The Awakening Land

Elizabeth Montgomery gave a surprisingly impressive performance in this story from a rarely covered period of US history, back when the edge of the American frontier was just over the Appalachians. In the unlikely event that this is ever shown again or otherwise becomes available, don't miss it... and let me know so I can see it again.

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.

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.

In vain, I keep checking to see if someone has had the intelligence to put this out on DVD......I would buy it in record time. I absolutely love this movie and am right now in the process of re-reading the books (The Trees, The Fields and The Town) for the 5th time...and will probably re-read them every two years or so - that's how good they are. The miniseries pretty much echoed the books and was a real treat. I can't believe I missed it when it was telecast again the early 90's. Elizabeth Montgomery was wonderful - completely believable as Sayward and made me a fan of hers for her all too short life. I come from "the hills of Pennsylvania" which I used to "run" as a child so felt a connection.

Holly Michaels

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.