Cain and Schutter concoct a faux star-crossed young lovers tale to personalize the mayhem.

| May 26, 2020

The villainous turns by Jon Voight (as a hard-hearted Mormon bishop) and Terence Stamp (as a bloodthirsty Brigham Young) would have been more fun if they weren't part of such a clumsy campaign to lay this tragedy at the church's doorstep.

| Dec 3, 2007

Predictable, obvious, often silly.

| Original Score: 0.5/4 | Nov 8, 2007

Drama may benefit from attention to history, but history doesn't always make for good drama.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Oct 16, 2007

Contriving a faux Romeo and Juliet romance as a point of entry for the audience shows how unimaginative the filmmakers are, and how blandly and uninvolving it plays shows how fairly clueless they are in going about their game plan.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 5, 2007

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Sep 1, 2007

Muddled, sloppy, and obfuscating.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 31, 2007

For all the guns fired in the film, [director] Cain aims the largest one at his foot-and pulls the trigger again and again.

| Aug 30, 2007

The workmanlike craftsmanship of Cain's filmmaking almost (but never quite) smooths over the ham-fisted way he conceives the story.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 30, 2007

An already thin veneer of historical truth wears off fairly quickly in this surprisingly dull and melodramatic low-budget western.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Aug 30, 2007

There was another 9/11 horror. But it happened 150 years ago.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 29, 2007

A plodding and highly questionable history lesson.

| Original Score: D | Aug 29, 2007

It's a toss-up as to whether September Dawn is more offensive as history, as allegory or simply as lousy self-important filmmaking.

| Original Score: .5/5 | Aug 29, 2007

With its complete lack of empathy for early Mormons and simplistic rendering of historical figures, September Dawn is that rare movie that actually deserves whatever condemnation might come from religious groups.

| Original Score: D | Aug 27, 2007

The director's overreaching attempts at social commentary with hackneyed devices weaken the veracity of the source material and leave the film open to interpretation as propaganda.

| Original Score: C- | Aug 26, 2007

Often gripping and fascinating, it's bound to create waves of controversy.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 25, 2007

An asinine chunk of Mormonsploitation that mixes historical fact with fictional romance and bald-faced anti-Mormon prejudice.

| Original Score: D | Aug 24, 2007

For all its cinematic weaknesses, I left the theatre weeping. "Now you know how I feel when I see holocaust films," my Jewish husband told me gently as he wiped away my tears.

| Aug 24, 2007

Religious and thematic issues aside, September Dawn is well-crafted as a revisionist Western with a message.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 24, 2007

The maudlin, grotesque western September Dawn apes Schindler's List in hopes of creatinga Christian Holocaust picture.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Aug 24, 2007