Yes this film was based on a fictitious figure yet cannot be written off as untrue. There was an organization known as the Danites and no Joseph Smith did not immediately disband them and condemn them, in fact, he attended some of the meetings. He did disband them once he saw the true scope of activities and he excommunicated the band leader Joseph Avaard, however, Orrin Porter Rockwell, who is portrayed in the movie, was indeed a member of the Danites and was Joseph and Brigham's personal body guard. I feel the movie was more about Porter than Miles Utley and Bill Hickman was also real. In fact, Miles was about the only character who was made up. The attempts against Brigham's life were real and the internal leadership struggles were real. The Mountain Meadow Massacre is a perfect example of the type of nervous hair trigger leadership that prevailed in the early days of the church after the martyrdom of the prophet and the cowardly murder of P.P.Pratt in Arkansas. Though Grigham was exonerated for the attack on the Arkansas wagon train, the crime was perpetrated by leaders of the local church concerned about the wagon train proceeding to California, raising a militia and returning bent on sacking the outlying Mormon communities. They mercilessly murdered men women and children thinking the general leadership would condone the act but were seriously flawed in their judgment. This movie gives us a glimpse into the paranoid mentality of the epoch and I think it is well worth the time to watch.
Review of The Avenging Angel
