Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery

Beautiful Cinematography. Excellent narration. Inspiring. What a Journey !!!

Brilliant documentary.

The story of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, the two adventurers who, in 1804-06, explored and charted North West America, from St Louis to Oregon.

Written and directed by master-documentarymaker Ken Burns, the man who gave us the greatest documentary series ever made, The Civil War. Thus, you always knew this was to going to be excellent.

In incredible detail we see the perils they faced, the ordeal of their journey and the importance of their efforts.

Very engaging - even though it is only a documentary (rather than a drama), you are engrossed in their travails and discoveries.

A must-see for anyone with an interest in history.

Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan are excellent film makers, but their focus on relying on still photography and reenactors in this documentary left much to be desired.

The lack of research is obvious. Images used throughout the film are of the post expedition period, at times decades after the event. Why the lack of period images? Hundreds, if not thousands of artifacts from the era, including drawings and paintings were ignored.

Historical accuracy of the reenactors left much to be desired, they are not clothed in the accoutrements issued by the U.S. Army nor correct civilian attire of the time frame. This is clearly evident by anyone wishing to review documentation produced by The Company of Military Historians, who published information on the 1st U.S. Infantry back in 1951. Lewis and Clark reenactors are notorious for their lack of historical accuracy.

Interviews with some historians (friends of the film makers) left much to be desired and did much to lesson the impact of this film.

Overall, it was an interesting endeavor but one which suffered from too much emotionalism. If you want to learn about the U.S. Army's Corps of Discovery, read the original journals.

Nothwithstanding the celebrity endorsements and hype, the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Celebration has become a monumental flop.

This documentary is another great one by Ken Burns of the two year Lewis and Clark expedition into no-mans land starting in St Louis, and returning there two years later. I learned about all the basics of this journey in high school but this goes into much more detail into an almost unimaginable journey. This is not a dry historical film. Everyone should see it, for the historical significance of the journey. How they dealt with all the Indians, how they found food, how they forged 15-20 miles around waterfalls. Just, wow.

This is what we would now all call a typically enjoyable film by Ken Burns, if one could only get past the gawdawful music accompaniment.