Der_Schnibbler What a vile, disgusting piece of propaganda. No, not Christian propaganda. I have seen the comments from many folks here saying they were surprised the film did not end up preachy because it was a "Christian" film. I saw nothing of Christian indoctrination in it, or even Christianity at all. The role that religion does play in this film is almost in passing.What we have on first glance is a little girl's burden over a horrible accident involving her and her sister when they were younger. In a time before grief counselors and the "five stages of grief," people have their own ways of rationalizing and dealing with sorrow, some not all too healthy for those still left living.The film really promises to be beautiful. A really beautiful offering. And yet... we stick for this entire film for ONE HOUR and THIRTY-SIX MINUTES so that we can arrive to the "surprise" ending. The "shocking" revelation. The "appaling" truth. And what might that be? ***SPOILERS AHEAD*** ***SPOILERS AHEAD*** ***SPOILERS AHEAD*** What the entire film comes down to is a "dark secret" the community of Welsh immigrants hides. What, you ask?? Is it something relevant? NO. It all comes down to some idiotic, contrived, imbecilic hidden "past" which shows the newly arriving Welsh immigrants double-crossing those poor, accepting Indians and slaughtering them.Red alert! Evil white men on the prowl! I am so sick and tired of these pathetic one-sided anti-white portrayals of history. I cannot imagine any other country other than a Western one where films are made on a routine basis to disparage the very people at whom they are directed. (Then those same people, replete with unfounded "guilt," come here and vote down reviews like mine. Morons.)Throughout history people have committed atrocities on both sides on every continent. And yet, the writers of this film operate under the stupid assumption that we "white men" (as was so obviously pointed out in the film) are by now so fully conditioned to hating ourselves that even the most contrived portrayal of "white injustice" is enough to win us over and make us justify a now utterly destroyed film? What hogwash.This could've been a wonderful film. Instead it completely leads you on, making you think something deep and moving will happen, and instead you get liberal American history manure.Someone said they cried for this film's entire half hour? Huh? Stay away from this thing unless you are an easily led automaton.

jaredandjas This is a good film to watch. Although it has the low-budget feeling, it promotes a good message. It passes a good message, and shows a twist on traditional practices. Not your average movie, that contains sex or gore. The slow developing plot took a little bit to even figure out what the movie was about. The accents are a little off, i agree to that. But who honestly knows what the accents where back then. When everyone was moving west, it was a major culture collision. The only thing I would have changed was a more developing plot towards the ending. "The Dark Secret," didn't even come into play till the last minutes. No reference point what-so-ever to what it was actually was.

Franco-72 Liana Liberato did a fine piece of acting, given what she was supplied with. The accents used by the actors in this movie had me and my partner in stitches from laughing. We heard poor Irish, poor Welsh and poor Scottish accents, nearly every player in this 'movie' did a bit of each in the same sentence.The special effects were straightforward blue-screen backdrops they use on the local weather forecasts on television and just as believable. Landon has plastered his name on most bits of this in the credits, someone should have told him not to bother, this is a turkey of a movie with a capital T.The Christian theme to this was so poorly veiled only the most gullible will think it to be a message of God. Unless you are a relative of the cast, even if you are partially sighted and hard of hearing, do not assault your senses watching this film.

ncontrucci The mountainous setting was beautiful; the setting appropriately looked like the Appalachia Mountains and was actually filmed in Utah! The story followed Francine Rivers' novel fairly closely. It was a plausible story of how resistant people are to God's truth and how questionable traditions replace His truth. A clear gospel message was presented through Cadi's quest for forgiveness by the Sin Eater. Although disturbing, the flashback of brutal treatment of Native Americans did depict a compassionate little boy forced to participate in brutal acts by his father. This helped portray the character of Brogan Kai, the extremely harsh antagonist, and the reason for his authoritarian "rule" of the community of people living in this cove for the past generation. Would a 12-year old girl have the courage to push against customs and adults knowing the brutality and possible death she would face? One statement was made near the end of the film, "Cadi Forbes, God's hasn't given you a heart of fear," which helped make her actions seem possible. The characters were developed to such a degree to get across the Story's themes of isolation, rejection, desperation, authoritarian control, unquestioned obedience, fear vs truth, forgiveness, and salvation.