Roughing It

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.

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.

Of the (usually 3 hour long) made-for-TV miniseries/movies released on DVD under the "Hallmark" imprint, this is the only one worth watching - and it is VERY worth watching.

Yes, it is overlong, and the faithful-adaptation approach to the source material loses inspiration toward the end. But on the whole this is humorous, touching, and as enigmatic in parts as Twain's original narrative. Twain came from a small town in a part of the country already proud of its traditionalism - he discovers the American West to be substantially a different planet, and we see this through his eyes - partly thanks to some marvelously cinematic camera-work.

Twain's character - among the greatest of the enigmas in the narrative - is also at issue, Was he cowardly lion? Brilliant poker player? Prospector kept from realizing dreams of wealth by pure dumb luck - or just dumbness? Or was he indeed one of the wisest of 19th Century writers, learning from experience and brave enough to present it 'warts and all'? Allowing the story to be about both Twain himself and the American West he discovered is the chief among many charms of this film.

Recommended.

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

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.