Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Andromeda709 I enjoyed this miniseries so much when I was a teen. It was great, seeing Elizabeth Montgomery's real talent, so much more evident than in "Bewitched." I read Conrad Richter's trilogy and it was good to imagine the characters in the stories.Later, when the Internet was available, I found a company in California that had "The Awakening Land" for sale, converted from VHS tape to DVD. They did advise me that the picture would not be very sharp (not HD) but they had it without the commercials.I gladly paid the price they asked, and I watch it occasionally when there isn't anything worth watching on TV. A wonderful story of pioneer life, how they struggled and made good.

eileenknows This was a great movie but the characters all had interesting view points. Mistress Bartram was the school teacher who was educated. She is thrown into an affair with the married (highly educated)man to Elizabeth Montgomery's character, who was uneducated. The mistress became pregnant. This was the real awakening for me. Because her lover was married she set out one night to the local tavern to pick up whoever she could so she could get married and have her baby. There were no educated men that were available so she married someone beneath her intelligence and that was the most horrible punishment anyone could pay. No way out. Elizabeth's character rose above and met the higher standards of her husband and worked to become educated. Dorrie Kavanaugh who was also a beautiful woman sadly died a few years after making this film. I will always remember her as having a style that no one has ever duplicated. She was graceful with culture and intelligence, a very beautiful woman.

miseryschyld5697 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? Miseryschyld5697@aim.com Heather Thornton

TJW-3 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.