The Awakening Land

This mini series was based upon a series of books, The Trees, The Fields and The Town, by Conrad Richter, who also wrote A Light in the Forest. I am in the process of re-reading them, and I 'see' many of the scenes I remember from the show.

This mini series was also one of my favorites, I keep wishing that it would be released on Video/DVD.

Elizabeth Montgomery did a good job of playing "Saird", the woodsy who was responsible for building a town. Hal Holbrook was believable as the Solitary. What surprised me was reading that William Macy played Will Beagle, the Bound Boy.

To put many previous posters out of their misery, I'm happy to say that this magnificent mini series is now available on DVD. It is not cheap, but for something which will be watched over and over again, it is worth it.

I have had it on VHS tape (complete with commercials) since it was first shown and have watched it whenever I want to recall the winter nights when we would curl up in front of the fire and wallow in a few nights of great TV.

The series beautifully recreated what must have been a hard life for the early pioneers as they pushed the frontier further and further west. I particularly loved the 18th century dialogue and the rustic frolicking at the wedding of Sayward and "the hostile", after the failure to marry him off to an available spinster. the storyline which saddened me the most was that of the teacher, a refined and educated woman who fell in love with the only educated man in whom she had any contact with. How desperately lonely her life must have been.

The lovely songs, although few, added greatly to the atmosphere. They sure don't make them like this any more.

The Awakening Land was an excellent movie with an all star cast. Elizabeth Montgomery played her part with grace and Hal Holbrook was very convincing as the Solitary. The cast and performance was award winning. The time frame was neither to short or too long. Each sequence was well covered. The movie's setting was absolutely beautiful. The storyline was strong and very heartwarming. I have watched the Awakening Land about 5 times and have loved it each and every time. It's story is clean and depicts in such a wonderful way the struggles of early pioneer life and the triumph over adversity. The movie is full of love and adventure. It was a pleasure following Sayard and Portus through out their lives and the lives of their family and friends and how they all succeeded in what they came to this land to do, make a new and better life. I put The Awakening Land right up there with Lonesome Dove. The Awakening Land is brilliant as were it's characters.

Based on Conrad Richter's ambitions trilogy, The Awakening Land is one of the finest TV mini-series ever produced for American television. Set in the Ohio frontier ca. 1790-1820, we see an American community form in the wilderness though the life of Sayward Luckett, a poor, uneducated pioneer woman blessed with great gifts of intelligence and courage. Through her often troubled marriage with Portious Wheeler, an eccentric and ambition New Englander, we see the clash and melding of the receding frontier with advancing "modern" civilization. Elizabeth Montgomery's portrayal of Sayward, a woman simultaneously simple but resourceful and intelligent, is surely the highlight of her rather underrated acting career.

The production has been treated shabbily by its owners since its premier in 1978. After years of silence, it was finally re-run in the early 1990s (I suspect owing to the fame of "Medicine Woman" Jane Seymour, who has a supporting role as Sayward's younger sister in "The Awakening Land") but I don't believe it was ever available to consumers on VHS. If it appeared on DVD I would snap it up in a minute.

Filmed in and around Springfield, Illinois, and the nearby reconstructed frontier village of New Salem, the mini-series is also notable for its setting in a time and place in American history rarely seen in movies or TV: the frontier period in the Midwest. One suspects the production aspired to be another "Roots," but even though it didn't match that show's rating, "The Awakening Land" excelled it in emotional sophistication and often in historical accuracy.

This is a wonderful mini-series that shows the less glamorous, but realistic side of the settling of the American Frontier. The story has an excellent cast including Hal Holbrook, Elizabeth Montgomery, William H. Macy and others. The characters grow and change as the frontier changes and gets settled. It is unfortunate that this mini-series did not get the press that some others have and has not been repeated often enough. This series is just as good as Roots but recounts a different period of American life.

I would love to see it on DVD, if you would too please vote at http://www.tvshowsondvd.com. Currently, it only has 132 votes. Studio execs do look at this site to see who would like to buy television shows.