Customer Reviews

Midwife's Tale, A [VHS]

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4 star:		(1)
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I urge watchers of the video to also read Ulrich's book. It is wonderful--with the help of a personal computer and research in Maine records, she has tracked down the meaning of Martha Ballard's cryptic comments in her midwifery record book.

But there are details in the video that aren't in the book, because the video attempts to recreate the missing part of the record--the daily activities, the physical feel of the people and buildings involved, the historical verity that helps us envision late 18th century life. I am a historic reenactor and am ordering the video to share with my fellows who are working to present to the public a view of the past that is as accurate as we can. Because the video was filmed in the East where 18th century sites and artifacts as well as costumers are more common than in my part of the U.S., we can watch to catch a lot of details other audiences take for granted. (History teachers might also have these motives.)

Another thing that fascinated me when I saw the film on PBS was that the actors were unfamiliar to me. They look like real people, not movie stars. Family dynamics were more believable and souring relationships took on terrific poignancy.

"The Midwife's Tale" is a good antedote to the simplistic visions we get of the early Republic. Domestic and community life is shown, with just tangent references to the outside world of politics and government. Anyone working with a bicentennial project--such as Lewis & Clark celebrations--should spend some time with this video (and the book).

A Midwife's Tale (adapted from Laurel Ulrich's Pulitzer Prize winning book) unfolds like a detective story -- the true tale of two women, two hundred years apart, linked by the diary one of them left behind. The reviewer for the Boston Globe wrote, "A Midwife's Tale is a film of almost tactile pleasure and keen intelligence -- a rare combination." The film, which opened the 10th season of the PBS series The American Experience, has won a national prime-time Emmy for best non-fiction programming, the Silver Spire (San Francisco Film Festival), the top media award of the American Association of State and Local History, the New England Historical Association's Media Award, and the Kodak Vision Award.

When I watched this VHS movie for the first time, I wasn't expecting much. I very nearly turned it off because the first 15 minutes were boring and slow. But once they got past the yada, yada, yada and into this woman's life story, it was completely enthralling.

I watched it a second time with the family, fast forwarding past the boring introduction. The fam also found it very interesting.

The movie is kind of a docu-drama, recreated from the detailed diary of a 1780's midwife. The details about life back then are just beyond description.

One tidbit - premarital sex wasn't the scandal that we'd expect in those times. However, a woman would be asked, in the throes on intense labor, to name the father of the baby. The woman's testimony during these intense moments was considered solid and incontrovertible. If the baby's father refused to marry the woman, THAT was scandalous.

This movie was filled with those kind of details. I can't recommend this VHS-tape enough. One of the best movies I think I've ever seen.

This video is an excellent source of information for anyone who wants to know what life was really like back on the 18th-century frontier. The acting is earnest and not too theatrical. The scenery is harsh, yet breathtakingly beautiful. The soundtrack, featuring the Word of Mouth Chorus, got me totally hooked on shapenote singing. The blending of the singing and the New England scenery is extremely moving. I do hope that they come out with a DVD edition of this film. Although firmly based on the wonderful book by the same name, this film stands on its own as a documentary of colonial life. I own many books, films and CDs concerning colonial history and this film is a real gem. I prefer to collect DVDs these days instead of VHS tapes, but I made an exception for this film - it is worth it.

I know of no other film which so beautifully blends historical fact (as with a documentary) with re-enactment drama. Kaiulani Lee (one of the finest actors of this generation and under-used in my opinion) creates a spellbinding performance as Martha Ballard, beautifully parallelling Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's quest 200 years later. I have watched this film again and again (I use it when I teach classes on scriptwriting) and am still making new discoveries of nuance. My only disappointment is that it has not been released on DVD. Get with it, PBS--this one deserves to be seen for the next 200 years!

If you're interested in keeping files of your geneology/lineage, this would be a documentry/movie for you. They made a movie out of diaries and other information and saw how someones life could have been like back in that time. I find it interesting.

Not all history is cannons and muskets. In truth most history is not. And in many parts really quite boring. But everything has its place. Like the great bard said, The world is a stage and we are all but actors upon it.

And this film based on the research and reading of one woman's diary is really quite interesting.

It is the story of a midwife. It begins after the American revolution and through it we travel through time to her world to visit. We meet her husband. We meet some of her offspring. But best of all we meet her world.

Nicely re-enacted. Nicely done. Well researched. A must for anyone interested in the time period.