Quite Good

DianaMEP

No, this isn't the best movie ever made. No, it's not the best mini-series ever, as some of the other reviewers state, but it's darned good.

I am a big fan of historical fiction and Michener does an excellent job of weaving fictional characters into accurate history.

The storyline entitled "The Massacre" was difficult to watch, but after having read authentic accounts of some of the ways the Native Tribes were treated, it's a story that needs to be told.

I enjoyed the characters and how they lived, grew, and gained wisdom and experience during their lifetimes. Most of the character development was quite good, and only a few were one-dimensional. Several major characters just disappeared from the series and we have no idea of their fate, but I wrote this off as lack of time for detail in a visual medium. I imagined they were dealt with more thoroughly in the book but don't know for sure since I haven't read it yet. I liked getting to know these characters and missed them when they died.

What I'd like to know is who on earth wrote the last episode? It was terrible! Surely James Michener was on sabbatical at the time. It was inconsistent with the character development and quality of plot of the earlier episodes. We are slapped in the face with cliche's, plastic characters, unbelievable story lines, very bad acting, and sophomoric sentiments. I wholeheartedly agree with earlier reviews that the final episode should have been with Lynne Redgrave teaching her young grandson (and paraphrasing an American Indian adage), that "Only the land lives forever."

This mini-series should live forever and the final episode should be buried forever, even longer than Soren Sorenson's body. Skip that final episode. You won't miss a thing.

score 8/10

DianaMEP 27 December 2018

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw4537513/