The Awakening Land (1978)

An absolute waste of money

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I know that there is a way for people to add the plot synopsis and photos to these pages, but is there a way to add the names of people that were in the movie that were not listed in the cast list, like an extra? Tanya and Trina Gentry both played extras in this movie: Tanya Gentry as "McWhirter Girl" and Trina Gentry as "McWhirter Infant" Tanya was in fifth grade at the time. At this current moment I'm looking through photos from the set of Tanya with the casting director and Elizabeth Montgomery with a blow Pop in a blow pop in her mouth, lol! Also, there are autographs here from Elizabeth Monthgomery and Jane Seymour. Tanya and Trina currently both reside here in Springfield Illinois. If it's possible to add them in could someone please let me know how? [email protected] Heather Thornton

Of all the miniseries that have ever been this is the only one that I would buy on DVD the day it came out.Just an incredible work. Unlike most historical miniseries, where young hunks and starlets in rip away period costuming are the most important part and actual history is a very very distant third, in this miniseries "You Are There" on the western frontier of the US when that frontier was Ohio. The clothing, the sets (especially the way the family house grows from a one room cabin to a rambling squire's home while its contents change accordingly is wonderful), the scenery, the locations, the INCREDIBLE dialects and vocabulary (very true to the novel and a fantastic job by Marge Campion) all give a sense of time and place that's rarely been equaled on film. Then of course there's the acting: they went for talent rather than pretty and consequently got performances that are still great almost 30 years later. You believe Hal Holbrook, Elizabeth Montgomery (so good you never once think of her as Samantha) and the host of lesser knowns in their roles. There are moments that are hysterically funny ("The more you cry the less you have to pee!"), tragic (the insane mother handling the letter from her daughter's father-to say more would be a spoiler) and just touching, and Portius and "Say'rd" are two characters you care about, a family with real problems and real bonds, neither all saint nor all sinner and certainly not your standard plantation bodice ripper fair stock characters.If you have any interest in frontier history, see this.

I actually recorded this in all its parts when I saw it was being aired on TBS. Of course I got the commercials too, but I felt it was worth it to be able to watch The Awakening Land whenever I wanted to. Of course, I would buy it in a heartbeat if it was ever put out on VHS or DVD. The series was cast so wonderfully. Each person did his/her role superbly. The first time I watched this series I was "hooked". Of course, I've always loved Elizabeth Montgomery and Hal Holbrook, but the historical insight was fascinating too.I would recommend this to everyone, but they wouldn't be able to see it like I do, whenever they want to because of the unavailability.

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.