Nice with a film with almost only female heroes. Normally not happening. And ... they are strong characters!
What makes this movie worth seeing is the overall acting. Most of the acting I would say, because some of the roles are a bit corny, played almost as caricatures of real characters. An example is how the Indians were portrayed, hard cut, non sensitive, but proud, wildlings. Not a specially deep picture of them in my opinion. Another example is the black people, the slaves. They are portrayed as happy, easygoing, well fed, to their white owners lovingly second class people. It is almost funny sometimes to see how they enjoy their work in the cotton fields.
The women on the other hand, are characterised better.
The dialogues are not great although they are survivable most of the times. At many occasions the dialogues feels like they are written from a modern, almost political, point of view. This regards for example the Indians, the black people, the mixed people, the Mexicans and the Indian hating Texas rangers. This takes the film in those sequences to a shallow level, which is a pity, as those statements seems very constructed. It does not seem historically correct.
The sceneries are well done, clothing, buildings, the spoken dialects, well, many things make up for the flaws and you follow those women though their lives with a lot of tragic events along the road. But they survive, well not all, but anyway, and have a good spirit in doing so.
Over all, I have very hard to forgive those bad scripted characters, and I wouldn't give this film a 5 star, but the female actors made this film worth seeing at least one time. And, if not for anything else, the fantastic Dana Delany.
What makes this movie worth seeing is the overall acting. Most of the acting I would say, because some of the roles are a bit corny, played almost as caricatures of real characters. An example is how the Indians were portrayed, hard cut, non sensitive, but proud, wildlings. Not a specially deep picture of them in my opinion. Another example is the black people, the slaves. They are portrayed as happy, easygoing, well fed, to their white owners lovingly second class people. It is almost funny sometimes to see how they enjoy their work in the cotton fields.
The women on the other hand, are characterised better.
The dialogues are not great although they are survivable most of the times. At many occasions the dialogues feels like they are written from a modern, almost political, point of view. This regards for example the Indians, the black people, the mixed people, the Mexicans and the Indian hating Texas rangers. This takes the film in those sequences to a shallow level, which is a pity, as those statements seems very constructed. It does not seem historically correct.
The sceneries are well done, clothing, buildings, the spoken dialects, well, many things make up for the flaws and you follow those women though their lives with a lot of tragic events along the road. But they survive, well not all, but anyway, and have a good spirit in doing so.
Over all, I have very hard to forgive those bad scripted characters, and I wouldn't give this film a 5 star, but the female actors made this film worth seeing at least one time. And, if not for anything else, the fantastic Dana Delany.