Simply A Masterpiece

Best movie of this year hands down!

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

I thought it was appropriate to reflect on the following issue, "Is historical accuracy relevant to the quality of a film?" If it is manufactured to provide a true representation of history, maybe so. But if it as manufactured as an entertainment vehicle, maybe not.As a piece of fiction, I believe this film to be one of the finest works of western lore ever recorded. It appeals to both men and women. It promotes ethical values. And it fills the viewer with the full range of emotions that it is expected to.I won't waste your time with the details of the plot, you can find that by the ton here. All I can tell you is that I believe that anyone who is willing to invest the time will absolutely love this.

See this movie for the first time on TCM for a primer on Hollywood studio film making in the post-war '50s. Get The Journals of Lewis and Clark edited by Bernard DeVoto for the best story you will ever read about the discovery of the American West, and it's all true. The book is in libraries and at Amizon.com. Second choice: Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose.The stars of the movie (Fred MacMurray, Charlton Heston, Donna Reed) are Hollywood legends but their acting is as uninspired as the script. William Demarest as Sgt. Gass is the only believable character. The combat scenes are total fiction. Only one member of the Corps of Discovery died (of an illness)and only one Indian was shot, for trying to steal a horse from Lewis one night in Monatana on the return trip.As others have reported, the love story is contrived but remains a fascination in Western romance novels about Sacajawea. The joke is on the film makers because The Journals ooze sex between the men of the Corps and women of some of the tribes. Lewis was the medic and half of his medicine it seems was used to treat the men suffering from venereal diseases.Read the book; maybe someday Hollywood will make the movie.Note to reviewers: Use of the term "squaw" has been politically incorrect for some time.

This is the year of the bi-centennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition, which (with the purchase of the Louisiana Territory) is the best recalled accomplishment of the Thomas Jefferson administrations. This is also the sole major film made about this first step into westward expansion. I suppose one should be grateful for any such film but one wishes it was closer to the truth and was a bit more detailed. Meriweather Lewis (Jefferson's nephew and secretary) and William Clark (half-brother of frontier legend George Rogers Clark)were chosen to leave from the formerly French settlement of St. Louis up the Missisippi and Missouri Rivers into what became Montana, Idaho, and Washington until they reached the Pacific Coast, and then returned by a southern route back to St. Louis again. Their expedition was assisted by Sacajawea, an Indian woman, who helped the two explorers communicate with the various Indian tribes on the trek. Remarkably only one man died (of a ruptured appendix) in the two year journey. They returned in 1806, and their final report and drawings were published in 1808. Jefferson was keen on showing that his deal with Napoleon I of France was not ridiculous. After all, it had cost fifteen million dollars to buy the territory of Louisiana (originally Jefferson just wanted to buy the city of New Orleans). Napoleon's reasons were a combination of need (he could use the money) and rationalism in the face of disaster. Napoleon had wanted to reestablish France's overseas power, and hope to base it on the rich colony of Haiti. Unfortunately the former slaves of Haiti had been revolting for over a decade, led by a brilliant soldier and politician Toussaint L'Overture. Although L'Overture was captured and died in prison, his three associates (Jean Dessalines, Henri Christophe, and Jean Petion) were highly capable in keeping the French at bay. So was yellow fever and plague that decimated the French armies. Napoleon knew he could no longer build up his overseas empire, so he took the money for what was now a white elephant. Jefferson was the beneficiary of all this, but he was aware that many questioned if the country should have spent all the money it did for this land. Since Jefferson had been critical about military expenditures that the Federalists had practiced under Washington and Adams he really had to demonstrate the purchase was not a blunder.The expedition did exactly that. It suggested the huge natural resources now under American control. It also countered claims from other European countries to the west coast of the U.S. (Russians in Alaskan and California, Spaniards in the Southwest, and England in Canada - especially after the exploration of MacKenzie in British Columbia). Therefore it can be said that Jefferson's deal was of critical importance to the future of the U.S.The film concentrates of the expedition to the point of it reaching the Pacific, with MacMurray as Lewis and Heston as Clark, and Donna Reed as Sacajawea. A fictitious romance between Heston and Reed is created (actually a triangle, as she is married to French trapper Alan Reed). She eventually has to decide to stay with Clark, to the detriment of his career, or leave him. And in the end the only person who can help her is the President (Herbert Heyes).As the sole film about this great undertaking it is a good film, not a great one. It ends with the successful return of the leaders to Washington. It does not follow the other events of the westward expansion of the period to be discussed: the controversy of the expedition of Zebulon Pike into what is now Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas in 1805 - 06, the Burr Conspiracy and treason trial (see "Magnificent Doll"), and the tragedy of Lewis. Lewis was appointed first governor of the territory, but had political problems from the first day. He was ordered to return to Washington in 1809 to answer questions, but he died violently on the trip at Grider's Mill, a spot on the desolate "Nachez Trace" of Tennessee. Either he committed suicide (most books say he did) or he was murdered by his enemies. Clark died in 1837.

Sorry for my bad English...A 'River Expedition ' with a touch of humanism. As action-film , it is weak. We arrive at the sea without realizing it...Indian and Women are presented more sympathetically that in the 'classic' westerns, but it remains limited. (A good women is a good housewife...) On the other hand, the only French of the film is a dirty and fat bad guy. It is a shame. I am hurt as a louse (French expression). Because of that I shall give 4 instead of 5. It's my revenge.