The Far Horizons (1955) watch online HD

The Far Horizons marked Fred MacMurray's return to the Paramount lot where he started his career to co-star with up and coming Charlton Heston in a story of the Lewis&Clark expedition. A landmark event in American history, the story itself strangely has been ignored by Hollywood except for this version. And it doesn't do the journey justice.

But we have to remember that the film is based on a fictional historical novel Sacajawea of the Shoshonis. So the romance between Donna Reed as Sacajawea and Heston as Clark just never happened. In real life she was the wife of Charbonneau the French trapper played by Alan Reed who did not behave as despicably as portrayed here.

Merieweather Lewis was in fact Thomas Jefferson's secretary and Jefferson sending him west to head the expedition was no less than having Tom's eyes and ears right there on the trail. Lewis was a most intense fellow and he would be a suicide in 1809, Clark outlived him by many years. But one thing he did not have was any romantic rivalry with William Clark over the character that Barbara Hale plays, a Virginia planter's daughter and neighbor of Jefferson at Monticello.

As this film would have it, Lewis was mad because Clark had two girls and he had none. The two faced a lot of problems on the trip, but jealousy over romance wasn't one of them.

The film was produced by William Pine and William Thomas who co-produced a whole bunch of B films for Paramount. Bill Pine learned his trade being an associate producer with Cecil B. DeMille. The film was shot on location and bears no small resemblance to some DeMille productions and even more so to King Vidor's classic Northwest Passage.

Still though I wish we just had a straight account of the trip without the phony romance.

"The Far Horizons", made in 1955, is based on the 1803 to 1806 Lewis and Clark expedition to discover a water route from St Louis to the Pacific ocean. It is a nice vehicle for the three stars of the movie.

Fred McMurray had already made 70 movies, and Donna Reed 35 movies, when they made this one. Charlton Heston had only made 13 prior, and a age 30, this one was made right before he became a giant star in the "biblical" series of movies.

Shortly after this movie, McMurray went on to star in the TV series "My Three Sons", and likewise Donna Reed in the "Donna Reed Show" TV series. In this movie, at age 34, she plays the teenage Sacajawea, and does it very well.

Recall that in the 50s most western movies played on the "savage Indian" theme and this one fits that description too. The writer and director took lots of "literary license" with the Lewis and Clark story so it is not to be considered historically accurate. Still, it gives a good, meaningful dramatization of a great historical event in the USA.

In addition, most of the journey filming was done at or near the original Lewis and Clark trail, and the movie contains great scenery of mountains and rivers.

Overall I found the movie very enjoyable, 7 of 10, and fun to watch such veteran actors in a movie almost 50 years ago. And especially since the USA just this year (2000) released the new one-dollar coin commemorating Sacajawea.

Turbulent adventure set against the rich ,romantic tapestry of early Louisiana state . United States has just acquired Louisiana from France . As President Thomas Jefferson (Herbert Heyes) assigns a risked expedition led by U.S. Army Captain Meriwether Lewis (Fred MacMurray) and Lt. William Clark (Charlton Heston) as second in command and they join forces other mountain men to enter virgin trapping territory but must contend with resentful traitors , savage Indians (Larry Pennell , Eduardo Noriega) and several other things . The expeditionary group is sent to survey the territory and go where no white man has gone before . They have to overcome the dangerous land with the help of Sacajawea (Donna Reed) .

Pioneer epic with great stars , gorgeous cinematography by Daniel L. Fapp and majestic landscapes filmed in spectacular scenarios . The movie is partially based on real events , narrating the story about the far country discovery , some explorers came to find the precious land through the dangerous ways , large plentiful rivers , violence and ambition that came with them . This colorful film contains beautiful scenery , tempestuous Indian attacks , war , lawless raids , a love story , intrepid men and women ; at last , in all its wild , brave magnificence , the picture of valiant scouts . Well paced , elegiac Western , including marvelous landscapes from Grand Teton National Park, Moose, Wyoming . Interesting historical/drama/Western is slightly marred by the heavily relationship between Heston and Donna Reed . This poetic film focuses the insertion of human being into nature and with the "Native Americans" . This is a lyric Western about conquerors , it's a homage to integration between human being and Nature . The whole piece of adventure teems with emotion , thrills , exotic atmosphere and being pretty entertaining . It's a medium budget film with good actors , technicians , production values and pleasing results . Charlton Heston gives a good acting as a rugged scout who falls in love for an Indian woman , Heston along with Donna Reed form a memorable couple . However , the lead roles , Fred MacMurray and Charlton Heston , were originally offered to Gary Cooper and John Wayne, but Cooper vehemently rejected the offer . Sensitive as well as enjoyable musical score by Hans J. Salter . The motion picture was professionally directed by Rudolph Mate .

The real deeds were the followings : The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the first American expedition to cross what is now the western portion of the United States, departing in May, 1804 from St. Louis on the Mississippi River, making their way westward through the continental divide to the Pacific coast. The expedition was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson shortly after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, consisting of a select group of U.S. Army volunteers under the command of Captain Meriwether Lewis and his close friend Second Lieutenant William Clark. Their perilous journey lasted from May 1804 to September 1806. The primary objective was to explore and map the newly acquired territory, find a practical route across the Western half of the continent, and establish an American presence in this territory before Britain and other European powers tried to claim it. The campaign's secondary objectives were scientific and economic: to study the area's plants, animal life, and geography, and establish trade with local Indian tribes. With maps, sketches and journals in hand, the expedition returned to St. Louis to report their findings to Jefferson . Regarding Sacagawea character , she was a Shoshone Indian woman who arrived with her husband Toussaint Charbonneau on the expedition to the Pacific Ocean . Though she has been discussed in literature frequently, much of the information is exaggeration or fiction. Scholars say she did notice some geographical features, but "Sacagawea...was not the guide for the Expedition, she was important to them as an interpreter and in other ways. The sight of a woman and her infant son would have been reassuring to some indigenous nations, and she played an important role in diplomatic relations by talking to chiefs, easing tensions, and giving the impression of a peaceful mission.In his writings, Meriwether Lewis presented a somewhat negative view of her, though Clark had a higher regard for her, and provided some support for her children in subsequent years.

For what it is, an almost total fabrication of the events involved in the exploration of the Louisiana territory, the film is an enjoyable, beautifully shot adventure but for the real story look elsewhere. Donna Reed is ridiculously cast as Sacajawea, Katy Jurado who was actively working in Hollywood at the time would have been far more suitable. She gives an earnest reading of the part but if this is the best the studios could find for her after her Oscar win it's little wonder that she had moved over to TV within a few years. MacMurray although first billed actually disappears for several stretches of the film and Heston, who is ideal in this sort of picture, carries the bulk of the movie.

This is the year of the bi-centennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition, which (with the purchase of the Louisiana Territory) is the best recalled accomplishment of the Thomas Jefferson administrations. This is also the sole major film made about this first step into westward expansion. I suppose one should be grateful for any such film but one wishes it was closer to the truth and was a bit more detailed. Meriweather Lewis (Jefferson's nephew and secretary) and William Clark (half-brother of frontier legend George Rogers Clark)were chosen to leave from the formerly French settlement of St. Louis up the Missisippi and Missouri Rivers into what became Montana, Idaho, and Washington until they reached the Pacific Coast, and then returned by a southern route back to St. Louis again. Their expedition was assisted by Sacajawea, an Indian woman, who helped the two explorers communicate with the various Indian tribes on the trek. Remarkably only one man died (of a ruptured appendix) in the two year journey. They returned in 1806, and their final report and drawings were published in 1808.

Jefferson was keen on showing that his deal with Napoleon I of France was not ridiculous. After all, it had cost fifteen million dollars to buy the territory of Louisiana (originally Jefferson just wanted to buy the city of New Orleans). Napoleon's reasons were a combination of need (he could use the money) and rationalism in the face of disaster. Napoleon had wanted to reestablish France's overseas power, and hope to base it on the rich colony of Haiti. Unfortunately the former slaves of Haiti had been revolting for over a decade, led by a brilliant soldier and politician Toussaint L'Overture. Although L'Overture was captured and died in prison, his three associates (Jean Dessalines, Henri Christophe, and Jean Petion) were highly capable in keeping the French at bay. So was yellow fever and plague that decimated the French armies. Napoleon knew he could no longer build up his overseas empire, so he took the money for what was now a white elephant. Jefferson was the beneficiary of all this, but he was aware that many questioned if the country should have spent all the money it did for this land. Since Jefferson had been critical about military expenditures that the Federalists had practiced under Washington and Adams he really had to demonstrate the purchase was not a blunder.

The expedition did exactly that. It suggested the huge natural resources now under American control. It also countered claims from other European countries to the west coast of the U.S. (Russians in Alaskan and California, Spaniards in the Southwest, and England in Canada - especially after the exploration of MacKenzie in British Columbia). Therefore it can be said that Jefferson's deal was of critical importance to the future of the U.S.

The film concentrates of the expedition to the point of it reaching the Pacific, with MacMurray as Lewis and Heston as Clark, and Donna Reed as Sacajawea. A fictitious romance between Heston and Reed is created (actually a triangle, as she is married to French trapper Alan Reed). She eventually has to decide to stay with Clark, to the detriment of his career, or leave him. And in the end the only person who can help her is the President (Herbert Heyes).

As the sole film about this great undertaking it is a good film, not a great one. It ends with the successful return of the leaders to Washington. It does not follow the other events of the westward expansion of the period to be discussed: the controversy of the expedition of Zebulon Pike into what is now Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas in 1805 - 06, the Burr Conspiracy and treason trial (see "Magnificent Doll"), and the tragedy of Lewis. Lewis was appointed first governor of the territory, but had political problems from the first day. He was ordered to return to Washington in 1809 to answer questions, but he died violently on the trip at Grider's Mill, a spot on the desolate "Nachez Trace" of Tennessee. Either he committed suicide (most books say he did) or he was murdered by his enemies. Clark died in 1837.

In 2011, "Time" magazine listed this as one of the 10 historically misleading films! As a retired American history teacher, it's pretty obvious what I think about the film!! Some of the ridiculously wrong portions of the film include a romance between Clark and Sacagawea (she was pregnant and married to Charbonneau in real life) as well as having the Donna Reed play this lady!! It's hilarious hearing her, with her perfect diction and Midwestern accent, playing a native. So how do they make her look like an Indian? LOTS of paint and a wig! I think Divine would have been about as convincing (and a lot more entertaining)!! Despite this romance NEVER occurring, it is the main focus of the film! And, despite the nasty natives in the film, for the most part, the tribes the expedition encountered were very peaceful.

If you can completely ignore the film's MANY inaccuracies, it is a very nice looking but dull film. The color is amazingly nice--and has that nice 1950s color scheme. It also has many lovely location shots and is HUGE in scope. And, if you ignore most of the details, the film did get the gist of the actual story! There were folks named Lewis and Clark and they did explore the western portion of the United States. As for the acting, it was generally good, but Fred MacMurray didn't seem to have a lot to do but scowl. Poor guy. And William Demarest sounded VERY peculiar--with an accent that came and went and seemed like it was part Irish, part Scottish and part....God knows! Heston and Reed were fine.

Note: Although the film is VERY pretty, sometimes the images are blurry. Apparently this is caused by differences in shrinkage rates of the color strips put together to make a full-color film. In other words, the red or blue layer might shrink at differing rates in portions of the film--giving a few scenes an odd look today.

Another Note: Films about this expedition neglect to mention that not too long after it was complete that Captain Lewis committed suicide! This dark event was apparently the result of his lifelong struggle with clinical depression. Pretty sad....

If I would have seen the trailer (preview) of this film in the fifties I would probably not have missed it. It had everything to please , the colorful scenes on the river, the great scenery and potentially a great story about Lewis and Clark that wanted to get to the Pacific and faced all kinds of dangers. It had a lot in common with 'The Big Sky' with the advantage of being in color. But 'The Big Sky' was quite a film and 'The Far Horizons' failed. By casting Donna Reed as an Indian woman and making her character so important they went wrong. Reed is a good actress, but this part was not for her. Just comparing her with the Indian girl in 'The Big Sky' we realize why. It is not really her fault, but her character was too much of a cliché. SPOILER AHEAD. I thought the great moment of the film would be when they start seeing the Pacific Ocean. I kept thinking of 'Lawrence of Arabia', that spectacular moment when Peter O'Toole is walking in what seems like an endless desert and suddenly sees the Suez Canal. But in this film, who knows why, probably because they went over budget, this is not shown. The film cuts abruptly to when they are already in the Pacific, celebrating their achievement. Quite a letdown.

A crucial event in American history is rendered dull and unexciting by Hollywood convention; the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition which in the early 1800s conquered unclaimed territory for the ever-growing United States. Production values are glossy and there are a few action highlights, but the handling is uninspired and the slowly-paced film emerges an undistinguished effort overall.

Casting is variable: Fred MacMurray makes for a staid Lewis but Charlton Heston's Clark is, as ever, at home in such larger-than-life surroundings; Donna Reed (as an Indian squaw!) and Barbara Hale provide the none-too-convincing romantic interest - which actually takes up a good deal of the running-time (before the expedition, both men love Hale but she prefers Heston; when the latter meets up with Reed, they fall for each other - but complications of the boring variety arise when it's revealed that she's been promised by the tribe which has abducted her to a villainous French trapper/guide and, even when she finally escapes and goes back to her people, she's spoken for by a rash young Indian brave!). This allows Heston to engage in fisticuffs and he even falls out with MacMurray, but the audience's interest is never more than dimly aroused; however, veteran William Demarest is on hand as a level-headed sergeant who actually keeps the company together during such trying times.

Anyway, the film is watchable enough in itself - though it's better approached, perhaps, as a Western rather than a widescreen spectacular (with which Heston would soon come to be identified)...and, in any case, it's miles behind such celebrated 'epics' of American colonialism as John Ford's DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK (1939) and King Vidor's NORTHWEST PASSAGE (1940).

Many reviewers on this site, and the daytime host of Turner Classic Movies have said, this is the only Hollywood movie that has been made about the Lewis and Clark expedition. They have all been misinformed. This film is so lacking in historical accuracy that I am surprised the heirs of Lewis and Clark (perhaps there aren't any) have not sued the producers for slander. Nothing except the heroism of Sacajawea and the general route of the expedition are portrayed even remotely realistically. Many reviewers have pointed out errors; I will just add a few more: No one in Washington knew there were mountains between the source of the Missouri River and rivers flowing to the Pacific (Jefferson thought an all water route could be developed), the only serious Indian difficulties were met with the Blackfeet, Birchbark canoes were strictly a Chippewa product and western tribes mostly used the much more rugged dugout canoes as they had a ready supply of very large tree trunks for raw material (Idaho, between the Missouri and Columbia Rivers is still a lumber supplying country today), very few Americans knew what a buffalo was in 1806, Judith, not Julia, had her name immortalized in Montana natural features, the explorers were sending back to Jefferson reports and specimens along the way as they proceeded west but it took some time to get a finished narrative to him and some of the crewmen got their reports published before Clark's (Lewis never did finish his). And of course, most notably, Sacajawea was firmly in the familial arms of her French fur trader husband (who was a skunk) for all or most of the trip, even having a son by him on the trail; and it was very unlikely that William Clark had any romantic interest in her. She was a teen ager at the time, and I thought the 34 year old Donna Reed did a good job of playing a teen aged Indian girl, even if no one else did. Also, there actually was an incident when a boat (actually 2 boats) was pulled up around a portage on rollers on track. So we are still waiting for the movie, but there has been some non-fiction work done that is pretty good, entertaining and worth watching.

The "river " movie-as opposed to road movie- was born with Huston (African queen,1950),then continued by Preminger's"River of no return"(1954)."The far horizons" is an entertaining adventure yarn,with a nice cinematography ,a good use of the cinemascope and a very fine cast.Donna Reed stands out,her portrayal of the Indian heroine is very modern,and the last sequence is totally unusual in this kind of movie.

The story is divided into a prologue ("civilization"),the main part (the expedition),and an epilogue (back to" civilization").The dialogue is wittier than in an average western.Some remarks about women's position in both societies are smart .

The "river movie" will reach its artistic peak during the seventies with Herzog's "Aguirre,der Zorn Gottes"(1972)(also an expedition!),the same year as John Boorman's "deliverance".In the nineties,it was still hip,as "the river wild" (1994)shows.

This is not a movie that is accurate historically. The great thing is seeing a well known cast in color making the thing entertaining. While Barbara Hale is best known as Della Street, Perry Mason's Secretary, she is a second banana here in her role as Julia. She appears in the early part of the film and at the end.

What is interesting is that Donna Reed, Fred MacMurray, & Charlton Heston all get equal billing at a time when women's rights really had not started. In fact, Reed is so good that I didn't even realize it was here until I checked the cast list. This is not the typical 1950's film to be sure.

Trouble is that the film really has no chance to get to the true story of Lewis & Clark as it is too busy with fictional relationships to have time. William Demerest (Uncle Charlie on My Three Sons) joins Fred here as he would later on TV. Considering how much fishing Fred is known to have done, I bet he got some in on breaks on this river location shooting.

The movie is entertainment, just not a classic. Paramounts Vista Vision hasn't hurt the quality of the film photography over the years either.

Copyright 1955 by Paramount Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Criterion: 20 May 1955. U.S. release: June 1955. U.K. release: June 1955. Australian release: 8 February 1957. 9,826 feet. 109 minutes. Censored by 2 minutes in the U.K. in order to qualify for a "U" certificate.

SYNOPSIS: In 1803 President Jefferson sends Lewis and Clark on a jaunt to map and explore the Louisiana Purchase.

COMMENT: An impossible script, straight out of dime romance novels, almost defeats this commendable attempt to re-trace the exploratory achievements of Lewis and Clark. Fortunately, there are snatches of action to relieve the triangular tedium, and the scenery — in the hands of Daniel L. Fapp's Technicolor-VistaVision camera — is absolutely breathtaking.

Heston tries manfully to overcome the script's deficiencies of dialogue and inadequate characterization, but is ultimately defeated by an especially unbelievable conclusion. Fred MacMurray had presumably read the script in advance. He doesn't even try. Demarest tries vainly to assert himself. Miss Hale is likewise wasted. Oddly enough, it is Donna Reed who is halfway convincing as the never-take-no Indian girl, despite her obviously too smooth make-up and a puerile fade-out that makes nonsense of her one- tracked devotion.

A colorful Jefferson has the best lines, allowing Herbert Heyes to easily walk away with Far Horizon's acting honors, such as they are.

Maté's direction homes in on the scenery, costumes and sets but makes little sense of the "story".

Fred MacMurray and Charlton Heston portray Lewis and Clark, famed historians who explored the Louisianna Territory as per the instructions of President Thomas Jefferson. This plays very much like a cowboys and indians type of actioneer, but without actual cowboys. We also get a fabricated (so I've read) side love story between Clark (Heston) and lovely squaw Sacajawea (Donna Reed!!), the woman who helped lead the way during the discovery. In this story, MacMurray is the more laid back and serious leader while his partner Heston is - no surprise - rather cynical and the Wild Card of the two. Seems like Chuck played these parts constantly in the first half of this decade. It's always been odd for me to go backwards in time and see Fred MacMurray in straight films, as I grew up with him primarily as the dad from TV's sitcom MY THREE SONS. Here he shares screen time with William Demarest , who was also in the TV show as well. Demarest seemed miscast to me here though, cast as an 1800's sergeant. **1/2 out of ****

The Far Horizons is a 1955 technicolour extravaganza based on the Lewis/Clark expedition of 1803-1805, that explored the North western part of what later became the contiguous part of the United States. Following the Louisana purchase, what is now Washington, Oregon and Idaho, (as well as about half of Montana and parts of several neighbouring states ) was not claimed by the United States or any foreign power, such as Spain, which still controlled much territory in the south-west. The Lewis/Clark expedition paved the way for this territory to be claimed by the USA.

This film has much to commend it, including fantastic scenery/location shooting, some good actors/acting, and a passable plot which casts the expedition in a fairly favourable light, from an ethical standpoint. However it has its weaknesses too; it is somewhat unevenly paced (maybe they ran out of time/money) and perhaps more importantly the film is -considering the events it purports to portray- wildly inaccurate and misleading.

Hollywood has a very poor record when it comes to films that are based on historical events, often blowing minor events out of all proportion, or just making stuff up as it suits them. In this case it is worse than normal because the film is based on a book, and the book is itself a very fictionalised account; really a romance novel, loosely set in a historical context. The result is that this film has been in the top ten of a list of 'misleading historical films'. This sort of thing is all the more annoying when the justification for it "to make a better film" is a promise not made good on. The film is only averagely interesting ("very dull" according to some) and the real events could hardly have been less interesting than those that are portrayed here.

So as history, take it all with a very large pinch of salt; of the characters portrayed that actually existed only a fraction are known to have interacted in any way that remotely resembles the film.

However, overall, despite the film's shortcomings, I quite liked watching it, if only to think that Charlton Heston's acting abilities were clearly much better suited to the roles he took a few years later.

I think that the best thing this movie did to me was to unveil that wonderful character, namely Sacajawea, the Shoshone squaw who helped and guided the Lewis-Clark Expedition. After seeing it I discovered on a very old Reader's Digest issue something about her, just to realize that Sacajawea didn't have any romance with William Clark, because she was already a married woman, namely a guy named Charbonneau with whom she stayed till his death. The real Sacajawea story (or biography), as well as the real Lewis& Clark expedition, are certainly much more interesting than this Hollywood make believe-"historical" movie. For instance, it was lovely to know how Sacajawea was amazed to see a whale skeleton on a West Coast beach. However when she tried to tell this to her tribe's people, they just laughed at her, convicted that she was a liar, that no "fish" could be so big. So the "romantic" approach used in the screenplay, wasted a good opportunity to show either how fascinating the real expedition history has been or the cultural shock experienced by this simple Indian young woman when her tiny inner word was broadened by the unique opportunity she had to explore the unknown, together with the duo of white explorers and their fellows. Other than this, I remember how curious I was to differentiate the optical process used by Paramount (VistaVision) from the CinemaScope, the latter implemented by 20th Century Fox and other companies. Other than a sharper resolution, quite between us, it has been deceiving. In short, expeditions like the one the film stages, have a certain similarity with many similar expeditions carried out in Brazil, especially in the XVII century.The difference is that Lewis & Clark has been an official enterprise and the ones in Brazil have been a matter of private nature, mostly by adventurers, gold rushers, or cruel people seeking Indians for slavery, a thing that didn't work.Indians were either fragile as to Whites' diseases or too much independent to become slaves. So our Portuguese colonizers turned themselves to Africa.Too bad for it.But very good as to the splendid cultural heritage brought either by Africans or the mix of the three cultures:Indians,African and Portuguese Whites. Other than this I remember Donna Reed's performance, while I hardly remember Charlton Heston in his deep blue uniform. An I had forgotten Fred Mc Murray was on the film. In short, some thrill, some sightings in true Technicolor, but as to History, Hollywood just tried it...

Sorry for my bad English...

A 'River Expedition ' with a touch of humanism. As action-film , it is weak. We arrive at the sea without realizing it...

Indian and Women are presented more sympathetically that in the 'classic' westerns, but it remains limited. (A good women is a good housewife...) On the other hand, the only French of the film is a dirty and fat bad guy. It is a shame. I am hurt as a louse (French expression). Because of that I shall give 4 instead of 5. It's my revenge.

I can see when you want to take liberties with certain historical films but this was absolutely ridiculous.

Despite beautiful cinematography, what natural resources do we see depicted in this 1955 blunder of a film.

Not only are there historical inaccuracies, this film is made into some sort of love triangle that never existed. It's really about Lewis fending off suitors for Sacajawea.

Donna Reid looks haggard in the role of the great Indian woman. Whoever made her up should really have been dismissed from the make-up department. William Demarest delivers his lines as if he is coming straight out of Brooklyn, New York. I haven't stopped laughing when he said Louisiana Purchase. The "ur" in that word was made to sound like "oi" instead.

Fred MacMurray and Charlton Heston do their best with the exceptionally bad screen writing. At least, Heston had good thoughts-his next project would be the awesome "The Ten Commandments."

This film was in Vista Vision. For the life of me, I never quite understood what that film process was all about. No wonder it quickly went out of vogue. The picture should have followed.

I thought it was appropriate to reflect on the following issue, "Is historical accuracy relevant to the quality of a film?" If it is manufactured to provide a true representation of history, maybe so. But if it as manufactured as an entertainment vehicle, maybe not.

As a piece of fiction, I believe this film to be one of the finest works of western lore ever recorded. It appeals to both men and women. It promotes ethical values. And it fills the viewer with the full range of emotions that it is expected to.

I won't waste your time with the details of the plot, you can find that by the ton here. All I can tell you is that I believe that anyone who is willing to invest the time will absolutely love this.

See this movie for the first time on TCM for a primer on Hollywood studio film making in the post-war '50s. Get The Journals of Lewis and Clark edited by Bernard DeVoto for the best story you will ever read about the discovery of the American West, and it's all true. The book is in libraries and at Amizon.com. Second choice: Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose.

The stars of the movie (Fred MacMurray, Charlton Heston, Donna Reed) are Hollywood legends but their acting is as uninspired as the script. William Demarest as Sgt. Gass is the only believable character. The combat scenes are total fiction. Only one member of the Corps of Discovery died (of an illness)and only one Indian was shot, for trying to steal a horse from Lewis one night in Monatana on the return trip.

As others have reported, the love story is contrived but remains a fascination in Western romance novels about Sacajawea. The joke is on the film makers because The Journals ooze sex between the men of the Corps and women of some of the tribes. Lewis was the medic and half of his medicine it seems was used to treat the men suffering from venereal diseases.

Read the book; maybe someday Hollywood will make the movie.

Note to reviewers: Use of the term "squaw" has been politically incorrect for some time.

'The Far Horizons' is a film in which an expeditionary force, commanded by Captain Meriwether Lewis (Fred MacMurray) and Lt William Clark (Charlton Heston), sets out to explore newly acquired US territory. The film begins with an atmospheric party at which the news of the American expansion is broken, and arrangements are made to investigate. Subsequent scenes are ominous and foretelling, and handle this effect quite well. Sadly, it tends to go downhill from there. Although MacMurray, Heston and Donna Reed (who plays a helpful young Native woman and romantic interest of Lt Clark) play their parts well, the uncertainty of the surveyors' mission renders the film's direction ambiguous at times. The cinematography is in parts very good, and the tedious, repetitive shots that I usually associate with maritime films are satisfyingly rare in 'The Far Horizons'. However, some of the choreography isn't very good, and one or two fight scenes appear pretty poorly designed. Also, many of the Natives are depicted as being quite flat in character and lacking in opinion, and so not many of the supporting cast and extras perform dynamically. The final scenes of the film attempt to be reflective, with a letter being read in a narrative form, but the mediocre and vague drama in the prior scenes lead to this delivery feeling unsubstantiated.

In 1803, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were ordered by President Thomas Jefferson to lead an expedition surveying the territory that the United States had recently acquired by the Louisiana Purchase. Their expedition, which lasted several years, played an important role in increasing Americans' knowledge of the continent on which they lived and in opening it up to white settlement, but "The Far Horizons" is to date the only film on the subject.

Although it is based upon a real-life event, many of the details are heavily fictionalised. A fictional love-triangle is introduced with Lewis and Clark in love with the same woman, Julia Hancock. (Julia was a real person who became Clark's first wife). The triangle becomes a quadrangle when Clark falls in love with an Indian maiden named Sacagawea, even though he is engaged to Julia. Sacagawea was also a real person, who acted as a guide to the expedition, although the love between her and Clark was an invention of the scriptwriters for which there is no historical evidence, just as there is no evidence for Lewis's love for Julia. Their relationship becomes the main focus of the film, which means that the first part of the journey, across the Great Plains, is ignored in favour of the later part through the Pacific Northwest. (Sacagawea was from the Shoshone tribe, who lived in what is today Idaho).

I felt that the film would have been better, in a dramatic sense, if it had followed its own dramatic logic and ended with the marriage of Clark and Sacagawea, leaving Julia free to marry Lewis who has always loved her faithfully. (I know that would have made it even more historically inaccurate than it already is, but historical accuracy was clearly not the film-makers' priority). Instead, it ends with Sacagawea leaving Clark to return to her own people, even though she is in love with him, and him marrying Julia. It has been suggested that this ending was dictated by a Production Code which tolerated interracial love but not interracial marriages, but this cannot be correct as in "Broken Arrow", made five years earlier, the white Tom Jeffords and the Apache maiden Sonseeahray become husband and wife.

Of the male leads Charlton Heston as Clark is the better, although this is far from his best performance. Fred MacMurray, who impressed me in some of his other films such as "Double Indemnity" and "The Caine Mutiny", seems particularly stiff and wooden as Lewis, so much so that I wondered whether the director had deliberately instructed him to play the role in that manner, perhaps to explain why Julia was so uninterested in him despite his devotion to her.

Sacagawea is played by the white actress Donna Reed, something which has given rise to adverse comment in recent years, even though in the fifties it was certainly common for white actors to play characters of different ethnicities, generally with the help of appropriate make-up. The reason in this case was probably financial- the producers needed a well-known leading lady to act as a box-office draw, and in 1955 nearly all famous Hollywood actresses were Caucasian- but it is also possible that this particular piece of casting might have helped overcome any prejudices the audience might have felt about a mixed-race love affair. (Sonseeahray was played by another white actress, Debra Paget). Today, however, the casting of Reed seems unfortunate. Leaving questions of political correctness aside, she looks about as convincing as a Native American as the Black and White Minstrels did as black people, even with the assistance of what looks like dark brown boot-polish smeared all over her face.

Sacagawea may be depicted as a sympathetic character, but the film's depiction of the Indians, portrayed as violent and treacherous, is a generally negative one. This was by no means unusual in the fifties, but even then some films such as "Broken Arrow" took a more liberal view of racial issues. The film certainly does nothing to challenge the nineteenth-century concept of America's "manifest destiny" - the idea that the West was virgin territory inhabited only by "savages" and therefore ripe for colonisation by white Americans- and this view of history can make for uneasy viewing today. The film has its virtues; it can be a rousing adventure with some decent action sequences set against the magnificent scenery of the Northwest. Its attitudes, however, mark it out as very much a product of its time. 6/10

A goof. We are informed that in 1803 all the land lying west of the Rocky Mountains was "unknown territory", and it is even marked as such on a map. In fact, the Spaniards had been colonising California since the 1770s and New Mexico since the 1590s, so this land was hardly "unknown" even to Europeans. I will, however, let the film-makers off as regards the White House. Admittedly, the first written reference to the Presidential Mansion as the "White House" dates from 1811, a few years after the years during which the action takes place, but it is within the bounds of possibility that the term could have been used colloquially prior to this date.