28 April 2008 | joposa

6 | Chilling, heart-breaking, but how much is fact?

First, let me say the movie is very entertaining and enjoyable to watch. If you watch it without regard to the real history of the horrific event the film portrays, it's a great film, and should have been nominated for Best Picture.



Having said that, it is difficult to separate fact from fiction. What we know for certain is that there was a diabolical attack on a wagon train in the area known as Mountain Meadows in the Utah Territory on September 11, 1857. We can say with confidence that Mormons were involved. To what degree, and to what level in the LDS hierarchy, remains a matter of dispute. The LDS church today insists that Brigham Young had no advance knowledge of the attack, though most historians say that at the least his rhetoric contributed to the atmosphere that led to it.



Jon Voight is very convincing (he should have been nominated for Best Actor) as the diabolical, yet pious Mormon Bishop. Trent Ford is great as the Bishop's dissenting son, Jonathan, whose heart is with the "emigrants", and his presence provides the film with a Mormon protagonist. Tamara Ford is equally fine as his "Gentile" lover. That part of the movie we know is fictional, but the movie makers intend for the rest to be taken at face value. This is born out by the special features included on the DVD, which contain commentaries and interviews with people, descendants of the Baker-Fancher party, and historians who believe the Mormon Church was responsible from Brigham Young on down. Perhaps we will never know exactly whether Young was directly responsible.



My theory is that this film is actually a well-disguised attack on, not Mormon, but Islamic radicalism. Instead of Osama Bin Laden, we have Brigham Young, and the bishop. The fact that both attacks occurred on September 11 may be a coincidence, but I believe the makers were discouraged from making an all-out attack on radical Islam by one, four letter *F* word: FEAR. You can attack Mormonism and escape with nothing more to fear than criticism and bad reviews. If you attack Islam, you will need police protection. That is why you will continue to see films that attack Christianity, and never one that takes radical Islam to task. No one wants to share the fate of Theo Van Gogh, the Dutch film director who was brutally murdered for directing an anti-Islam documentary.