''The Donner Party'' is a 2009 American

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Era, a length or span of time * Full stop (or period), a punctuation mark Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (or rhetorical period), a concept ...

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written and directed by Terrence Martin (credited as T.J. Martin), and starring

Crispin Glover Crispin Hellion Glover (born April 20, 1964) is an American actor. He is known for portraying eccentric characters on screen, such as George McFly in ''Back to the Future'' (1985), Layne in ''River's Edge'' (1986), Andy Warhol in ''The Doors'' ...

Clayne Crawford Joseph Crawford (born April 20, 1978), known professionally as Clayne Crawford, is an American actor. He is known for portraying the role of Martin Riggs on the Fox action comedy-drama television series ''Lethal Weapon'' (2016–2018). He also p ...

, Michele Santopietro,

Mark Boone Junior Mark Boone Junior (born Mark Heidrich; March 17, 1955) is an American character actor, best known for his TV roles as Bobby Munson in ''Sons of Anarchy'' (2008–14) and Patrick "Pat" Brown in '' Last Man On Earth'', and film roles in Christopher ...

, and

Christian Kane Christian Kane (born Christopher Michael Short) is an American actor and singer-songwriter. He is known for his roles in the television shows ''Angel'', '' Leverage'', '' The Librarians'', and '' Into the West'', and the movies '' Just Married'', ...

. It is based on the true story of the

Donner Party The Donner Party, sometimes called the Donner–Reed Party, was a group of American pioneers who migrated to California in a wagon train from the Midwest. Delayed by a multitude of mishaps, they spent the winter of 1846–1847 snowbound in th ...

, an 1840s westward traveling group of settlers headed for California. Becoming snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains, with food increasingly scarce, a small group calling themselves "The Forlorn Hope" turned to cannibalism. ''The Forlorn'' was the working title for the film.

Plot

The film opens with text explaining who the Donner Party was and how they ended up in the terrible situation of passing the cutoff.

Cast

as William Foster *

as William Eddy * Michele Santopietro as Amanda McCutchen *

as Franklin Graves *

as Charles Stanton * Crispian Belfrage as Patrick Dolan * Catherine Black as Ann Fosdick * Jamie Anne Allman as Eleanor Eddy * Jack Kyle as Milt McCutchen * Cary Wayne as Jay Fosdick * Alison Haislip as Mary Graves * Mara LaFontaine as Sarah Foster * John A. Lorenz as Luis

Production

As well as being Martin's directorial debut, ''The Donner Party'' was production company Anacapa Entertainment's first feature film. It premiered at the

Austin Film Festival Austin Film Festival (AFF), founded in 1994, is an organization in Austin, Texas, that focuses on writers’ creative contributions to film. Initially, AFF was called the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and functioned to launch the ...

on October 23, 2009, Its DVD release was three months later on January 26. Shooting was swift, with

principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

at the

Donner Pass Donner Pass is a mountain pass in the northern Sierra Nevada, above Donner Lake and Donner Memorial State Park about west of Truckee, California. Like the Sierra Nevada themselves, the pass has a steep approach from the east and a gradual appro ...

, California taking only 12 days.Brown, Jenn.
AFF Review: The Donner Party
. ''Slackerwood''. November 2, 2009. Retrieved March 13, 2010.The Donner Party
. ''

First Look Studios First Look Studios was a former American independent film distributor, that specialized in home video releases of films and television series. History In 1980, Robert and Ellen Little founded Overseas Filmgroup as a film sales company for forei ...

''. Retrieved March 13, 2010. Originally, the work had a higher budget, with greater use of child stars and a longer shooting schedule. However, the original production company pulled funding for the project, so several changes were made. The title change was a marketing choice by the distributor. The soundtrack was done by the Aspiro Choir under Mary Amond O'Brien.

Release

The film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

by First Look Pictures on January 26, 2010. It was later re-released by

Millennium Entertainment Alchemy (formerly Millennium Entertainment) was an American independent global film distributor based in Los Angeles, California. The company acquired and distributed feature films, television series and specialty programming. History Millennium ...

on October 20, 2015 as a part of its 12 Movie Sci-Fi Pack.

Reception

The website Bloody Good Horror gave the film an unfavorable review, describing Crispin Glover's performance as boring and the story dull. "Simply put, 'The Donner Party' is a plodding chore of a movie to watch. It’s a history professor’s voiceover away from being indistinguishable from your average History Channel reenactment."

Dread Central Dread Central is an American website founded in 2006 that is dedicated to horror news, interviews, and reviews. It covers horror films, comics, novels, and toys. Dread Central has won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Website f ...

awarded the film a score of three out of five, commending Glover and Boone Junior's performances, writing: "T.J. Martin's cinematic version of this dreadful episode in American history is carried off rather well although, as always seems to be the case with films based on historical events, a lot of what transpires in the film never happened, which IS annoying to history buffs like myself. At least the film was shot during the winter in the Donner Pass near Truckee, California, which helped with the verisimilitude." ''Horror News.Net'' gave the film a positive review, writing, "Overall "The Donner Party" was a nice change from the hard core horror films that I usually watch. I have a feeling it will be shown in a lot of high school history classes in the future as there is really nothing offensive that would make it inappropriate for younger viewers. If you are in the mood for something a little different I suggest you give it a try. I also recommend that you have something to eat on hand while watching it as I was starving by the time I was done watching it. Then again, maybe I have issues."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Donner Party (2009 film) 2009 independent films 2009 films 2009 drama films American drama films Films set in California Films shot in California American independent films Donner Party Drama films based on actual events Films about cannibalism 2000s English-language films 2000s American films