“Johova created me to be your god on earth!” – John Voight as Jacob Samuelson.That was 150 years ago and the carnage, now known as The Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857 is reenacted in a controversial new film called “September Dawn” starring Jon Voight.
Voight also starred in John Singleton's "Rosewood," a 1997 film about another massacre of a mostly all-black Florida township in 1923. But in "September Dawn" Voight plays no well-meaning white man. In fact he plays a character named Jacob Samuelson who says he has been "ordered" to kill the pioneers.
The movie embraces the position that it was Brigham Young, then head of the Church of Latter Day Saints, who ordered the attack. However, historians fiercely disagree over that fact. The Mormon Church also takes that position, but it does not deny that the church was not involved in the killings and as such, has built a monument to the massacre.
The filmmakers say they have no axe to grind with Mormons but they do draw parallels to modern day Islamic fanaticism. Strangely coincidental, the Mountain Meadows Massacre occurred on September 11.
And what does today’s most popular Mormon, Mitt Romney, say about the film? “I don’t do movie reviews” his office responds.