Reception
The film has received mostly negative reviews and is considered to be controversial. It holds a 13% overall rating at the aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes as of February 6, 2008. September Dawn received a rare "zero stars" review from film critic Roger Ebert, who described it as "a strange, confused, unpleasant movie" unworthy of Voight's talents; the New York Post gave the movie an unusual 0/4. Justin Chang's review for Variety described it as, "not torture porn; it's massacre porn." Though he realized that the film was meant to draw parallels to the September 11 attacks, Chang remarked that the film does not "convey any insights into the psychology of extremism, aside from some choice moments in Voight's persuasively complex performance" and that it was "ultimately less interested in understanding its Mormon characters than in demonizing them"; the only praise he offered for the film went to the photography and location scouting done for the film.
However, the film did receive some more positive reviews. Ken Fox of TV Guide gave the film 2.5/4 stars saying the film "sheds some much-needed light on a 150-year-old crime." William Arnold of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer praised Jon Voight's portrayal of Bishop Samuelson stating the character had "a soft brutality that is all the more terrifying for its compassionate veneer." Ted Fry of The Seattle Times stated, "Religious and thematic issues aside, September Dawn is well-crafted as a revisionist Western with a message. If the message is muddled, there's plenty of literature to clear the facts — or to make the matter even more bewildering for those seeking truth."
The movie flopped financially, losing $9.9 million, and only remaining in nationwide release for two weeks.
Jon Voight was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor (along with Transformers, Bratz: The Movie and National Treasure: Book of Secrets).
Read more about this topic: September Dawn
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