September Dawn
Black Diamond Pictures | Release Date: August 24, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
25
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
6
Negative:
11

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
40
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Shot in a style that might be termed Americana gravitas, September Dawn has the ham-fisted lyricism of political ads and pharmaceutical commercials. The schematic script is further burdened with heavy ironies and hackneyed dialogue. Read full review
40
VarietyJustin Chang
The didactic presentation, grim speechifying and tacked-on love story all signify a less-than-healthy regard for the audience's intelligence. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
It's a soap opera posing as moral outrage. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
The cruel simplicity of the atrocity is made needlessly chaotic by artless camerawork that swishes rapidly back and forth across the action, to the accompaniment of a syrupy soundtrack. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterLuke Sader
Cain has crafted a modest picture, filmed in Canada, that too often feels like a very elaborate episode of "Gunsmoke." Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Most significant and contrary to the Mormon Church's ongoing position, the film depicts Young as present when the plot is hatched to slaughter the emigrants. Needless to say, this workmanlike but unflinching film won't be playing in Utah anytime soon. Read full review
0
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
What a strange, confused, unpleasant movie this is. Two theories have clustered around it: (1) It is anti-Mormon propaganda to muddy the waters around the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, or (2) it is not about Mormons at all, but an allegory about the 9/11/01 terrorists. Take your choice. The problem with allegories is that you can plug them in anywhere. No doubt the film would have great impact in Darfur. Read full review
38
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
September Dawn, written by an evangelical Christian, may be the worst historical drama ever made. Read full review
0
New York PostKyle Smith
Succeeds completely at failure; the unified incompetence of its writing, directing and acting suggest a man who manages to be on fire and drowning at the same time, just as the bus runs him over. Read full review
0
The New York TimesMatt Zoller Seitz
The maudlin, grotesque western September Dawn, about the massacre on Sept. 11, 1857, of about 120 settlers by Mormons (and their Paiute Indian mercenaries), apes "Schindler’s List" in hopes of creating a Christian Holocaust picture. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesMark Olsen
A rare case in which one can't help but wish the film were somehow worse than it is, for it would then be easier to dismiss outright. Jon Voight's turn as a fictional local Mormon leader and, in particular, Terence Stamp's performance as Brigham Young have a strange, unnerving conviction about them, and give the film an oddly engaging pull. Read full review
38
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Filmmaker Christopher Cain has turned a national tragedy into a teen romance, and not in a grand, entertaining, "Titanic" way. Read full review
33
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
A ham-fisted cautionary tale of religious fanaticism that would have been hooted out of even 19th-century theaters as melodrama of the most lurid kind. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The movie isn't THAT bad -- it's just made-for-TV historical treacle that has somehow found its way to the big screen (and barely that; if you want to be moved or outraged by the film, you'll have to travel to Danvers or Revere). Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubSteven Hyden
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. Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The audience gets the message (religious fanaticism: bad), but nothing we see is convincing on its own. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Muddled, sloppy, and obfuscating. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
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. Read full review
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