Good start, but then it gets ruined

Admirable film.

Absolutely brilliant

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

First, the good: The movie was well acted and the settings were excellent. The subject matter is very interesting and historically valuable. This is why I can rank it a 2. But, the good really ends there. The wagon train traveling through Mormon Territory is portrayed as honest, humble, righteous, God-fearing people in need of support for their journey to California. In contrast, the Mormons are portrayed as lying, evil hypocrites who are easily identified by their ominous black clothing! Everyday Mormon members are portrayed as innocent dupes of evil local Mormon clergy. Seriously! While the Mormon Bishop is nice to the wagon train in person, he is bent on their destruction when with his community.The historical record and reality of the Mountain Meadows Massacre is easily available to all who are interested and clearly shows a much different and far more nuanced story. This film is nothing more than anti-Mormon propaganda. This is very unfortunate as this impact-full event, even if told from a perspective unfriendly to Mormon people, should have relied more on the historical record and should have reached for honest, historical accuracy. This story needs to be told and this movie had the potential to do that and do it well! However, the writer or writers obviously used this tragedy as an excuse to make an anti-Mormon film. What's worse, the film is an insult to the Baker–Fancher emigrant wagon train members who perished. I'm sure they would not want their tragedy to be used in such a demeaning an irresponsible manner. Their lives and deaths deserve much more than this.

I honestly can't say why this film doesn't rate higher than a 5.6 because it is certainly better than this score indicates. Now, I realize that it doesn't paint a pretty picture of the Mormon movement during this time period. But the fact is that this terrible event actually happened and pretending that the Paiute Indians were the only culprits involved simply doesn't wash. Likewise, the fact is that we may never know what Brigham Young knew--or when he knew it. God knows. And that's what is ultimately most important anyway. Be that as it may, while this film does capture some historical facts the director (Christopher Cain) and the writers also added some fictional scenarios quite liberally as well. For example, there is a love scene thrown in that clearly never happened. But it makes for good viewing and that's what typically matters most to Hollywood. That said, although I certainly don't wish to diminish the horrible crimes committed at Mountain Meadow, I also don't want to tarnish everyone belonging to the Mormon faith either. So for the sake of brevity I will just say that this was a very good movie with good acting which managed to keep my attention throughout the entire story. But this isn't an historical documentary and so it shouldn't be confused for one. In short, this is definitely worth a watch for those who can appreciate a film of this nature. I'll leave it at that.

I must commend the stark reality portrayed in this movie.One has to remember that the Mormon church has always had shifting teachings, values & morals. Their stance, as portrayed for this time period, was that their "prophet" spoke directly from God (just as the Islamists claim that Mohammed spoke directly from their god, Allah). While there have been, and can be, those who prophesy what the Lord has given them, Christians have never created a whole religion around any of them. That is the key difference between Christianity & cults like the Mormons.This movie shows the terrible rift between Mormons & actual Christians & how, when man is involved, such a rift can end in bloody tragedy. The mere fact that the LDS group moved with such deception against the wagon train is proof enough of the waywardness of their stance.It is, indeed, a shame that one person was made the scapegoat of this whole affair, while his own father & the elders of their sect refuse to help him. Again, this is illustrative of the heart of this particular cult.I commend the son who attempted to stop the massacre. Although unsuccessful, his attempt was honest & properly motivated. His disillusionment was his own, personal greatest tragedy.

This film doesn't purport to be historically accurate, as far as I know, so I am not going to comment on the way the producers used the history except to say that it reminds me of The DaVinci Code applied to Mormons. Film makers have been using Catholics for years to make their points about religion. Now it's the Mormons' turn, I guess. Aside from that, I would like to point out that the dialogue is sophomoric and often laughable, the plot is predictable and sentimentalist, and the acting is pretty atrocious for the most part. The camera work is quite nice in places. I would have liked to see more landscapes. It would have relieved the boredom. Funny thing. This film reminded me of the LDS Church's docu-dramas. That was amusingly ironic. This movie is pretty much a fail in my view. It would be a fail no matter what the historical subject was.