The Chisholms

The 1979 TV miniseries "The Chisholms" features Robert Preston as the patriarch of a family that moves west from Virginia in 1844 to make a fresh start. Rosemary Harris is the mother, who at first is against picking up roots, but finally acquiesces. From there, they have a trek ahead of them. On the whole, I'm not a big fan of western or frontier films etc. except for the real classics (Shane, Lonesome Dove) but am a big fan of Robert Preston and something about the epic feel of the story drew me to this. The viewer is drawn in immediately and it soon became so real to me. I was very impressed with its respect of the people, their ethics, and their way of life. Ben Murphy, Brian Kerwin, and Charles Frank are some of the actors seen here, but the whole production was first rate, and I am glad I discovered it. I was unaware at the time of seeing this, though that this was not the full story. "The Chisholms" is out on DVD, but my review is for Season 1 only, which is Disk 1 only, out of three. Due to the success of the first run, they made a Part 2/Season 2, which recast several parts, due to the unavailability of actors, I would presume. Delta Burke is featured in the later part, but is not seen here. In my reading up on all this, I found some reviews that said that Part 2 was not half as good as the original and to stay away from it. I will heed that, so as to not taint this experience, and I hope you do too. If by chance, you buy the DVD of both seasons, watch only disk 1. "The Chisholms" is among the best of the television miniseries genre and deserves to be remembered, just as much as "The Thorn Birds" and "Roots."

I saw this movie as a copy my mother-in-law made off of TV. I saw it in 1985 I think it was. I loved it because it was about traveling west and a wonderful family.I loved the music in it. It is a very long movie, a mini series. It is fun to watch as a family. We watch it together as a family about once a year.My children love it too. It does have some swearing but not too bad. I think this movie draws our family closer together. My mother-in-law gave us the video she made and we recorded it again a few years ago, and now that copy is going bad too.I wish I could get another copy of this movie but it is not sold any where.I am going to try to record it again but it is very damaged.Iwould love to buy this movie if it is available at all any where.Any body that loves family movies especially about traveling west will thoroughly enjoy "The Chisholms".

I watched this movie for the first time as a small child and then several times after as I was growing up. This movie portrays the struggles of a Pioneer Family with more honesty, beauty, and heart than any other film I have ever seen. It takes you through the highs and lows that the family experiences but leaves you with a hope and warm feeling instead of a heavy heart. After watching this movie I guarantee you will want to share the experience with others. The only negative I can think of is that this movie is far too unknown. I can't say enough about The Chisholms except that if you don't see it you are missing out on a great example of why movies are made.

i have been trying to buy this film for a long time i wonder if the makers are going to re-release it.i hired it from a video rental shop in the 80s and the owner offered to sell it to me but i didn't accept his offer which i regret.it was a great favourite when it was on television.i enjoyed it so much that when i got it from the rental shop i hired it at least once a week for about 8 weeks.it was the best 3 hours entertainment i ever had.it had everything in it, adventure,sadness, happiness and all the components of a good western.the acting was excellent and the choice of cast was brilliant.i will still keep looking in case they do decide to re-release this film.

This was a great film, filmed some parts in St. Charles, Missouri. I justed started a job at a local bank, been there a couples weeks, when this film crew come to town. They were looking for extras and I couldn't get out of work so I quit the job to go into the movies. I played an extra in 3 scenes and the best one was walking along side Rosemary Harris and James Van Patten. I found the movie on Amazon and thought what a way to preserve my movie debut. The parts I was in was suppose to be Independence Missouri. Most of the scenes were shot on Historic Main street in St. Charles. One of the scenes they stopped cause of me, cause I was wearing wire rim glasses but they didn't fit that time frame. So It was get out of the shot or take them off. I stayed in the shot.