bilesteve-749-834229
If I could give a rating lower than 1 star, this movie would deserve it. It has almost no connection to the reality of a great and true story and should never been made like this.The true story of Mary Draper Ingles in readily available and like others, I read the novel of "Follow the River" by Mr. Thom and it was outstanding and hugely impressive story of a real American heroine. Her real story deserves to be told as awful as it was without the revisionism of someone politically correct with little connection to the true story other than names.Because I loved the Thom novel so much, I sought out and bought the manuscript written by her son in the early 1800s. Looking at her son's account (as told to him by his mother and father), Thom did very little embellishment to the true account, whereas the writers of this movie changed most everything to make it a happy little story.Don't waste your time or money to see this version, get the basics from and Internet search and a fuller understanding of the reality by reading Thom's novel.Mary Draper Ingles was probably one of the strongest women that I have ever heard (or not heard) of, not only physically, but mentally, spiritually, and of will. She deserves an accurate portrayal of her losses and her indomitable will. She is a true heroine to me, not this worse than sugar-coated fairy tale.
celticknotz
Several years ago I read this book. I loved the book. So when I saw it was on TV this afternoon I decided to watch it.I know that books are nothing like the movie and movies are never like the book but after 30 minutes I had to turn this drivel off.It was bad enough that it is not accurate to the book or even history but the fact that everyone looked like a character from a romance novel just sent me over the edge.Just a bad bad movie. Not even worth writing anymore about. But it is seems I have to write more to get this posted! It amazes me that people will take the time & money to make movies based on books and then just take the title and character names. This movie is a great example of why if you are to read the book you can't get away with watching the movie!
frostybird
I know it has been 10 years since this show aired, but now that I'm registered at IMDb I felt it necessary for my FIRST comment to go to the one show that has forever been stuck in my mind as having been ruined - Follow The River. I, like Mari-36, read the book in my teen years (my mother's copy as well) loved the book so immensely. When the movie aired on television, I was dumb-founded that anything could be so contrived. Especially when the book (even though itself was only based on the true story of Mary Ingles) layed everything out on the table. The screenplay was molly-coddled for all of the sensitive people out there in tele-world and it would have to be considering it is public television, aired during family hours. Would public television, in 1995, be able to show a gray-haired Mary in nothing but her "bare" essentials? It REALLY should have been made into a 3hr movie for the true movie buffs out there (preferably directed by James Cameron). That way, the people involved with writing the script wouldn't have to mamby-pamby around. It's possible that THEY even wanted to give it a broader scope, but considering the audience is a must when you write for t.v.My advice - skip the show, read the novel.... twice. :)
DansLaLuna1
A few years ago, I was at a pub in Santa Monica, CA. Having a beer and reading John Irving's "A Prayer for Owen Meaney". A man was sitting next to me and we struck up conversation about the book, and if it could be made in to a movie (Which, sad to say, it sort of was in the guise of "Simon Birch", another book ruined by Hollywood, but I digress)This man then asked me what great book I had read which I thought would be a great movie, and I said "Follow the River". I explained the story to him (Mari's review is great)and even that I would cast Eric Schweig as Wildcat. Less than a year later, viola, this god-awful movie shows up on television (and I don't think it was a coincidence). This book is so beautiful, a tale of strong will and courage, overcoming great odd's. And it's turned into American-pie everyone lives happily ever after fodder. Why must Hollywood take wonderful books and ruin them. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
AD
