Follow the River

James Alexander Thom writes novels that absolutely grip you with their intense realism, authentic settings and sometimes unexpectedly amusing content. His greatest work I believe is Panther in the Sky (a story of the Shawnee brothers Tecumseh and Tenkswatawa the Prophet). Don't miss it! Hopefully it will not be made into a movie as unfeeling as Follow the River.

This movie has the two returning women (on a 1000 mile journey) wearing clothes whose length would never permit them to travel through the woods, let alone do so without being torn to shreds. Everyone is portrayed as being forever clean, looking well-fed and with their hair always in place. The constantly changing relationship between the two women (as shown in the film) is obviously contrived and ultimately became very boring. An excellent adult book was made into a children's fantasy.

This is one of my favorite movies to watch. I so admire the main character's, Mary Ingles', courage and perseverance under great trial. I had a chance to read the story of the real Mary Ingles that this was based on, and what an amazing lady she was!

Good performances by Sheryl Lee, Eric Schweig, and Ellen Burstyn. Hallmark told this tale without a lot of violence, no profanity, and no trashy sex. This film is well worth seeing.

I really enjoyed the movie. What is the saying? "If fate hands you lemons, make lemonade." Mary Ingles makes the best of her situation, but in the end decides it better to leave her children with the Shawnee and try and make it back to her husband many days travel away. That would be one tough decision. But then she is very STRONG. James Welch Henderson, Arkansas 2/21/2021

Follow the River is a wonderful movie. I understand many reviewers here are upset that it is not faithful to the book , however, if you take it alone as a film, it is filled with an excellent cast, good dialogue, beautiful scenery, and full of human emotion. It is because of this that I decided to purchase the book which I understand has differences and is much more detailed. I heartily recommend this film to anyone whether you've read the book or not. I particularly liked the performance Eric Schweig, who portrayed the Shawnee chief and Ellen Burstyn who portrayed Gretel. This has inspired me to learn more about the French Indian war, and to see more movies of this genre.

Several years ago I read this book. I loved the book. So when I saw it was on TV this afternoon I decided to watch it.

I know that books are nothing like the movie and movies are never like the book but after 30 minutes I had to turn this drivel off.

It was bad enough that it is not accurate to the book or even history but the fact that everyone looked like a character from a romance novel just sent me over the edge.

Just a bad bad movie. Not even worth writing anymore about.

But it is seems I have to write more to get this posted! It amazes me that people will take the time & money to make movies based on books and then just take the title and character names. This movie is a great example of why if you are to read the book you can't get away with watching the movie!