Roughing It

A stagecoach journey with his brother to Nevada for 3 month trip which turns into a 6 year epic adventure. It's Mark Twain on an extended camping trip, so how can this bad? All of his travelogues are gems and this is no exception. Lake Tahoe, gold and silver mining, caught in a blinding blizzard and more. Yes I recommend it. James Welch Henderson Arkansas 9/2/21.

Have you ever taped a show because you didn't really think you'd like it but wanted to be sure...and then when you started the tape, you found yourself watching it straight through. That's how this movie (actually a two part mini-series) caught me. James Garners' excellent voice overs and interludes as Mark Twain allow us to watch as if we were reading the book. Garners' performance and Adam Arkins' small but Emmy deserving turn as a man our hero Sam Clemmens meets in his episodic journey to find himself are the two best out of several good performances which brings this story to life and to heart.

While certainly not one of the great works of modern television, Roughing It isn't as bad as some people might lead one to believe. I must admit to not having read much Mark Twain and if you are looking for something which is completely faithful to one of his works Roughing It probably isn't for you.

I watched it with few expectations but generally like Twain's style and James Garner has never let me down before. The story was witty and lively enough to keep my interest and seemed to capture at least some of Twain's style. I gave it a 7 out of 10.

Roughing It is my favorite Twain novel and it has never been filmed before. After nine plus film versions of The Prince & the Pauper, what a delight to finally see Roughing It. This is a big sprawling novel, so a lot is missing, but I am still grateful.

Just awful compared to the novel. The only made a minimal effort to stick to storyline, style, or humor of book. Many excellent and subtle satire missing. Telling the story as a flashback never happened and was the wrong format. Avoiding the time consuming and pointless flash back would have allowed more of the actual story as written by twain to be told. Etc. Etc. Don't waste your time. If you need an electronic version of this book, listen to the Librovox version. You can get the librivox version at Librivox.com. Movie versions of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer give a much more authentic Mark Twain Experience. Also try reading Innocents abroad or listening to libivox to get the true Mark Twain Humor