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.
So you don’t suspect this is a hit piece against Romney?
Or do you think Romney deserves a hit piece because he is a Mormon?
Ah yes, Brigham was involved and you have incontrovertible proof of it...you just can’t put your hands on it right now but, it does exist, honest! I just figured since you tried to promote the movie back in January by posting the trailer, I thought you might be disappointed with these results. But then, it’s just another failure in an unbroken, 150 year streak of failed attempts to to bring the church down. You must be used to it by now.
Ah yes, Brigham was involved and you have incontrovertible proof of it...you just can’t put your hands on it right now but, it does exist, honest!
I said he KNEW, I didn't say he was involved. A bit touchy are we dear?
BTW, if you would have followed my links you would have seen that this was a discussion we had, not in January, but but January of 2006. And I didn't post the article. Is there anything you get correct? Aren't you tired of always being on the losing side?
They say that the movie was in progress before Romney etc. If it was my guy I would be upset at the timing, especially if they were all liberals.
The difference with me is that I would hate the timing, but there wouldn’t be much I could say, because there just isn’t any evidence to build a case on.
In other words I would mostly just have to steam in silence, maybe participate in a couple of bitching threads, but I am not the type to create a conspiracy case and go on about stuff that really has no answers or evidence.
Aside from the timing, I’m surprised there hasn’t been more movies made on the massacre, of course I’m also surprised there aren’t several movies on the Minnesota massacre etc.
I've had quite a few discussion with Mormons on this issue. In my experience, they don't atempt to deny that it happened.
Most admit the truth of the incident, with the caveat that it cannot be understood without studying the historical context, which is a perfectly valid point. They seldom seem willing to make this same concession when discussing the attacks on Mormons in MO and IL.
Many then attempt to establish a moral equivalency between this event and the mob attacks.
A few of the more extreme Mormons try to make the attack out to be some kind of self-defense against dangerous invaders who were murdering, pillaging and poisoning their way across UT, with intent to bring back an army from CA and kill all Mormons.
Unfortunately for this argument, self defense is a little tricky to claim when you kill dozens of women and children.
It got 4 out of 5 stars here: http://www.smartcine.com/september_dawn_review.html
Official Website with trailers:
http://www.septemberdawn.net/
Very good point.
BTW, for others who keep implying that this one movie implies some sort of Hollywood conspiracy, one movie during Hollywood's entire production is hardly an overwhelming overkill of this.
I don't recall ever seeing anyone mock the soldiers at LBH.
Mock Custer, sure. It's a very old tradition to mock military leaders who make very bad decisions and get their soldiers wiped out. Especially when they're flamboyant and boastful.
What was unfair about the battle? US soldiers attacked an Indian village that was a lot larger than they realized and got clobbered. BTW, what exactly is a "fair battle," and how do you go about setting one up?
Also BTW, there were no POWs at LBH. All were killed on the field of battle.
“for others who keep implying that this one movie implies some sort of Hollywood conspiracy”
I’m not implying it. There’s no question. Romney is running. He’s a Mormon, raising curiosity about Mormons. The producers are using that to try to make money.
Moore would have done a decent job. He is a pretty good craftsman.
Production on this movie probably started at least three and perhaps five years ago.
I would be real curious to see how prominent Mitt was as a potential candidate then, shortly after his election as MA gov.
His candidacy only became credible as a result of his purported success as a relatively conservative governor in a very liberal state, which couldn’t have been foreseen when development of the movie started.
Which doesn't stand, of course, because of the horrific nature of this particular event. One doesn't just gun down 120 people like this. As bad as Wounded Knee.
I have heard LBH mocked all my life, including a famous song, humorous references in movies, TV shows, print and countless conversations.
I use the treatment of POWs to get people in conversation to realize that there were no POWs, that our American GIs were involved in a bloody battle aginst a brutal enemy, and that the soldiers died in service to our country.
This has nothing to do with when the production started. It has to do with when it was released.
To me the question that this happened is not under discussion. The real question is whether or not we should look at history through the window of a fictionalized movie.
OK. If they released it to knock Mitt out of the primary, their strategy is idiotic.
They should have waited a year, hoping he’d be nominated, and then release it shortly before the general election.
How in the world does eliminating Romney from the primaries help the Democrats? Only if you think Mitt is the most electable candidate, which is at best debatable.
I am a descendant of John D. Lee. I don’t think anyone should tell me how to “look” at it. I’ve lived with it all my life.
I tended his grave as a child. My grandmother worked to have the LDS Church reinstate his membership. Even though he was to blame for his part in the massacre, to this day, the LDS Church allows him to take the entire blame. They laid it all upon one man....I personally think it is cowardly and disgusting, and it’s about time someone looked at this deed, even if it takes a fictionalized movie to bring it to the fore.
Excellent point. I recently read his Confession.Very interesting, although severely deluded, guy.
I also once walked the length of Pariah Canyon, exiting at Lee’s Ferry, where we were able to walk around JD’s old homestead.
Did you know he is the antecedant of the Udall family of Democrat politicians?
Jon Voight estrange daughter Angelina Jolie grandmother
Head Of The Family: Angelina Jolie Had Children Out Of Wedlock ...
Angelina Jolie went on The Daily Show last night to talk about her new movie, ... My grandmother for one and Mormon women. I’m always in awe of them. ...
gawker.com/news/head-of-the-family/angelina-jolie-had-children-out-of-wedlock-269188.php - 43k - Cached - Similar pages
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The is disingenuous he knows darn well no one is denying the tragedy but the timing of the movie it could have come out in 06 and this was not terrorist these were a bunch of paranoid folks who did not keep the faith nor follow the commandments of their file leader or the Lord.
This movie tryst to imply the Church as a whole and that is not true.
Jon Voight, drive me nut with his repeating over and over calling this a religious Jihad.
Jon I heard you on the West Coast Hewitt and on the East Coast Levin and you do have a slick tongue
They worked closely with the Francher Family and for the Church side it was all taken off the internet saying they found enough off the internet!
There are a lot of loose ends about this movie.
The Part that Voight plays is a composite of 3 characters.
So how can you deliver lines in there true context when such liberties are taken?
Estrange daughter Angelina Jolie
Family members who were Mormons
Worked with Francher closely
Took all research off the itnernet for the Church side did not use Church archives at all!
Keeps calling this rogue group as religious fanitics or terrorist, and Mormon Jihad,
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