1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:
September Yawn...
Fozzie01 from ,
10th October, 2009
Oh dear, oh dear. I was so looking forward to this movie. Jon Voight and Terence Stamp are extremely capable actors, and I had high expectations. Sadly, my expectations were dashed in the early stages of the film, and never really recovered. It’s always a bit worrying, when a film that opens with the words “inspired by actual events” places at its core a completely fictitious character. The Bishop Samuelson character, played by Jon Voight, is entirely fictitious, although there are suggestions that he is a composite character loosely based on several actual individuals. If this character is fictitious or, at best, a composite character, then, surely his two sons depicted in the film must also be fictitious. As one, or more, of these characters is central to the majority of the film’s scenes, then the authenticity or, certainly, the accuracy of the film must be brought into question. Was there a massacre of approximately 120 men women and children at the site of Mountain Meadows on 11 September 1857? Yes there was. Were Mormon settlers of the Utah Territory involved in that massacre? Yes, without a doubt. These are the facts, but, for me at least, it seems that there are too many unknowns about the lead up to the massacre, and the actual involvement of specific individuals, to warrant a film of this nature. I suppose that my main concern is that, as with so many other “historical dramas”, there is a danger that movie audiences may accept what they see, without question, making films such as this very dangerous indeed. Although, clearly, the massacre of innocent men, women and children is inexcusable, any attempt to portray the reasons for, and the thinking behind, the massacre needs to be approached with caution and considered within a wider context. The movie’s obsession with “blood atonement” and the ‘Jihadist’ nature of the attack (the film’s publicity in the US relied heavily on the fact that the massacre occurred on September 11th) is far too simplistic an approach, as there were clearly many, many, other factors that, if considered within the film at all, were over simplified. For example, the film suggests, briefly, that the Mormon “hatred” of the Missourians was based purely upon the treatment of the former leader of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith (who was actually killed in Illinois, but artistic license provides an opportunity for the Director’s son, Superman - Dean Cain, to take on a terribly miscast role during some very poorly filmed flashback scenes). It fails to mention, or glosses over, the full extent of the murders and atrocities that were a part of the experience of many of the Mormon settlers in Missouri and the fact that some 10,000 Mormons were driven from that State, many of them by force, following the issue of Governor Bogg’s “extermination order”. Neither does the film address the general unease, and lack of trust, felt by the Mormon settlers, who, at the time of the events depicted in the film, were fully aware of an approaching Army of 2,500 troops, dispatched by President Buchanan, to forcibly restore the Utah Territory to US control. These, and other issues, are mentioned at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Meadows_mass acre, a good starting point for a basic understanding of the time. I’m not trying to defend the atrocity of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Such acts cannot be defended, but they should, at least, be understood, in context, and this film does little to provide any real understanding. It portrays the members of the Baker-Fancher as a smiling Gospel Choir, and the Mormons as the bloodthirsty forerunners to the Nazi Party. History is rarely so clear cut, and the makers of this film have clearly abandoned the complexities of history in favour of sensationalism. On the whole, the film is poorly conceived, poorly researched, poorly written, poorly directed, poorly acted, poorly edited, riddled with inaccuracies and assumptions and, ultimately, a very poor lesson in history. Considering those involved in its making, I had expected so much more, but there is absolutely nothing that can redeem this poor excuse for a film…not even the addition of a completely unbelievable love story.
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