DVD Release Date: January 1, 2008
Theatrical Release Date: August 24, 2007
Rating: R (for violence)
Genre: Drama/Romance/Western
Run Time: 111 min.
Director: Christopher Cain
Actors: Jon Voight, Trent Ford, Tamara Hope, Lolita Davidovitch, John Gries, Terence Stamp
In 1857, on their way to California from Arkansas and Missouri, the Baker-Fincher wagon train made camp in Mountain Meadows, Utah. On September 11, the group was brutally attacked by a Latter Day Saint (Mormon) militia disguised as Indians. Several Paiute Indians joined the raid, which left 120 men, women and children dead.
Advertisement
The exact identity of the perpetrators—in particular, whether Brigham Young was actually involved—has been the subject of long debate. Eventually, a Mormon leader by the name of John D. Lee was convicted of ordering the massacre. He was put to death 20 years later at the site of the crime.
Writer-director Christopher Cain (Young Guns), father of Dean Cain (who plays Joseph Smith in the film), has plucked these events from history and transformed them into a memorial to the victims’ descendents (who are interviewed in one of the DVD extras). Unfortunately, however, it’s cliché after another.
Led by Jon Voight, as a melodramatic General Jacob Samuelson, the actors play one-dimensional characters who utter predictable lines. The emigrants are all portrayed as strong Christians who pray for their enemies; praise God for the Mormons; quote peaceful passages of Scripture; insist that judging is wrong; tolerate differences (including a pastor who has no problem with his daughter marrying a Mormon) and live happily together, without conflict. With the exception of one young widower, who is jealous—but who later becomes a hero—they are the picture of perfection.
The Mormons, on the other hand, are all religious fanatics. Excepting Samuelson’s young son Jonathan (Trent Ford), who falls in love with an emigrant pastor’s daughter (Tamara Hope), they are paranoid, secretive and consumed with anger against outsiders. Their leaders insist that their every whim—including polygamy—is the will of God. Brigham Young (Terence Stamp) had 27 wives; Samuelson, 18—not including the one he was forced to abandon to Brigham, who proclaimed that to be God’s almighty will as well.
The Mormons condemn all “gentiles” to Hell during their prayers and blindly obey their leaders, without question. None, save Jonathan, have any qualms about committing mass murder. Even the Indians are straw figures who follow the Mormon leaders, without question. Only John Gries, as Lee, shows a shred of nuance as the conflicted leader who carries out Samuelson’s deadly orders.