American Primeval took some serious risks in its depiction of life in the Utah Territory. The six-episode miniseries follows several pioneers and Native Americans as they clash in a real-life war over Utah. The show primarily takes place in 1857, and it was written by Mark L. Smith (Twisters) and directed by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights). It depicts extremely violent battles, which often devolve into outright massacres. All six episodes were released on Netflix on January 9, and they are currently available on the platform.
After the show premiered, Berg spoke with Collider about the reality of one particular conflict: The Mountain Meadows Massacre. Berg explained that the attack was a real-world battle and that the Mormon Church recognizes that it was a true event. Rather than glossing over the event, Berg and Smith planned to use it to showcase the “rawness, the brutality, and the immediacy“ of human cruelty. Check out his full and in-depth explanation below:
One of the themes Mark L. Smith and I wanted to explore was man’s inherently violent nature. Certainly, if you go back to the origins of this country and start studying and documenting the history of violence committed by humans upon humans up to the present day that we’re living in today, and certainly from the origin story of America and other countries — almost all of them — we are a violent species. The reasons for this violence are hard to define, but certainly, fear is a big one, and a desire for humans to bond with their own group and to protect themselves from perceived threats. That was sort of a theme of the show. That then led to some of the violent altercations that you see in the show. We wanted to present that violence in a very unfiltered, unglamorous way. We wanted to capture as much as we could of the rawness, the brutality, and the immediacy of this violence.
The Mountain Meadows Massacre, which is the event that you’re referring to, which occurs in the first episode, is a real event. It was a mass murder that was committed by Mormons against pioneers from Arkansas. The Mormons had involved some different members of an Indian tribe and manipulated, I believe, that tribe into participating in this massacre. It’s been documented. It’s been owned by the Mormon Church. There’s a monument that I attended where the Meadows Massacre happened in southern Utah that the Mormon Church built. It’s a horrible crime that really did occur. We present it, and the one thing I would add to it is that we don’t present it in a vacuum. We try to explain to the audience how tensions got this elevated, why something like this was able to happen, and folks were able to get this angry and feel this threatened by each other, leading to something really catastrophic, which was the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
What The Massacre Meant For American Primeval
The Massacre Revealed The Cruelty Of Humanity
If American Primeval was meant to capture the reality of life in the early days of the Utah Territory, then it would have been difficult to accomplish without depicting the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The conflict initially began when the United States government attempted to expel some of the Mormon influence, which led to a full-scale war. While American Primeval did feature some major changes, as its main characters were fictional, it did depict the brutal massacre honestly. The action, setting, and widespread suffering all were historically accurate.
The Mountain Meadows Massacre took place on September 11, 1857.
It was still a risk to depict the massacre so brutally. After all, the response from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been mixed through the decades. Members of the Mormon Church today acknowledge the Massacre and have attempted to offer some atonement, but that does not limit the risk. The exact events remain somewhat disputed, as do the causes of the battle. A show primarily dedicated to controversial historical events is inevitably risky, even if the show depicted those events well.
Our Take On American Primeval’s Massacre
Including The Massacre Was Educational
The risk did not necessarily pay off for the Netflix show. While audiences enjoyed the show, granting an 87% Popcornmeter score on Rotten Tomatoes, critics disagreed. It has a 59% Tomatometer score, with critics arguing that American Primeval‘s various factions are underdeveloped and unlikable. The massacre itself was extremely educational and well done in raising awareness of this event, but Berg may have put too little effort into other scenes. It certainly depicted the horrors of humanity, but the rest of the show needed more focus.
In many ways, the issues came because the show began with the massacre so early. Had it focused on character development before the attack, it might have worked better. Instead, it spends much of its time on the aftermath. The characters needed more space to breathe before audiences were thrown into horror. The setting was fascinating and felt truly real, but the characters needed work.
Source: Collider