Customer Reviews

The Donner Party

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This movie, with some moderately well-known actors in the cast, never seems to have had a general release before going to DVD. As such, and strictly speaking, it is not about the Donner Party itself, trapped high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains over the winter of 1847-47. The plot really focuses on an element of that party, who called themselves the Forlorn Hope, and made a desperate gamble to walk out of the mountains on snowshoes: They took sparingly of supplies, hoping to leave more for those remaining behind, and set out for the nearest settlement down in the foothills below. In this version of the story, the Forlorn Hope includes an older man, Franklin Graves (Mark Boone, Jr.) and his two daughters, William Eddy (Clayne Crawford) and his hired man, William Foster (Crispin Gover), the best hunter among the party, who left his own wife and child behind. Charles Stanton (Christian Kane) has come from Sutter's fort with a meager amount of supplies, and Louis, a Mexican-Indian muleteer: they will guide the rest of the party to safety - or so it is hoped. But their hopes slowly unravel, in the face of misery, starvation, madness - and murder.

Alas, this account is not strictly accurate in historical detail: There had been no food cached for them by Stanton, farther down the mountains. There was no drawing of lots, for one of the party to be killed in order to feed the rest - although it was discussed, at least once, according to survivors. There were two murders committed during the ordeal of the Forlorn Hope, but not in the way depicted in this account. The sense of despair, and the slow dissolving of so-called civilized norms are probably fairly accurate, as well as incidents such as Eddy's wife hiding a portion of dried meat in his pack, and of how he was able to bring down a deer to feed the survivors. Something of the bleakness of their experience is reflected in the colors - in that it seems there is barely any color at all. The snow is white, the trees seem black against the sky, their trunks are gray. The characters are dressed all in dark colors - seemingly only a splash of blood now and again makes any color at all.

I was actually quite interested in reviewing this DVD, having written a novel, about a pioneer wagon-train party being stranded under the same circumstances and in the same place - To Truckee's Trail - a party which proceeded the Donner Party by several years, but which survived their ordeal, and emerged from it with all members alive and in good health. So I watched this with a an especially critical eye for period detail - which was excellent. With regard to absolute historical fidelity, there were some liberties taken, as noted above. This is a movie which does manage to be psychologically accurate in relating a true story - but at the end, having put the characters and the audience through a wringer, concludes without any other resolution or insight other than having demonstrated what people are capable of doing to survive. Perhaps that was the point - but I would have liked to have been drawn into knowing a deeper knowledge about each character.

One final curiosity: "The Donner Party" was shot on location in and around Truckee, California, where the original Donner Party was stranded, and along the trail followed by the Forlorn Hope.

It's hard to come up with a single positive thing to say about this miserable, nasty film. It was shot at Truckee (Donner) Lake, but the photography is so mediocre that even this doesn't count for much.

As for the story: It doesn't merely "stray from the historical record," it invents malicious lies about people who deserve better. As one of many examples: In the film, Bill Eddy is depicted as a selfish hoarder who refuses to share with the rest of the suffering families. In fact, the opposite was true. Eddy's entire family died, in part because he foolishly shared food with people who, when the time came, did not reciprocate. Never mind that none -- not a meager few, but NONE, not even the least friendly -- of the historical records agree with this bizarre assassination of Eddy's character. Eddy is depicted as the paid leader of the party, when in fact his was merely one small family among nearly a dozen. This would not be significant, except that "Mr. Foster" (who is depicted as the financial and spiritual leader of "the Donner Party" for reasons never explained) berates Eddy for taking money to lead them and then causing the disaster of their entrapment in the Sierras.

Foster, of course, was a minor player, a son-in-law of one of the older women, not the central figure of the group. The film goes on at great length about Eddy's refusal to share a cabin with the "Fosters" (actually the Murphys) when in fact Eddy DID share a cabin with them. But that's only the beginning, as far as twisting the facts is concerned. The Donners, the Reeds, and the Breens, making up 70% of the camp population and the real leadership, are simply not present in the film (except for one reference to the "30 people" left behind at "the Donner camp"). Will McCutcheon and Milt Elliot (two singularly different people) get conflated into one character, and then killed off in his first scene. Eddy finally makes it to help by abandoning the rest, who end up killing each other in a squabble.

So it's fiction, tricked out with historical names for no discernible reason. As fiction, it doesn't fare much better than as history. The viewer is faced with some problems that didn't need to be there. First, the cobbled-up "cabins" that we see from the outside (one appears to be bedsheets on a clothesline), turn out to have interiors that would have been spacious living quarters in the era, complete with tables, lamps, and dinnerware. Second, in the spirit of casting perversity, the characters are all plump, round-faced, and obviously well-fed (and at least three of the men appear to have made their careers on the strength of their resemblance to William Peterson), so the jawing about hunger is no more convincing than Mrs. Quayle's appeal to her missing lunch. For reasons no one explains, the "Forlorn Hope" carries the snowshoes they made so laboriously instead of wearing them; no, I did not make that up. There is one brief scene, a few seconds long, around the middle of the hour-long depiction of the trek, in which they wear them. However, they do frequently use them as walking sticks. And the "handmade" snowshoes, by the way, are beautifully crafted top-of-the-line REI specials.

Of course, the "money shot" in the story is the cannibalism (which is, frankly, the least interesting element of the real story of the Donner Party), and they even manage to botch that. The moment they run out of food, someone says, "Well, I guess we'll have to eat each other," and they immediately begin working out the details. The tone is almost, "Well, I'M not missing lunch!!" Suffice it to say that the details end up being a brave soul marching out into the snow so another brave soul can shoot him. Then a character who borders on obese (who cast this thing?) kills himself to add to the ham stock. By the time they get to "Sutter Fort" (they can't even get that right), they have killed four members of the party and chewed on some chunks of what looks like thawed chicken breast. We should be grateful, probably, that the producers couldn't afford "special effects."

Watching this film, with its dopey, stilted dialog (everyone refers to everyone as "Mr." and "Mrs.", even while chowing down on the addressee's spouse), its bizarre culture fantasies (on at least three occasions, husbands put their uppity wives in their place, once with the threat of a backhand, and the group spends as much time praying as they do marching), the cheesy cost-cutting (there is no blizzard, and the snow is at most a few feet deep), and its garish insincerity (much is made of the common humanity of the Indian "Louis," but the actor playing him is not listed in the credits!), I have to think that "straight to disc" is too good for it. What were they thinking?

The obvious approach for a film about THE DONNER PARTY, one of the most infamous stories of deadly misadventure in American history, would be horror. But in T.J. Martin's THE DONNER PARTY, the historic event gets a well deserved dramatic approach that makes it all the more unsettling. Like most dramatic retellings, the ultimate end is known, but the journey, quite literally in this case, is more important than the end result. Martin's screenplay is a thriller focusing on the psychological ordeal of starvation and extreme weather. Martin takes liberties creating dramatic tension between members of the party, but otherwise the story is painstakingly accurate. Film at the actual Donner Pass in only 12 days, the stark beauty of a seemingly tranquil winter forest is countered with the increasing desperation only those on the brink of survival can feel. Personal conflicts are barely kept in check, and facades slowly start to wear the longer the party goes without provisions. It seems everyone has the eyes of a villain, and is trying to figure out who might turn on the rest. It's an impressive feat considering most of the action is either walking, or sitting around a fire, requiring the actors to emote their desperation with gravitas. The cannibalism is not glorified; everyone conveys a mixture of disgust and desperation in the few scenes where flesh is eaten. While the entire cast does a respectable job, and Crispin Glover is refreshingly cast against type, the standout performance is by Mark Boone, Jr. Boone (BATMAN BEGINS, MEMENTO) is usually typecast as a thug. But in THE DONNER PARTY he is the moral compass of the story, and does it well. In a pivotal moment, with very few words and tight camera work, Boone steals the movie.

Don't waste your time or money on this terrible movie. I was really looking forward to the release of this movie and what a disappointment it is! It starts out with the pioneers already stranded in the mountains. You never even see the Donners or their camp. I have read multiple accounts of the actual tragedy and what takes place in this movie is not even close to the real story as told by the survivors and historians. As if the true story wasn't horrific and dramatic enough, they have to fictionalize it and try to make it even worse. There was nothing redeeming about this movie in my opinion. I think the final insult is at the end when it is dedicated to the Donner Party.

I can't assess the historical accuracy, but the acting is mostly pretty strong. The environment and situation are harrowing, to say the least; the snow and the hunger will make you feel cold and famished as you watch the film. This is a good depiction of the desperate measures that people will resort to when they have no other recourse. Crispin Glover practically becomes a human vulture, waiting for the next person to fall sick and die since he knows what he can do with the body and is determined to get to California and back to some semblance of civilization.
The fellow playing William Eddy is quite good as well.

As an historical movie I found it very interesting as I was not overly knowledgeable of the events that took place in the Donner Party. As a movie drama, it left much to be desired. The movie starts out with the group trapped in winter in the mountains. Unable to figure out how to eat tree bark, they hunt food and apparently have killed the very last bear hibernating in a cave. William Eddy, the hunter tracker takes half the meat for his family and leaves the other half for those under Foster's care. As the food disappears, they find out that there is no rescue party coming for them. A group sets out by foot to go to California, get a rescue party and return for the rest held up in a cabin. After four days of travel, the food runs out and everyone is hungry enough to each other. In fact they draw sticks and shoot the man with the shortest stick, then eat him. A dark comedy moment is inserted in the story as the cannibals struggle to say "grace" for their meal..."Dear God, we thank you, Amen." The camera shots are not as gruesome as one would think. The reference to eating people is watered down to sayings like, "We have to do what is necessary." I find the R rating a bit overboard. No sex or nudity. The acting was plain.

My mother is a huge history fanatic when it comes to stories of the Donner party. During this film she didn't say much, except to interject with little bits of history that the movie either didn't include or got wrong. Even with my love for Crispin Glover, I couldn't make up my mind as to what my true feelings were for this movie.

The film says that it covers the Donner party when it only covers the group "The Forlorn Hope" that left to find help from civilization. A band of survivors set out with only one person (Eddy) knowing how to hunt for food, so before long they have to resort to cannibalism in order to survive.

Really... there's a huge amount of glaring errors here. Like one reviewer said, there's scenes where a seemingly hobbled together cabin shows an interior that's far bigger than what it should be, complete with tables & other fixtures that shouldn't be there. Settlers did travel with some furniture, but nothing like this & after most of the livestock was killed for food or taken by thieves, the heaviest stuff (aka the furniture) would have been the first to go. Since stuff like that would've been hard to build, it really is something that I can't see being all that realistic. Plus they have one of the characters (Foster) unable to shoot at the beginning of the film, yet when he has to take a character off into the woods he suddenly becomes a sharpshooter capable of killing a man from over 6-10 feet away.

The actors try their hardest & the movie was decent enough that I finished it, but it felt like it was more than a bit of a chore to slog through. By the time the movie finished, I couldn't help but think that the film could've been far shorter... and then I realized that the film was already short enough as it was. There's really not a lot of plot here & my two sentence synopsis above really is the whole gist of the movie. There's not a lot of character development & rather than show HOW the settlers got into such a bad predicament (a fascinating story in its own right) or show how the settlers back at the camp were faring, we're treated to scene after scene of Glover & company whining about how hungry they are. Oh, and we're supposed to cheer for Eddy, who has been treated as being the "good guy" of the movie who is the only one who is smart enough to conserve food & attempts to keep from cannibalism. By the end of the film I just didn't care what happened to any of them. I would have been able to overlook the historical inaccuracies if the film was great, but unfortunately this film isn't. It's mediocre at best, which disappoints me because usually Glover films are brilliantly done.

After the film was said & done, I couldn't make up my mind whether or not to give this one, two or three stars. In the end I figured I'd give it two. I managed to finish the film, but the more I think about the movie, the less I seem to like it. If you're looking for something to kill an hour & a half, I recommend looking for some of the documentaries out there or going for the movie "Alive". This film really doesn't do the true story of the Donner Party justice, which is a shame. The true story & all of the legends surrounding this story are fascinating in their own right.

This movie is about a final, desperate attempt by OTHER members of the Donner Party to try to cross Donner Pass close to the summit of the Sierra Nevade range in the tough winter of 1846/47. It's not about The Donner Family or the entire journey of the Donner /Reed wagon train...or the Oregon/CA trail leading up to starting from Springsfield, Ill. It's a good, well acted movie starring Crispin Glover, among others. A better title would have been "The Snow Shoe Party" which represents the last ditch attempts by 15 starving volunteers of the Breen/Murphy/Graves folks at the eastern end of the lake site. Apparently the term of the "Forlorn Hope" was NOT what they called themselves but is a fictional title given to them by an author many years after the event. If you are interested in the history of the Donner Party...I recommend the 1992 Ric Burns PBS "American Experience" documentary. It's so well done I watch it over and over...even though it too has it's flaws.

I'm not a fan of Made for TV movies (this movie is NOT one...I think? Straight to DVD maybe?) But if someone like HBO can give this story the treatment they gave "Band of Brothers" and start the story from the beginning...in Springfield,Ill all they way through the entire event...now that would be special! Why? because when you read books like "Ordeal By Hunger" you come to realize that the Donner Party suffered through so much way BEFORE they even reached the Tahoe area.

This movie is deficient in a variety of ways. First, although it is shot on location, the photography is so bland and uninteresting that it may as well have been shot in my backyard. Secondly, the script is weak, although the actors do a fine job with so little material. However, the worst aspect of this movie is the lack of historical accuracy, on every level. There are 2 murders portrayed which did not actually happen, and the murders that did happen are not portrayed! The characters are wrong, and the approach to the cannibalism is simply revolting. While it did really happen, why must a movie protray the group eating "human flesh" (which looked like chicken) about 5 different times? The real "Forlorn Hope" (who did NOT name themselves, by the way..the military term was ascribed to them 30 years after the distaster by an author) even ate their own moccasins before resorting to eating the dead, with great reluctance. Don't bother with this dreary, plodding film.

I really enjoyed this movie. It dramatizes a doomed winter journey over the Sierra Nevadas as a group of settlers look to reach the safety and warmth of California. Based on a true story, "The Donner Party" successfully depicts the hopelessness and desperation caused by the tremendous obstacles these people faced. This character based film stars Crispin Glover who delivers a terrificly subdued intensity as the party leader. I'm a big fan and it was nice to see him again! The up close life and death struggle depicted is contrasted by some beautiful terrain shots which creates a nice balance in the film. A very believable world was created on camera and this story will suck you in. I have read the reviews from the history buffs, the vocal minority who oppose the dramatization of these events and I don't agree. This isn't a documentary, it's a "based on..." movie and it captures a essence of a fascinating story set in a period of american history that is seldom depicted in modern movies. Watch this film!