O Pioneers! (1992)

Excellent adaptation.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

There are several very good points to "O Pioneers!" that are partially drowned under miscasting and stilted dialogue. Heather Graham (who plays the younger version of Jessica Lange's character) is the worst of the lot. Even the more talented actors sometimes struggle to get the words out. There are far too many cases throughout where unnecessarily complicated lines are forced to be delivered in a way that is anything but natural. It's too bad that this is the only major flaw, because the constant re-occurrence of the issue is the only thing that keeps "O Pioneers!" from being a great film.Jessica Lange is certainly the best thing here. The emotion and power with which she imbues her character is palpable. David Strathairn, who is one of my favorite actors, is given much less to work with. He tries his best, but the character is written too coldly to truly come to life. The absolute stand-out performance, however, is that of Tom Aldredge. His depiction of Ivar is amusing, alive, deep and absolutely human. Most of the other actors live up to standard, save for the aforementioned dialogue issues.Glenn Jordan directs quite nicely, but it's less his sensibility than the eye of cinematographer Dick Bush that makes "O Pioneers!" so visually appealing. Bush captures a washed-out world of warm-pale greens, blues, and sepia tones that fill you with a sense of longing and overwhelming calm. This film has something in common both visually and thematically with Jordan's film of the previous year, "Sarah, Plain and Tall". That movie is ultimately more consistent and satisfying that this one. I couldn't say there's any reason for me to watch "O Pioneers!" a second time, but it was a meaningful experience in spite of the flaws. It has much to say about contentment and the search for home. You should gain something from it.

I grew up near Red Cloud, Nebraska the home of Willa Cather, author of the O'Pioneers novel. In coming of age I fell in love twice with girls like Jessica Lange. In watching this movie for a second time, I have now fallen in love four times. Most people today associate love with sex, drink, and having fun. They miss the whole point. It is like bringing a city slicker to the prairie and wondering why they just can not see the beauty and joy of nature. If you can not get joy from wheat waving in the wind, you will miss the whole point of laying in it with someone wonderful. This movie brought back these feelings. I even thought wouldn't it be wonderful to have lunch with Jessica Lange to ask what the land taught her.

I was looking at some other reviews of this and felt pressed to say, it rally was pretty good. Criticisms that it was predictable are a bit unfounded when you remember that this was based on Willa Cather's novel.She wrote it first. I enjoyed the production. It talked about how people make decisions that have consequences beyond their expectations. The affair between Marie and Emil is more about Marie's decision to marry who and when she did. These things could happen today. Still, the slice of life in for American settlers is what has always drawn me to Willa Cather's works. I think Hallmark's depiction is quite solid. Jessica Lange was a good choice for the lead. Her story could have been that of so many others. Nowadays we forget that this country was settled by people faced with different choices and harder lives than we face today.

Alternately tragic and triumphant story of Alexandra Bergson's love of the sometimes unwelcoming farmland of the southern Nebraska plains. Captures well the quiet tone of Willa Cather's best work--had she seen this, she might have rethought her (evidently ignored) demand in her will that her work not be adapted. All the performances are excellent, including early performances by Reed Diamond and Anne Heche as the doomed lovers Emil and Marie and one more in a lifetime of stealthily perfect turns by David Strathairn. But the whole enterprise depends on the broad, strong shoulders of Jessica Lange's Alexandra. Looking more than ever before like a beautiful, lanky, long-necked mare of a woman, Lange's spirit expands to fill the wide-open landscape. Don't expect a thriller when this comes up, but if you see it, you'll remember it forever.