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      The Donner Party

      R 2009 1h 35m History Drama List
      Reviews 26% 250+ Ratings Audience Score Snow traps a California-bound wagon train of travelers (Crispin Glover, Clayne Crawford, Christian Kane) in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Read More Read Less

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      The Donner Party

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      Audience Reviews

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      Lindsay S The WORST depiction of this story I've ever seen. About 10% of this movie was accurate. IF that Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 07/26/23 Full Review Audience Member Even with a limited budget this movie could have been much better. Being filmed at Donner Pass made it of real interest to me. Straying too far from the truth is unforgivable, necessary, and unfair to the members of the Donner party. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Audience Member this is such an interesting story, but such a bad movie adaptation. it's incredibly boring, overacted, & no one looks the least bit cold even though they're practically covered in snow wearing very little the entire time. it's not a good film, but depending on how passionate you are about the Oregon Trail & some of its history, you might like it anyway. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/20/23 Full Review ron s Has little in common with history—e.g., by day one two members of this group gave up, by day three mostly were snow blind, by day six they already turned to cannibalism but not murder and avoided eating family. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Based on the true story of the Donner Party, an 1840s westward traveling group of settlers headed for California. Becoming snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains during the winter of 1846-1847, with food increasingly scarce, a small group calling themselves "The Forlorn Hope" turned to cannibalism... Dread Central awarded the film a score of three out of five, commending Glover and Boone Junior's performances, writing: "T.J. Martin's cinematic version of this dreadful episode in American history is carried off rather well although, as always seems to be the case with films based on historical events, a lot of what transpires in the film never happened, which IS annoying to history buffs like myself. At least the film was shot during the winter in the Donner Pass near Truckee, California, which helped with the verisimilitude." Horror News.Net gave the film a positive review, writing, "Overall "The Donner Party" was a nice change from the hard core horror films that I usually watch. I have a feeling it will be shown in a lot of high school history classes in the future as there is really nothing offensive that would make it inappropriate for younger viewers. If you are in the mood for something a little different I suggest you give it a try. I also recommend that you have something to eat on hand while watching it as I was starving by the time I was done watching it. Then again, maybe I have issues." "Famished" or "The Donner Party" is based on a true event which is fine, the story is there so to speak, but the execution is not. It´s a low-budget film and that shows all to well. The film has nothing that really grabs your attention and you simply don´t care for non of the characters. Wobbly acting, strange editing, so so cast and the slow pace is not helping even if that is intentional. As I haven´t red anything about the real event, I have seen reviews saying that what we see is mostly fictional, loosely based on the actual tragedy and that doesn´t really help either. Nah, this is nothing to write home about. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review don s A poor example of movie-making. Horrible acting portraying what can only be guesswork (for obvious reasons) about what happened on this part of the expedition. Cross-country travelers in search of the California Dream are led astray and stuck in the Sierra Nevada mountains during the winter. A small party from the group of 82, calling themselves Forlorn Hope, set out to make it on their own and send back help for the others. Food runs out quickly and there is no game to be had. Survival takes a turn to the morbid... Rated 1 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis Snow traps a California-bound wagon train of travelers (Crispin Glover, Clayne Crawford, Christian Kane) in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
      Director
      T.J. Martin
      Producer
      Greg Ives
      Screenwriter
      T.J. Martin
      Production Co
      Anacapa Entertainment
      Rating
      R (Some Violence)
      Genre
      History, Drama
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Mar 22, 2016
      Runtime
      1h 35m
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