The Donner Party

Crispin Glover leads the ill fated Donner Party in this entertaining fictional, though based on fact, movie. The audience is immediately aware of the party's desperate situation, stranded and starving in the snow covered Sierra Nevada Mountains. The film, though relentlessly downbeat, does try to realistically portray how individuals might have reacted to the extreme conditions they were subjected to. Cannibalism is portrayed in a dignified manner, not sensationalized, and there is actually very little blood. The haunting soundtrack seems very appropriate, and the Donner Pass locations beautifully, though bleakly, photographed. Recommended, and especially recommended if you want to see Crispin Glover in a restrained and believable performance. - MERK

Director T.J. Martin does history justice as he puts this capable cast through their paces.

Here, Crispin Glover's innate squirmy quirkiness is concealed and re-purposed as duplicity, guile, and scheming.

With limited backdrop and no Hollywood trickery, Martin sets out to tell an uncomfortable tale of impossible choices, selfish agendas, and moral gray areas.

The result is a stark and unforgiving portrayal of the depth of the breakdown of social norms in a desperate wilderness survival situation.

No gimmicks. No stunts. No eye-popping effects.

Just the refreshing gift of good actors bringing characters to life and a director telling a well- written and conceived story.

The film is not based on any true historical fact as far as I could see. Even in the opening, the eventual place the Donner party hoped to get to was written as 'Sutter Fort.' Twice. Most Californians know the fort was Sutter's Fort. Glaring typo from the get go or laziness with regard to historical accuracy. You don't even have to be a Californian to know it is Sutter's Fort because the site is mentioned in grade school textbooks.

The rescue party consisted of much fewer members than were portrayed. The cannibalism occurred in the Donner camp and it was only as a very last resort and the 'victim' was already dead from exposure and starvation.

The film would have been much better if the director had focused on the powerful stories of the survivors instead of resorting to a sensationalistic cannibalism tale. There was so much more to this drama than starving humans compromising all they believed in by eating human flesh.

I could not even watch the entire film because it was so dreadful.

This film was good overall despite some inaccuracies in the historical event depicted. The actors did an excellent job in their roles and the script was well written. The cinematography was just outstanding as it was mostly filmed in the area where the events depicted took place.

The only reason I finished this movie was that I was waiting for it to get better. At one point I paused it and saw there was only 15 minutes left and was so bored I fast-forwarded through the rest.

I expected one of two things, a movie out to entertain through shock value or an American Epic. I got neither. Therein lies the problem; the movie's scope simply isn't grand enough. With all the drama, betrayal, tragedy, desperation, and heartbreak that occurred during these events you'd think that you'd see some of it on screen. I'm no expert on the Donner Party, but as I understand the trip took months just to get to the point the film starts up. Where it proceeds to tell a small 2 week time frame about the hardships of the people who made an attempt at being rescued.

This could have been a sprawling epic of the American Pioneer days on par with 'Dances with Wolves', yet we only get to see the small group and how hungry they are. That's it. We see nothing of what happened to the 30+ people back at the camp. I heard they had to resort to eating leather clothes and bones boiled so many times over they became brittle and edible, none of that made it into the film. If you cut out all of the establishing shots of snow and trees the movie wouldn't have even been an hour long.

Bottom line, read the Wikipedia article, skip the movie.