'Uintah United' follows a torturous route

OREM, Utah — The real tragedy in “Uintah United,” a film produced by Weber State University student Issac Goeckeritz and shown at the 8th LDS Film Festival 2009 on Jan. 15, is not that a school administrator shot a student in 1922 or that he was subsequently tried for first-degree murder. It is that this story is so badly told.It would make a great movie script. It makes a lousy documentary.In fact, it’s so poorly done, it’s torturous.The piece revolves around the story of Golden Kilburn (or Kilbourne, depending on which subtitle you believe), who came in and fixed things in the community of Uintah after a gang of troublemakers chased eight principals out of the school and pushed another into defending himself with a firearm.The biggest troublemaker was killed by Principal Marlow J. Christensen just before Kilburn came on the scene, and the town was deeply divided over the death. (Hence, “Uintah United?” Shouldn’t it be “Uintah Divided?”)Former KSL news anchor Dick Nourse narrates this 57-minute piece and oversells the script, which is thin at best.Just when you think it’s over, it begins again with a bunch of black-and-white historical photos and the retelling.There are a couple of moments when it looks like the story may move forward, but it sinks again before it can get going.It tries to be a story of hope and change, but it wanders around into a story about letters on the hillside and randomly becomes a story of the Boy Scouts — without any real foundation.Don’t throw away the story of Kilburn. He did remarkable things and rejuvenated a town that was in despair. He is a character with a story worth telling.This just doesn’t do it well at all.