t you spittle out a better more literate insult?
Yes. The Mountain Meadows massacre has been documented by people such as Juanita Brooks more than half a century ago.
Insult? I was thinking more along the lines of a tweak. The literary requirements for a tweak are far less rigorous than those required for an insult.
It isn’t an act, my family has been here almost 400 years, things like this bother me. Our family history records many deaths in our journey to help create this piece of the world. On the Romney threads I never see any respect given to the victims.
I am intolerant of people mocking the G.I.s at Little Big Horn for instance, that laugh at the event or consider it a fair battle, without asking about the treatment of the POWs.
Any time the massacre discussion arises, we should remember that the victims are our people and they deserve to be thought of with respect.
But if you read the reviews carefully, most of the critics seem to be expressing their displeasure that the movie wasn't made better so as to vilify members of the LDS Church in the manner in which the critics believe they so richly deserve. That is, the critics are bigots as well, just mightily annoyed that the smear wasn't done more artfully and professionally.
I'm weary of the anti-LDS bigotry. FR is stuffed to the gills with it. It got really old really fast a long time ago. There are no better, more faithful, more hard-working, more conservative Americans than the Mormons. They deserve better.
BTW, I find it somewhat amusing that the surname of the director of this crock of steaming cinematic crap is "Cain."
“It isn’t an act, my family has been here almost 400 years, things like this bother me.”... “On the Romney threads I never see any respect given to the victims.”
Um... Could this be because it has absolutely nothing to do with Romney? Are you out there trying to insert this crap into Romney threads? Why?
“I am intolerant of people mocking the G.I.s at Little Big Horn for instance, that laugh at the event or consider it a fair battle, without asking about the treatment of the POWs.”
Some of my relatives were at the Little Big Horn... On the winning side I’m told. That doesn’t have anything to do with the current presidential election either.
This film is a hit piece. It was timed to come out now for a reason. If they wanted to do a documentary, they could have done it at any time during the last 50 years.
“Doesn’t look like they are going to cover their $11 million production budget. Talk about a massacre!”
Give them a hundred years or so, and they’ll make a movie blaming Mormons for that too.
Looks like the movie isn’t very good.
But nothing in the movie no matter how bad, can compare to the massacre.
BTW, .....Brigham knew. My condolences.
Oh and as long as we are on a conspiracy kick, why is it that the LDS Church “official” statement on the MMM was just published within the last couple of months. Why was the book that was researched and published by the Church historians Richard E. Turley, Glen M. Leonard, Ronald W. Walker scheduled for release in 2003, yet held over to be published now, right on the heels of the movie. Perhaps to get the last word in?
Nah....not YOUR church, certainly.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1563907/posts?page=591#591
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1563907/posts?page=600#600
“But if you read the reviews carefully, most of the critics seem to be expressing their displeasure that the movie wasn’t made better so as to vilify members of the LDS Church in the manner in which the critics believe they so richly deserve.”
I’ve read 5 or 6 of the full reviews, and it seems to me like they ‘get it’. They call it a piece of hate mongering propaganda that portrays every Mormon as totally evil, insane and depraved and every non-Mormon as angelic in the extreme.
What’s ham-fisted?
Never mind. I just read Post #23.
“” Are you out there trying to insert this crap into Romney threads? Why?””
This is the first time I have mentioned it, but from the U.S. Army to innocent American families, I think my loyalties are well placed.
Yeah, and how about the volume! Whew!
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