Movie Review

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Movie Review | The Journal of American History, 86.3 | The History Cooperative

Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery. Prod. by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns. Florentine Films and WEAT-TV, 1997. 240 mins. (PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, VA 22314-1698)

The general public loved this film. It fell on a rising tide of interest in the expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark—a tide generated in large part by the upcoming bicentennial and by the spectacular success of Stephen Ambrose's biography of Lewis, Undaunted Courage (1996). All of the enticing signatures of a Ken Burns production are here—the background music of banjo, guitar, and piano; the judicious use of old photographs (mainly of Native Americans later in the century) and paintings; narration and analysis by experts; and spectacular river and mountain photography. The film covers the entire expedition, from initial preparations to the death of Lewis by suicide in 1809. Dayton Duncan, author of Out West: An American Journey (1987), wrote the script, and he and Ambrose provide three-fourths of the comments. Hal Holbrook narrates. In this labor of love, the major sins are of omission, not commission. . . .

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