A new 'Dawn' of religious intolerance

Christopher Cain's "September Dawn," a travesty of a film that tries to parallel Mormons with militant Islamic fundamentalists and portray Brigham Young as the original Osama Ben Laden, left me feeling bitter. I am told that this movie is the product of a Christian fundamentalist group, but why any religious sect would want to promote this kind of religious intolerance is beyond the scope of rational thought.

The movie tells the story of a wagon train carrying men, women and a lot of children (all of whom are devout Christians) from Missouri and Arkansas to California. Hungry and low on supplies they desire to camp in a Utah valley belonging to Jacob Samuelseon (Jon Voight), a Mormon bishop who believes everyone from the state of Missouri is complicit in the death of John Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church. Jacob allows the settlers to remain in his valley, all the better to arrange their massacre.

Jacob has two sons, Micah (played by Taylor Handley as someone who has been brainwashed by a religious cult leader) and Jonathan (Trent Ford). Pop's preachings apparently haven't swayed Jonathan as much as Micah because all it takes is one glance in the direction of Emily (Tamara Hope), one of the young ladies in the wagon train, and Jonathan is ready to forsake Utah and years and years of Mormon teachings for a Malibu cottage with his new found babe. So the first half of the movie is a sad reworking of the Romeo and Juliet story with a dash of "The Horse Whisperer" thrown in just so we really know just how fantastic and trusting and generous those folks in the wagon train are. (You've seen the bit a million times before: Jonathan tames the horse that couldn't be tamed and, in return, the settlers give him the horse.)

The second half of the movie deals with Brigham Young (Terence Stamp) ordering the massacre of the settlers and Jacob directing his minions, including his two sons, to carry it out.

The movie makes the claim that all the events it contains are "inspired" by actual events. I do know the actual massacre did take place on September 11, but the fact that the filmmakers dwell on this fact made me queasy. Carole Wang Schutter, who claims she was inspired by God to write this screenplay, told Aspen Times reporter Peter Fowler that people should "draw their own conclusions" about the date. I drew mine and it wasn't a pretty picture.

I also know that, contrary to what this film portrays, the LDS Church maintains historical evidence reveals Brigham Young played no role in the massacre.

The film has inspired its own conspiracy theorists. Roger Ebert, who hates the film as much as I, theorized it may be Hollywood's attempt to stop the presidential bid of Mormon Mitt Romney. I'm not buying that. This film will not change a rational person's mind on anything. It is nothing more than unpleasant attempt to inflame religious bigotry (there is one particularly distasteful scene in which Cain flips between Reverend Hudson [Daniel Libman] leading a prayer in the wagon train and Jacob claiming divine revelations to kill the Christians during a prayer service at his compund). This is not a subject we should be promoting in this or any other time.

Grade: F