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PLOT:
It's 1857 and a group of settlers led by Captain Fancher (SHAUN JOHNSTON) are headed from Arkansas and Missouri through Utah on their way to California. There, they plan on bringing horse racing to the miners, but currently need a place to rest as well as feed their horses and other livestock.
They get a curt reception, however, by six horsemen, led by John D. Lee (JON GRIES), who are part of an elite security detail enlisted by the Mormon church to keep immigrants at bay and reduce any sort of outside influence on their strict religious lifestyle. After checking them out with his young adult sons Jonathan (TRENT FORD) and Micah (TAYLOR HANDLEY), however, local leader Bishop Jacob Samuelson (JON VOIGHT) decides to give the seemingly innocuous settlers a two-week stay.
While settler Nancy Dunlap (LOLITA DAVIDOVICH) doesn't think that's a good idea as she has bad vibes about Jacob and his clan, young Emily Hudson (TAMARA HOPE) is thrilled. While she cares for the young child of widower Robert Humphries (HUNTLEY RITTER), she's taken an instant liking to Jonathan, and the feeling is mutual. Ordered by his father to watch the strangers, and with the race horses as a natural in, Jonathan spends time with the settlers.
The fact that some of them are from Missouri, however, doesn't sit well with Jacob or Mormon leader Brigham Young (TERENCE STAMP) who remember when people from that state attacked them and killed their former leader, Joseph Smith. Accordingly, and interpreting the Bible through their Mormon faith, they decide they must get rid of these strangers who they view as amoral and beneath them.
OUR TAKE: Coming Soon
Black Diamond Pictures did not screen "September Dawn" for critics before it opened, so we're still working on the final review.
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