The Chisholms

I watched this movie for the first time as a small child and then several times after as I was growing up. This movie portrays the struggles of a Pioneer Family with more honesty, beauty, and heart than any other film I have ever seen. It takes you through the highs and lows that the family experiences but leaves you with a hope and warm feeling instead of a heavy heart. After watching this movie I guarantee you will want to share the experience with others. The only negative I can think of is that this movie is far too unknown. I can't say enough about The Chisholms except that if you don't see it you are missing out on a great example of why movies are made.

The 1979 TV miniseries "The Chisholms" features Robert Preston as the patriarch of a family that moves west from Virginia in 1844 to make a fresh start. Rosemary Harris is the mother, who at first is against picking up roots, but finally acquiesces. From there, they have a trek ahead of them. On the whole, I'm not a big fan of western or frontier films etc. except for the real classics (Shane, Lonesome Dove) but am a big fan of Robert Preston and something about the epic feel of the story drew me to this. The viewer is drawn in immediately and it soon became so real to me. I was very impressed with its respect of the people, their ethics, and their way of life. Ben Murphy, Brian Kerwin, and Charles Frank are some of the actors seen here, but the whole production was first rate, and I am glad I discovered it. I was unaware at the time of seeing this, though that this was not the full story. "The Chisholms" is out on DVD, but my review is for Season 1 only, which is Disk 1 only, out of three. Due to the success of the first run, they made a Part 2/Season 2, which recast several parts, due to the unavailability of actors, I would presume. Delta Burke is featured in the later part, but is not seen here. In my reading up on all this, I found some reviews that said that Part 2 was not half as good as the original and to stay away from it. I will heed that, so as to not taint this experience, and I hope you do too. If by chance, you buy the DVD of both seasons, watch only disk 1. "The Chisholms" is among the best of the television miniseries genre and deserves to be remembered, just as much as "The Thorn Birds" and "Roots."

This was a great film, filmed some parts in St. Charles, Missouri. I justed started a job at a local bank, been there a couples weeks, when this film crew come to town. They were looking for extras and I couldn't get out of work so I quit the job to go into the movies. I played an extra in 3 scenes and the best one was walking along side Rosemary Harris and James Van Patten. I found the movie on Amazon and thought what a way to preserve my movie debut. The parts I was in was suppose to be Independence Missouri. Most of the scenes were shot on Historic Main street in St. Charles. One of the scenes they stopped cause of me, cause I was wearing wire rim glasses but they didn't fit that time frame. So It was get out of the shot or take them off. I stayed in the shot.

I give a ten for the first disc alone, which contains the complete miniseries of 1979. These four episodes are superb, fully the equal of "Lonesome Dove," and I can give no higher praise than that! As for the other two discs, I would advise that you skip them entirely, so as not to spoil the glorious emotional power that has been generated by the first one. Beginning in 1980, lesser actors play some of the well-established characters, and the production quality goes down, WAY down, to a routine TV series. The gorgeous Stacey Nelkin, as Bonnie Sue Chisholm in 1979, is replaced by Delta Burke in 1980, and the other principal roles, even those handled by the original actors, seem to be going through the motions, sleepwalking. But I digress.

The first disc is a classic that should be placed in the pantheon of television and cinematic achievements. It is simply fantastic, from Chapter I through Chapter IV, and should have won multiple awards. Robert Preston's performance, as patriarch Hadley Chisholm, is worthy of the Best Actor of the Year Emmy - - and I say that by Oscar standards! Rosemary Harris (Minerva Chisholm) is every bit as good, and I would place Ben Murphy (Will Chisholm) in that same category. In a smaller but intensely dramatic role, Sandra Griego is marvelous as Keewedinok. Besides everything else, only the 1979 miniseries contains the perfectly fashioned music score of themes from three of Aaron Copland's ballets ("Appalachian Spring," "Billy the Kid," and "Rodeo"), sensitively crafted by Elmer Bernstein.

To summarize, do indeed buy "The Chisholms" on DVD, finally available after 36 years of neglect, and watch the first disc (Chapters I to IV from 1979) over and over at a reasonable cost. And then forget the other two discs, which will only serve to ruin the euphoric feeling of cinematic brilliance.

i have been trying to buy this film for a long time i wonder if the makers are going to re-release it.i hired it from a video rental shop in the 80s and the owner offered to sell it to me but i didn't accept his offer which i regret.it was a great favourite when it was on television.i enjoyed it so much that when i got it from the rental shop i hired it at least once a week for about 8 weeks.it was the best 3 hours entertainment i ever had.it had everything in it, adventure,sadness, happiness and all the components of a good western.the acting was excellent and the choice of cast was brilliant.i will still keep looking in case they do decide to re-release this film.