best movie i've ever seen.

Beautiful, moving film.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Of all the miniseries that have ever been this is the only one that I would buy on DVD the day it came out.Just an incredible work. Unlike most historical miniseries, where young hunks and starlets in rip away period costuming are the most important part and actual history is a very very distant third, in this miniseries "You Are There" on the western frontier of the US when that frontier was Ohio. The clothing, the sets (especially the way the family house grows from a one room cabin to a rambling squire's home while its contents change accordingly is wonderful), the scenery, the locations, the INCREDIBLE dialects and vocabulary (very true to the novel and a fantastic job by Marge Campion) all give a sense of time and place that's rarely been equaled on film. Then of course there's the acting: they went for talent rather than pretty and consequently got performances that are still great almost 30 years later. You believe Hal Holbrook, Elizabeth Montgomery (so good you never once think of her as Samantha) and the host of lesser knowns in their roles. There are moments that are hysterically funny ("The more you cry the less you have to pee!"), tragic (the insane mother handling the letter from her daughter's father-to say more would be a spoiler) and just touching, and Portius and "Say'rd" are two characters you care about, a family with real problems and real bonds, neither all saint nor all sinner and certainly not your standard plantation bodice ripper fair stock characters.If you have any interest in frontier history, see this.

I remember seeing this remarkable production on British TV when I was a student in the early 1980's. I enjoyed it enormously, and was riveted to the screen for 3 successive Sundays. Out of all the American mini-series that have been broadcast over here, this is the only one that sticks in my mind. I've waited in vain all these years for it to be broadcast again, or better still, released on DVD. The casting, storyline, characterisation and acting were all superb. Not only is it THE American mini-series, but I would also rate it up alongside the best of the BBC classic dramas. I do hope that it can one day be released on DVD or even on video - I will be one of the first buyers.

The Awakening Land is one of the best mini-series I have ever seen. I well remember when this first came out on TV. I called in sick to work in order to finish watching it. Elizabeth Montgomery did a marvelous job, and I can't believe it hasn't been made available commercially. If you have any interest at all in how the pioneers handled the settling of new territory, this is an absolute must. It reminded me a bit of 'How the West Was Won' in scope, although it doesn't cover as many generations. Hal Holbrook gave a great performance too. I have always admired the courage of the early pioneers and the hard lives they led. The Awakening Land is a great showcase of this courage and how these pioneers handled the tough circumstances under which they lived.

Based on Conrad Richter's ambitions trilogy, The Awakening Land is one of the finest TV mini-series ever produced for American television. Set in the Ohio frontier ca. 1790-1820, we see an American community form in the wilderness though the life of Sayward Luckett, a poor, uneducated pioneer woman blessed with great gifts of intelligence and courage. Through her often troubled marriage with Portious Wheeler, an eccentric and ambition New Englander, we see the clash and melding of the receding frontier with advancing "modern" civilization. Elizabeth Montgomery's portrayal of Sayward, a woman simultaneously simple but resourceful and intelligent, is surely the highlight of her rather underrated acting career.The production has been treated shabbily by its owners since its premier in 1978. After years of silence, it was finally re-run in the early 1990s (I suspect owing to the fame of "Medicine Woman" Jane Seymour, who has a supporting role as Sayward's younger sister in "The Awakening Land") but I don't believe it was ever available to consumers on VHS. If it appeared on DVD I would snap it up in a minute.Filmed in and around Springfield, Illinois, and the nearby reconstructed frontier village of New Salem, the mini-series is also notable for its setting in a time and place in American history rarely seen in movies or TV: the frontier period in the Midwest. One suspects the production aspired to be another "Roots," but even though it didn't match that show's rating, "The Awakening Land" excelled it in emotional sophistication and often in historical accuracy.