Fanatics and a forgotten massacre - 'September Dawn' tells of a still-controversial 1857 attack attributed to members of the fledgling Mormon faith.
Depending upon which version of history you believe, the terrible events of Sept. 11 -- the wholesale massacre of innocent victims -- can be explained as either an act of war or the result of religious fanaticism taken to a horrible extreme.
But some might call it the "other" 9/11. On that day in 1857, in a remote quadrant of southeastern Utah territory, a wagon train consisting of 140 homesteaders -- men, women and children striking west for California from Arkansas -- were gunned down, bludgeoned and stabbed to death in an attack attributed to local Mormon militia.
Approaching the 150th anniversary of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, as this marginalized chapter of U.S. history has come to be known, modern Mormons in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints continue to struggle with its legacy. But "September Dawn," an independently financed historical drama that arrives in 1,000 theaters Friday, takes a critical view of the religious fundamentalism it presents as having precipitated the attack -- most controversially, the alleged influence of the Mormon leader referred to as the "American Moses," Brigham Young.
"September Dawn": An Aug. 19 Calendar section article about the movie "September Dawn" quoted Tom Kimball, a book review editor for the Mormon History Assn., as saying the film has been put on a "do not watch" list by Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officials. Kimball told The Times that Mormons who have seen the film have called it anti-Mormon and that this sent a strong message to Mormons not to see it. The church says it does not issue a "do not watch" list of movies.
"September Dawn": An Aug. 19 article about the movie "September Dawn" quoted Tom Kimball, a book review editor for the Mormon History Assn., as saying the film has been put on a "do not watch" list by Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officials. Kimball told The Times that Mormons who have seen the film have called it anti-Mormon and that this has sent a strong message to Mormons not to see it. The church says it does not issue a "do not watch" list of movies.
"September Dawn": An Aug. 19 Calendar section article about the movie "September Dawn" quoted Tom Kimball, a book review editor for the Mormon History Assn., as saying the film has been put on a "do not watch" list by Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officials. Kimball told The Times that Mormons who had seen the film had called it anti-Mormon and that this sent a strong message to Mormons not to see it. The church says it does not issue a "do not watch" list of movies.
Co-writer-director of "September Dawn" Christopher Cain dismisses the idea the movie puts a bad light on Mormonism, correlating the religious zealotry the film depicts with the clash of cultures that has led to America's "war on terror" and twin wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I don't have an agenda with the Mormon Church," Cain said. "What I do have is a theoretical view of how we can look at what's happening today."
"We live in a time where the news is dominated by the religious, fanatical world -- a time where a 20-year-old kid with his whole life ahead of him can walk onto a bus and blow himself up and war is being waged by a bunch of nut-cases 'over there.' Well, it happened here 150 years ago. I just saw this [movie] as an opportunity to look at how this happened in our own backyard -- and not that long ago."
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