Movie Review: "September Dawn" (Bum-mer!)

What a stunningly original premise for a movie:

A bunch of fanatical religious zealots hatch a plot to murder innocent Americans en masse, in a ruthless sneak attack.

The date? You guessed it:  September 11th--a date that has lived in infamy ever since the mid-19^th century, when an event recorded in history as the “Mountain Meadows Massacre” took place.

You can be forgiven if you were reminded of a different, more recent September 11^th. If you’re desperate enough for “entertainment” to consider buying a ticket to this flick, though, you can expect to re-experience many of those same emotions you felt watching kamikaze jihadis nose-dive airliners into skyscrapers six years ago—revulsion, horror, and a profound sense of hopelessness engendered by the depths to which human perversity can sink. Enjoy!

The victims of Mountain Meadows were 200+ members of an immigrant party making their way by wagon train through Southern Utah, seeking to start new lives in California.

The perpetrators were a group of Mormon church elders, led by one Bishop Haight (played by Jon Voight), ably assisted by his heinous henchman, John B. Lee, intent on wreaking vengeance on “gentiles” for the murder of Church founder Joseph Smith.

The film incorporates elements from a diverse selection of sources: Biblical lore (Cain and Abel), Shakespearean drama (Romeo and Juliet), and even “The Horse Whisperer”. This movie leaves the pastoral countryside strewn with more corpses than anything Shakespeare ever envisioned though—including a little girl taken down with a tomahawk between the shoulder-blades, and more than one young woman drilled expertly through the heart. Not exactly uplifting fare, to say the very least.

In conclusion, if you’re on a diet, and looking for a way to lose your appetite, or you're in the "manic"  phase of manic-depressive illness, seeking succor from that annoying euphoria,  have I got a movie for you.