Review: Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Reviews

September Dawn

A descent into caricatures

By ADAM REILLY | August 22, 2007

1.5 Stars

VIDEO: Watch the trailer for September Dawn.

In the Mountain Meadows massacre, which took place in the Utah Territory in 1857, 120 California-bound settlers were murdered by Mormon militiamen and their Indian allies. There’s still disagreement over whether the killings had the imprimatur of Mormon leader Brigham Young (Terence Stamp), but director Christopher Cain lays the blame squarely at Young’s feet. Fair enough — this isn’t a documentary. The film’s descent into caricature is less tolerable: the settlers are a wholesome bunch, whereas the Mormons led by Bishop Jacob Samuelson (Jon Voight) are horror-movie villains. The massacre’s historical context (the Mormon retreat to Utah, advancing US troops) gets short shrift; instead, we watch hero/Mormon dissident (Trent Ford) whisper to an unruly stallion and woo Emily Hudson (Tamara Hope), the spunky settler who steals his heart. The violence, when it comes, is shot in slow, luxuriant detail that feels almost pornographic.

Related: Where is the love - side, Review: Yes Man, Pride and Glory, More

Topics: Reviews , Culture and Lifestyle, Religion, Christianity, More

| More

ARTICLES BY ADAM REILLY

BULLY FOR BU! | March 12, 2010
After six years at the Phoenix , I recently got my first pre-emptive libel threat. It came, most unexpectedly, from an investigative reporter. And beyond the fact that this struck me as a blatant attempt at intimidation, it demonstrated how tricky journalism's new, collaboration-driven future could be.

STOP THE QUINN-SANITY! | March 03, 2010
The year is still young, but when the time comes to look back at 2010's media lowlights, the embarrassing demise of Sally Quinn's Washington Post column, "The Party," will almost certainly rank near the top of the list.

RIGHT CLICK | February 19, 2010
Back in February 2007, a few months after a political neophyte named Deval Patrick cruised to victory in the Massachusetts governor's race with help from a political blog named Blue Mass Group (BMG) — which whipped up pro-Patrick sentiment while aggressively rebutting the governor-to-be's critics — I sized up a recent conservative entry in the local blogosphere.

RANSOM NOTES | February 12, 2010
While reporting from Afghanistan two years ago, David Rohde became, for the second time in his career, an unwilling participant rather than an observer. On October 29, 1995, Rohde had been arrested by Bosnian Serbs. And then in November 2008, Rohde and two Afghan colleagues were en route to an interview with a Taliban commander when they were kidnapped.

POOR RECEPTION | February 08, 2010
The right loves to rant against the "liberal-media elite," but there's one key media sector where the conservative id reigns supreme: talk radio.