Romney steers clear of film on 1857 Mormon massacre

RENO -- GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney won't be in the audience as "September Dawn," a movie about the killing of 120 unarmed Arkansas pioneers by Mormon settlers in Utah in 1857, opens in many theaters Friday.

Romney, whose ancestors include Parley Pratt, a prominent Mormon murdered in Arkansas several months before the Sept. 11, 1857, massacre at Mountain Meadows, said, "No," when asked during an interview Wednesday whether he'd see the film.

"That was a terrible, awful act carried out by members of my faith," Romney added. "There are bad people in any church, and it's true of members of my church, too."

"I hope on average we're better than we would have been as a faith group by virtue of our religious teachings," he said. "But there certainly can be some extremes, some very bad people."

Romney noted that one man, John D. Lee, was executed for his role in the execution-style killings of men, women and children in a wagon train bound for California.

He also rejected the claim by some that Brigham Young, then the president of the Mormon church, shared direct responsibility for the attack.

"Of course not," Romney said.

The Mountain Meadows massacre is one of the darkest moments in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For nearly 150 years, the depth of the church's involvement has been debated in dozens of books by historians and by the descendants on both sides.

"September Dawn," an independent feature film from director Chris Cain, stars Jon Voight, Terence Stamp and Lolita Davidovich.

Cain has said he made the movie not to blame anybody but to show the consequences of religious fanaticism. He said the movie is not meant to offend or be a portrait of Mormons in general.

Cain co-wrote the screenplay with Carole Whang Schutter, weaving together historical accounts from nonfiction works and original Mormon sources, including Lee's confession, with a fictional love story between a girl from the wagon train and the son of the church leader who orchestrates the killings by the local militia.

Mormon church officials have termed the movie a work of fiction. The church, which erected a memorial on the massacre site in 1999, maintains that Young had no role in the event and in fact sent word through a messenger that the wagon train should pass undisturbed.

Mormon History Association spokesman Tom Kimball has said the film attempts to portray the slain pioneers as "probably pretty decent people." Past portrayals of the massacre suggested that the wagon train party led by Capt. Alexander Fancher "brought it on themselves," Kimball said.