Young Pioneers

It's pretty obvious while watching it that the made-for-TV movie "Young Pioneers" was a pilot for a series, which did become a brief reality a couple of years later. But don't worry, this movie is able to stand on its own without seeing the follow-up series. The movie is kind of predictable, and the leads seem to be too old to be playing characters who are in their teens. But all the same it turns out to be surprisingly interesting. It shows the various problems settlers of the era had without laying on the problems too thick. The movie also seems to like its characters, not just with the young couple, but various people that they encounter along the way. It's also fun to see a pre-fame Robert Hays in a small role. This movie is not a masterpiece, but it gets the job done well.

In 1933 Rose Wilder Lane published a book called "Let the Hurricane Roar," which was also published as a serial in The Saturday Evening Post. This was a fictionalized adult novel about her maternal grandparents, Charles and Caroline Wilder. Roughly forty years later the title was changed to "Young Pioneers," with the names of the characters changed as well. That title, "Young Pioneers" is the only relationship that book has to this film.

In 1938 Rose published a novel called "Free Land," about David and Mary (whom he often called Molly) Beaton. It is "Free Land" on which this film is based. As with all films, much has been changed from the novel. But both the novel and the film will be enjoyable for fans of the Wilder family and the Little House Books. This film accurately portrays the struggles Dakota homesteaders faced in the late 19th century, yet is a great family film and will be enjoyed by adults as well as children.