Frontier House
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Adrienne Clune, Aine Clune, Kristen Brooks, Nate Brooks, Rudy BrooksBrand: PBS
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 360 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-07-02
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: PBS
Movie Reviews of Frontier House
Movie Review: Little House On The Prairie meets Survivor
Summary: 5 Stars
I have seen the series but I must confess, I do not yet own the DVD. Even without whatever extras might be featured on DVD this is a very worthy view. They take 5 families, some with kids, and they all must live by the rules of a different era for nearly a year, in an isolated area of Montana. So for a year, all these families, these people from the 21st century, must live like pioneers. They build cabins, dig outhouses, chop wood, plant and tend gardens, raise and harvest animals & try not to starve to death. They can only go for supplies as time and money allows; these trips take a day each way and they shop at a recreated general store, only allowed to buy things possible to obtain in the 1800's. They follow them around with cameras, documenting their lives and struggles. Except for the cameras, everything else is pretty much authentically from the pioneer era. Also, perhaps best of all, in addition to the documenting cameras, each person involved is filmed in more private, confessional-type settings, and they often say whatever they want; personal opinions, feelings about other pioneer community members, all kinds of interesting things. The reasons I like this: It seems to unfold in a very real and natural way, never seems contrived. You get to see first hand, get a first-hand feeling of being there without becoming soiled personally, in a more detailed, more personal way than ever before, how it must have been for our brave pioneering forefathers. It gives you a better understanding and a bigger appreciation for aforementioned forefathers. You get deeply inside these people's lives for a year, feel almost acquainted with them. Like with any show or movie with many characters, you choose favorites, discover one or two with whom you can relate, yet by the end you like even those you at first were not fond of, at least a little. These families struggle and grow as we watch, some growth is in ways that we might imagine and that we could all likely benefit from, other growth is in ways none of us could really imagine, ways none of us in this century are prepared to deal with; all grow stronger in sense of individual strength and discipline, family connectivity, and community values. You get to see these people transformed as you watch in the course of their year, and in some ways you are transformed right along with them. As they live for a year in the past, we watch as they struggle, squabble and form strong bonds with themselves and with one another. By the time they leave, even the worst enemies among them hug tearfully goodbye, and we are right there with them.
In the end a panel of experts on the era come in and evaluate each family, rate their chances of survival if they really had been living in that time and had to live through the coming winter based on how they had done so far and how much they had prepared. These are the same experts who were consulted right along, and who set everything up authentically. Their final findings are surprising, and eye-opening.
All in all an excellent view, which offers a little bit of everything. You get drama, comedy, suspense, some action. You get the struggles man faces when living in the wilderness, living as in an era gone by, trying to make it on his own, and all while trying to coexist in a small community not of his choosing or particular liking.
Good stuff.
Summary of Frontier House
Studio: Pbs Release Date: 05/05/2009 Run time: 360 minutesBased on the sweeping success of PBS' 1900 House, producer Simon Shaw applies the same standards of accuracy and authenticity to this imaginative sequel, giving viewers a glimpse into frontier America during the years proceeding the 1882 Homestead Act when land out West was "free for the taking." Appropriately billed a "docu-soap," Frontier House is part of PBS' House Series, blending documentary and reality programming as three modern American families test their grit and resourcefulness during a five month immersion as pioneers in the Montana Territory. The Clune, Glenn, and Brooks families' daily lives are recorded and condensed into six one-hour episodes chronicling the hardships and, in some cases, humor of building cabins, planting gardens, digging outhouses, chopping wood, and tending livestock?all while bearing the strain of close familial living and neighborly interdependence necessary for survival. While the film's bickering between families grows wearisome, narrator Kathryn Walker provides a historical context, explaining that such squabbles were typical of homesteading communities. PBS deserves kudos for its meticulous and painstaking commitment to the highest caliber of credibility, employing a team of historic preservation specialists to attend to every detail of the series. Highlights include the touching, actual wedding of Nate and Kristen Brooks, and a compelling "Making Of" bonus feature that caps the overall effort with charm and appeal. (Ages 8 and older) Lynn Gibson
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