Purely Joyful Movie!

Awesome Movie

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Previous review asks why not more gold digging? First of all the author is Charlotte Gray and they followed her book she wrote which they kept to in script. Reminded me of "Deadwood". Scandinavians wanting to be North American's. Terrible revue, fantastic entertainment. Who really wants to see 6 hours of digging in the permafrost and mud? The acting was a little stiff when it came to the main character's Jewish pal. I believe that in Charlotte Gray's book a lot more emphasis on Jack London could and would have been beneficial. Alaska is drop-dead beautiful and crazy to look at. I tried living there and almost went nuts, I mean everything is shipped in including the toilet paper and feminine napkins and petrol. The geological idea of where gold lies is spot on. L J

I sat through all three episodes, and the entire time, I was howling in outrage! I was born, raised and still live in the north, and am a First Nations woman. I am an avid reader and history glutton for anything "northern", especially the gold rush era, it's characters and the effect it has had on the north, and the peoples who lived there. From the very beginning, this show was unbelievable. The guy with the fancy can of nuggets? How did he get there without getting robbed or killed after flashing this around? Why didn't he take it to a bank or gold dealer for Cash? Then Skagway/Dyea; totally inaccurate. Other reviewers have mentioned this as well, along with the Soapy Smith connection. His character should have stayed in Skagway. Where was the border crossing/checkpoint at the top of the pass? Whitehorse and the canyon? All of the other Stampeders along the way? And don't get me started on the clothing, especially the women! Since when did women in the 18 or 1900's ever dress in tight-fitting spandex pants, and pleather! She was supposed to be a respected woman of business? Puuleeze!! Blatant killings, inaccurate costumes, weak NWMP characters who didn't uphold the law, and vigilante Indians? That was the most irritating! The natives lived peacefully amongst the Stampeders, in fact helped many to survive the harsh conditions, with many intermarriages and children. The scenery, while spectacular and definitely Canadian (if you could ignore the ski hill and highways in the background) is NOT the type that is in the Yukon or around Dawson City. Sorry Discovery, this was an EPIC FAIL in my book, and your historical and location researchers should have done a better job. Maybe an actual trip to the Yukon, Dawson City, and the Chilcoot Trail should have been on the agenda. As a northern Canadian and Indian, I am insulted.

To the reviewer Scott1-921-252003, you offered the best review out of anyone. Thank you for supplying the historically accurate parts of the story and offering your other comments.I personally found the mini series entertaining even if it was historically inaccurate. I'm not really sure why so many people expected it to be overly accurate anyway. Sometimes you just need to enjoy something for what it is. Plus, the movie was pretty clear about calling itself a "docudrama". I also don't understand the reviewers who clearly didn't like it, felt that their time was wasted on it, yet sat through the entire mini-series anyway. If you don't enjoy something, stop watching it lol. I thought the man who played Bill Haskel was a good actor and honestly, very hot. I enjoyed Belinda's character but it would have been nice to know a little more about her, such as why she was there to begin with. I guess because she had more freedom there? I don't know. I didn't think the actress who played Belinda was as good an actress as the man who played Bill, even though I found her entertaining, but perhaps it was because of the way they wrote her character. Female characters on film do not seem to receive the same emotional depth exploration as male characters in film do. It's not often we truly get to see strong female characters on TV and she gave a hint of that. I don't think our society is yet ready to see likable female characters explore a wide range of emotional depth and gabble with morality (unless it's regarding sex) yet, unfortunately. I wish they had developed it more to counter the usual female narratives we see.I really enjoyed the scene where Belinda confronted Sabine who got pushed outside by Tim Roth's character. It's not often you see scenes like that between women on TV either. I thought the dynamic of it was very interesting. Although, I will admit I am getting tired of seeing casts of older distinguished men with one or two young women thrown in. I did enjoy the juxtaposition between Sabine and The Superintendient with the way they both "whored" themselves out. Again, it's not often on TV where the way men "whore" themselves out is so clearly defined. Yet, it's often a common story line when it comes to women. So I enjoyed the way they tied their two life experiences together in that and the morality of the Superintendent. Although again, Sabine was considerably younger than the Superintendient. Once again proving that we are only interested in women's stories when they are young and men's stories no matter their age. I thought the bit where Father Judge got measured for his coffin was oddly endearing and was a nice light reprieve. I enjoy Sam Shepard as an actor. Clearly it was not historically accurate, based on almost everyone else's comments, but I enjoyed the mini-series and as someone who doesn't really read books about the history of the Klondike, it did spark my interest to research it on the internet. I think I might go buy some books on the topic even because of how it sparked my interest. And perhaps that's a better gift then simply having something be historically accurate.

Possible Spoiler (s)...Was looking forward to it, if fact glad that another "reality channel" was dipping into the mini-series market such as History with the Hatfields and McCoys. More disappointed in this than the aforementioned. While the H&M on History was over-melodramatic and flirting with silly, it was still riotously entertaining and the performances by the cast were from very good to superb. Most of the cast in Klondike seem to be on lithium. H&M did a great job in developing characters, using every chance they were on screen to expose their motivations, flaws, strengths, and did it through dialogue and interaction with other characters-- even gestures. In Klondike this very important facet of storytelling is handled by one-line descriptions or a pat phrase. The pacing of Klondike is another issue, break neck for twenty minutes and snailish for forty. Tim Roth-- who is soooooo underutilized they could have put a cardboard Tim Roth mask on a mannequin and wheeled him around-- is the resident thug/soulless usurper, but in watching the show you have to wonder if he's not behaving that way out of simple boredom. He seems to bore the hell out of whoever he's threatening, anyway. The business woman (so uninteresting her name escapes me) is also victim to the writing. What drives her? What brought her to Dawson City? Mom died in childbirth? Well if that don't make ya wanna head to the boonies and sell booze, what would? Al Swearingen she ain't. The hooker? Drop me with a preacher and the turnaround is miraculous. Again, couldn't she have fared better as a gal-fer-rent in San Francisco or New York? One would think you have to be pretty motivated to peddle your virtue if you're going to go through all that trouble to find a whorehouse with the Help Wanted sign...? Her transition from saloon trollop to Florence Nightengale strains belief. Richard Madden is serviceable-- again a victim of the script-- but comes nowhere near the performance he gave us in Game of Thrones. Sam Shepard is the only cast member who seems to be trying to inject a little life into his character, but again the limits of the script seem to hogtie him.I won't go into the RCMP or the Natives, but they also fall victim to cliché.The camera work is a delight. The setting spectacular. The mud looks real. Otherwise, an overall disappointment.