“Messenger of Death”

Movie Review

An attempt by a water business to incite a family conflict among fundamentalist Mormons in order to seize the family's land for the firm is the subject of the American crime-action thriller movie Messenger of Death, starring Charles Bronson. J. Lee Thompson directed the motion picture.

Outside a rural Colorado home, kids are playing. Orville Beecham and his three wives are the owners. Two masked men in a truck arrive and wait for the kids to enter. They then murder the three mothers—all sisters—as well as the kids. Before the father, Orville returns to find his family murdered, the cops show up.

A Denver newspaper reporter named Garret Smith, played by Charles Bronson, arrives on the scene alongside the police chief, Barney Doyle, played by Daniel Benzali. When Barney received the call informing him of the killings, they were having lunch with wealthy local businessman Homer Foxx to discuss ways to get Barney elected mayor of Denver.

Garret reports about the massacre for the news. Orville is detained in a neighborhood jail "for his own protection." Orville is hesitant to speak with Garret but does admit that Willis Beecham, his father, might have been involved. Willis and his disciples reside on a compound. He is a polygamous conservative Mormon who has been excommunicated, just like his son and supporters. The prophet of the cult is Willis.

Willis claims to the journalist that he thinks his brother Zenas Beecham killed Orville's family. An ideological disagreement has alienated Willis and Zenas from one another.

Jastra Watson, a local journalist, assists Garret as she launches an inquiry into the possibility that Zenas is responsible for the deaths. On a sizable property located on an artesian lake that a significant company, The Colorado Water Company, has long desired, Zenas resides in a different Colorado county. According to Zenas, who claims that Willis preaches blood atonement, Willis most likely murdered the family of his own son. An avenging angel, which is said to be an early Mormon symbol with a doctrinal equivalent expressing the idea of blood atonement, serves as both brothers' emblem.

As soon as Orville is let out of prison, he goes back to his father's estate and makes plans to kill Zenas in retribution. Despite Garret's best efforts, Zenas is already too late. Each man is backed by armed men who then start firing. After Garret persuades them to agree to a truce, Zenas—who is not one of the followers—is shot by an outsider, and the gunfire resumes. Both Zenas and Willis pass away. Garret understands what is going on and that The Colorado Water Company is the culprit. In order to kill Orville's family, the corporation has hired John Solari and Gene Davis, a junior partner, and is relying on the rivalry between the brothers to take care of the remaining members.

The junior assassin approaches Garret to strike a deal, but the senior assassin kills his companion. It comes out that Foxx, the billionaire attempting to elect the police chief as mayor, is the one who hired the assassin. At a Foxx-hosted fundraiser for Doyle, the assassin makes an attempt to murder Garret. Gaining the upper hand, the reporter persuades the assassin to admit that Foxx was the one who committed all of the murders. Foxx murders himself after taking the chief's gun.

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