Young Pioneers (1976 TV Movie) User Reviews

Some Background

[PrairieCal · 8/10 · 26 February 2017]

In 1933 Rose Wilder Lane published a book called "Let the Hurricane Roar," which was also published as a serial in The Saturday Evening Post. This was a fictionalized adult novel about her maternal grandparents, Charles and Caroline Wilder. Roughly forty years later the title was changed to "Young Pioneers," with the names of the characters changed as well. That title, "Young Pioneers" is the only relationship that book has to this film.

In 1938 Rose published a novel called "Free Land," about David and Mary (whom he often called Molly) Beaton. It is "Free Land" on which this film is based. As with all films, much has been changed from the novel. But both the novel and the film will be enjoyable for fans of the Wilder family and the Little House Books. This film accurately portrays the struggles Dakota homesteaders faced in the late 19th century, yet is a great family film and will be enjoyed by adults as well as children.

Libertarian's vision of newly weds surviving 1873 Dakota homesteading

[weezeralfalfa · 8/10 · 12 December 2013]

This TV drama served as the pilot for a short-lived TV series of the same title. Presumably, the series was soon ended because of the much greater popularity of the contemporaneous "Little House on the Prairie" series, which covers much of the same territory. I can see why the latter was more successful. The family characters included many children, the actors generally more charismatic, the events more believable, and humor more abundantly blended with adversity. This film is based mainly on 2 novels by Rose wilder Lane, while the "Little House" series is based mainly on a series of novels by Rose's mother : Laura Wilder, apparently with Rose's help! Whereas the events in the "Little House" series took place mostly in SW MN, in the tall grass prairie region, this story is sited in the more frontier region of mixed tall and short grass prairie of western Iowa and central SD. It takes place in 1873-4, not long before the nearby Black Hills gold rush, and related Custer's annihilation at the Little Big Horn. More so than in "Little House", this film dramatizes the stark challenges of homesteading in this region. The railroads were then extending their lines into this region, as the plains Native Americans and bison quickly receded from this potential bread basket. One character in the land office articulates the common very mixed feelings toward the railroads, which were essential to market their crops beyond the local region, yet charged high freight rates, and were granted special land gifts and subsidies by governments.

The frequent necessity or choice of homesteaders to abandon their new home in this challenging environment is dramatized in the examples of the Peters, with several children, and the older Swenson couple, without children. However, even the occasional lone bachelor, such as Dan Grey, might make a success of their venture. The Peters, after loosing the mother to the harsh winter, moved to the nearest town, where they found jobs to 'grubstake' another try at homesteading, fixing up an abandoned wood frame cabin not far from the sod buildings constructed by David and Molly Beaton, who are the main characters in the film.

David and Molly are newly weds at the still tender ages of 18 and 16, respectively. although David's father offers to make room for them as a continuing part of his Iowa farm, David is determined to make it on his own as a homesteader in the recently available frontier land of Dakota Territory. Molly is OK to follow his dream.

Arriving at their quarter section, the first main task was to build a sod cabin, barn, well and outhouse, along with planting some crops. Only a very short running time is devoted to this critical stage. In the "Little House" series, a log cabin was the initial house. But, in this virtually treeless landscape, lumber was very dear to haul in, despite the presence of some plank shanties. As David says, their land has plenty of the 3 best types of sod for making sod buildings: slough grass, big bluestem and buffalo grass. As David points out, sod houses offer much better insulation, resistance to prairie and other fires, and resistance to tornadoes and other strong winds than wood-built shanties. However, the 'grasshopper plough', which made sod cutting much easier and better quality, had not yet been invented.

Of course, there were many hazards and challenges to their new life. Lacking 'buffalo chips' and firewood, hay twists had to serve for heating and cooking. Also, Molly couldn't make good soap without hardwood ash. Among other hazards dramatized are injuries to themselves and their work animals, claim jumpers, occasional long blizzards, childbirth without any experienced help, and a crop-destroying attack of the Rocky Mountain migratory grasshopper. The last hazard is credited with being, along with the initial lack of railroads, the most important factor delaying the establishment of crop farming in the upper Great Plains. But, by the dawn of the 20th century, amazingly, this plague had vanished forever. Somehow, a combination of purposeful and accidental control measures lead to the apparent extinction of this species that formerly sometimes filled the prairie skies in the billions!

Some of the feats of this young couple seem unbelievable. They seldom had help from neighbors. I don't understand why Molly chose to give birth alone, even banishing David to the barn during birth! Very lucky it ended well. She had a virtually suicidal tenacity in staying on the homestead with her baby, after David had to go far afield to find a job to allow them to get started again. When David returned in late fall(in a raging blizzard!), they were nearly dead of starvation and freezing. David and Molly embody the ideals of the author of the books they are based on. In her later years, Rose was at the forefront of the libertarian and anti-racist movements, and returned to living a very simple rural life, not too far removed from those of David and Molly.

You may want to see "Pioneer Woman", which covers much the same territory.

Now available as part of an 8 westerns DVD package by Echo Bridge, and on You Tube.

Surprisingly compelling

[Wizard-8 · 23 July 2013]

It's pretty obvious while watching it that the made-for-TV movie "Young Pioneers" was a pilot for a series, which did become a brief reality a couple of years later. But don't worry, this movie is able to stand on its own without seeing the follow-up series. The movie is kind of predictable, and the leads seem to be too old to be playing characters who are in their teens. But all the same it turns out to be surprisingly interesting. It shows the various problems settlers of the era had without laying on the problems too thick. The movie also seems to like its characters, not just with the young couple, but various people that they encounter along the way. It's also fun to see a pre-fame Robert Hays in a small role. This movie is not a masterpiece, but it gets the job done well.