Like most seventies TV movies it wears a general air of PG sanitization that is quite resistible, especially when compared to grittier, more hard hitting Westerns in theatres at the time, like "Will Penny", "McCabe And Mrs. Miller" and, of course, anything by Peckinpah. It feels like something that would have been shown in a mid 1970s, eleventh grade U. S. History class following the unit on The Westward Movement; that is, if you had a semi cool teacher.
As a result of the above censoriousness, with one or two exceptions, like the scene where the title character is forced into a premature abortion by the cruelty and venality of her fellow homesteaders, there are no scenes that have much of an impact. Two in particular, the death of Mrs. Sergeant's husband (played way too broadly by Capt. Kirk) and the prairie fire, are remarkably bland and forgettable. Buzz Kulik, at his best, say in "Warning Shot" and "Yellow Canary", is a fine action director but you wouldn't know it from this too polite look at the hardships of farmsteaders in the West. It is all summed up, for me, in the performance and look of Joanna Pettet, with her well modulated tones, perfectly coifed hair, and duds that look like they came out of the J. Peterman catalog. Especially that oh so cute Army Hat. Give me any of the lonely Kansas farm wives in any random episode of "Gunsmoke", instead. C plus.
PS...Best performance is turned in by Helen Hunt who, at age 10, not only acts rings around everyone else in the cast but, in the process, really exposes the lousy kid actor who plays her brother.
