DONNER PASS - THE ROAD TO SURVIVAL

US, 1984, 98 minutes, Colour.
Robert Fuller, Diane McBain?, Michael Callan, Andrew Prine.
Directed by James L. Conway.

Donner Pass - The Road to Survival is one of many films made about the pioneering treks from East to West in the 19th. century United States. This is a Sunn Classics Illustrated - which means that the emphasis is on attractive visuals, simplified plot and narrative with moralising for the wide television audience. It begins as standard of its kind - but changes with some complexities of the plot as the hero joins General Fremont fighting against the Mexicans and questions of cannibalism for survival during the Rockies winter come to the fore. The Utah location photography is attractive and effective. The cast are regulars of such telemovies and television series. Of impact for American audiences - illustrating something of the American heritage and spirit.

1. The popularity of westerns? The pioneer westerns? The appeal to Americans, non-Americans? The heritage of the opening up of the West?

2. The film's blend of the popular material as well as the serious? Telemovie treatment for home audiences? Colour photography, Utah locations? Action sequences? The score? The style of a Classic Illustrated?

3. Audience expectations and conventional stories of pioneers, harsh winters? How predictable the material and the characters? Unpredictable? The invitation to judgments to be made about the characters and their behaviour?

4. The voice-over device and the hero's comments about his own experience, the others, value judgments? The blend of narrative and action?

5. The establishing of the group, their pioneer background, goals in California, the difficulties of travelling the Rockies? The dangers, the difficulties? Their readiness to face these? The men, the women. the children? The film's quick establishing of characters - without making them particularly clear? Invitation to understand the experience of the pioneers?

6. The clashes? Reid as hero and Kaiser as villain? Kaiser and his exclusion from the group? Others vouching for him - and his later expelling Reid? Reid being outlawed? The later ironies, especially with Kaiser's lack of co-operation and murders?

7. The picturing of the struggles, the hopes, the scouts. the possibilities of moving on., wagons falling, waiting, the change of seasons?

8. The focus on Reid and his survival, his meeting with the scouts, getting food, going to California after failing to reach the party, the encounter with General Fremont, the plan for the capture of the Mexican general, the final rescuing of the group?

9. The picture of the group during the winter: suffering, survival, the man in the ice pool and his freezing to death, the number of deaths, the confrontation with animals - especially the fight with the bear, the cold Christmas and the singing of songs?

10. The reality of cannibalism - and the characters facing reality. difficulties. repugnance, survival? The film's treatment of the reality of cannibalism for survival - not exploiting it but presenting it realistically, especially for the television audience? The invitation for judgment about behaviour in such situations?

11. A romantic and realistic picture of the opening up of the western trails and the hopes of the pioneers of California?