The story of the Donner Party is one of the best-known minor tales of U.S. history. This group of enterprising pioneers headed west in the land rush of the 1840s, only to fall afoul of bad directions, bad decisions, and bad weather. Trapped in the mountains for the winter, many resorted to cannibalism to stay alive. Gruesome but true, this story made headlines in its day (people have always had a sensationalist streak) and continues to be a haunting reminder that the "American Dream" turned into a nightmare for some.

The PBS presentation of The Donner Party, a film by Rick Burns, offers an interesting look at the fate of the Donners and the other pioneers who accompanied them. The film takes as its theme the idea that the American dream of wealth, and most notably a short-cut to wealth, has been a will o' the wisp for countless people over the years, leading a few to great achievements but many more to downfall. In this context, the Donners are not a tragic exception to a national success story, but an instance of the much more ordinary tragedy of otherwise sensible people overreaching their capabilities and coming to a bad end.

The film does appear to assume that viewers know the bare details of the story of the Donners, so what I've mentioned so far won't spoil anyone's enjoyment of the documentary. After some introductory comments from present-day historians and writers, the film begins at the beginning, setting up the context for the Donners' decision to pull up stakes and head out west. The documentary follows them in their preparations and in the beginning, middle, and ultimately the end of their journey, with both an overall narrator and various voice actors reading excerpts from diaries and letters written by the participants in the journey.

The Donner Party does a good job of setting the incidents of the Donners in the larger context of the westward migration of settlers to California; by the end of the program, I felt that I had gained a greater appreciation of the overall pioneer movement as well as the specific story of the Donner Party. The use of many actual photographs from the era, including photographs of the actual members of the party, helps bring the era to life for modern viewers as well, and gives the film a seriousness that would have been lacking, I think, if it had used reenactments instead.

And it is a serious film, not just in the subject matter but also in its even-handed treatment of the people involved. The Donners were not model pioneers trapped by an unexpected snowstorm; bad luck may have brought the final blow on them, but poor decisions were what got them to a point where a bit of bad luck meant life or death rather than inconvenience. The narrative highlights the individuals involved, and for the most part lets us draw our own conclusions about how the experience brought out the best and the worst in those concerned.

The main fault I'd find with The Donner Party is that it thrusts a large number of names at the viewer and appears to assume that the viewer will actually remember who's who. Apart from recognizing that there was a family of the Donners and another of the Reeds, and some other unrelated hired workers, I never could keep track of the individual names. It's not an issue for most of the film, but toward the end, when the Donner Party stalls out in the mountains, the narrative puts a fair amount of emphasis on who is doing what, and where; with the limited context provided, a few parts of the documentary were a bit confusing. On the whole, however, it's a well-crafted piece that shows the human face of a morbidly fascinating bit of U.S. history.

The DVD

Video

The Donner Party, originally created for television, is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The film itself is mostly composed of still photographs from the 1800s interspersed with modern footage of the landscapes the emigrants traveled through and a few interviews. Overall, the transfer handles color and contrast well, both in the sepia tones of the old photographs and in the colors of the landscape in the modern footage. Surprisingly, I did notice a certain amount of noise in some of the still photographs, and scratches and other print flaws appear occasionally throughout the film. The transfer could have been cleaned up a bit more to get rid of the noise and flaws, but other than that, it's very nice and certainly quite acceptable for a documentary.

Audio

The Dolby 2.0 stereo soundtrack makes for an enjoyable listening experience with The Donner Party. The mainstay of the soundtrack is the narration, which alternates between the general narrator and various voice actors reading excerpts from the letters and diaries of the Donner Party. All their voices come across clearly and naturally. The sound overall is clean and clear, with no background noise.

Extras

I would actually give this DVD negative stars for special features if I could. Someone in the PBS DVD department got the bright idea that it wasn't enough that viewers would be supporting PBS by actually buying the DVD; no, they'd force everyone to sit through several minutes of commercials from companies sponsoring PBS. In this case, what makes it even worse is that it is not possible to either skip or fast-forward through this commercial force-feeding.

The DVD does tout some special features, but effectively it has none. Some supporting material is stated to be available on the PBS website, but I firmly believe that any special features should be included on the DVD itself. The material on the web site is only accessible if the DVD owner has internet access... and only so long as someone is willing to keep the material up on the site, which is unlikely to be forever.

Final thoughts

The Donner Party offers an interesting and informative look at U.S. history in the 1840s, providing insight into the larger pioneer movement of the time as a context for the specific story of the tragedy of the Donner Party. It's a nicely done documentary, with a serious and thoughtful style well supported by photographs from the time. I probably wouldn't watch it more than once, but it's certainly worthwhile for any viewers intrigued by the subject or by that period of U.S. history in general.