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September Dawn is a 2007 film by Christopher Cain, released on August 24, 2007. It sets a fictional love story against a historical interpretation of an actual tragedy of the Mountain Meadows massacre of September 11, 1857, when a wagon train of emigrants is attacked by a small group of Mormon militiamen and members of the Paiute tribe; more than 120 men, women, and children were killed.¹

x201D;September Dawn” graphically dramatizes the controversial real-life massacre of 120 men, women and children traveling through Utah in the nineteenth century. The Mountain Meadows Massacre, as it is known, occurred on September 11, 1857, and was the first known act of religious terrorism on U.S. soil.²

Set against the breathtaking beauty of the Utah mountains, September Dawn explores what might have happened when the ill-fated settlers stopped near Cedar City to rest before completing the last leg of their journey. Local Mormon Bishop Jacob Samuelson (Voight) is suspicious of the group, so he dispatches his oldest son Jonathan (Ford) to spy on them.³

The first half of September Dawn dwells on the Romeo And Juliet-style romance between Ford and Hope, and resembles one of those gentle made-for-TV family Westerns that air on the Hallmark Channel. But eventually, the film’s air of inoffensive tranquility is worn down by the heavy-handed evilness of the psychotic Mormon leadership, represented by Voight and Terence Stamp, who plays Brigham Young like he played General Zod in Superman II.⁴