Free Republic

...Christopher Cain’s pedantic, made-for-TV-caliber account of Utah’s notorious Mountain Meadows Massacre bullies the audience with extremist hobgoblins and hearsay. The love story is pretty bad, too. Jon Voight stars. Grade: D+...

Call me cynical, but I find the release of "September Dawn" at the time when Mitt Romney is working for the Republican presidental nomination more than coincidence. At a time when Hollywood goes out of its way to launch films that support Liberal candidates for public office ("Bowling for Columbine", An Inconvenient Truth"), a film now about the slaughter of settlers by Mormons at the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857 is just too coincidental to be simple chance. Romney has been under increasingly hostile attention from the MSM and Liberals in general.

You can count on one person not waiting in line when the movie "September Dawn" opens on Friday. Mitt Romney says he will not go see the movie, billed as a dramatic recreation of the Mountain Meadows massacre, the killing of 120 unarmed Arkansas pioneers by Mormon settlers in Utah in 1857. The extent of the Mormon church's involvement has long been debated. "That was a terrible, awful act carried out by members of my faith," Romney said during an interview today with the Associated Press while his presidential campaign was in Reno, Nev. "There are bad people in any...

"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...

The stars of the movie new 'September Dawn' will be on Hugh's show, at 7:00 EDT, discussing the movie. Hugh is a big supporter of Mitt Romney so it should be interesting.

Due to USA Today's copyright complaints, I couldn't link to the actual editorial, and I didn't think it wise to excerpt the actual piece, but here's the address: http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/08/hollywoods-terr.html The review is also discussed here: http://www.romneyexperience.com/2007/08/14/new-defenses/ Excerpt: "Michael Medved reviews September Dawn, the upcoming flick about an episode of 19th century Mormon violence. Medved makes the very good point that Mormons generally take their public opinion licks pretty well, with no signs of rioting in the streets or driving explosives laden cars into crowds. Given this, Medved argues that Hollywood’s drive to portray Mormons as terrorists, while giving Islamic Jihadists...

Sources inside the Mitt Romney camp report the former Massachusetts governor's presidential campaign staff is none too happy about the timing of the release of ''September Dawn,'' a film about a mid-19th century massacre by Mormons -- considered to be the first recorded act of religious terrorism on U.S. soil. ''Given all the current press attention to Mitt's being a Mormon -- much of it having a negative slant -- this only adds fuel to the fire,'' a Romney campaign insider told this column Wednesday... Coming on the heels of Romney's first win in the Iowa GOP straw poll earlier...

OPENING in theaters Friday, a motion picture called "September Dawn" depicts a brutal American mas sacre that has been forgotten. On Sept. 11, 1857, in Utah Territory, Mormons slaughtered more than 120 California-bound settlers from Arkansas. Retelling at this time the 9/11 carnage of 150 years ago does not help Mormon Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. The basic facts about the Mountain Meadows Massacre are not in dispute. Mormons mobilized Paiute Indians, accompanied by Mormons disguised as Indians, to attack a peaceful wagon train. The settlers beat off the attack but were left short of food and ammunition. They disarmed themselves...