What a load of rubbish!!! Meradith couldnt act her way out of a wet paper bag!!! BLONDE hair...............hello!! Laura did not have blonde hair, it was brown!!! Almanzo was equally as bad!!
In mho, avoid this like the plauge, do your self a favour, read Lauras own books, and William Andersons also. Far better.
I saw this film a few years ago when it came out on CBS, and in my opinion, this film was definitely more true to the books than the Michael Landon version. As much as I love Landon's version, it wasn't what Laura Ingalls Wilder herself wrote about. Beyond the Prairie was more historically accurate, which is what I was looking for. And it didn't disappointment.
Regarding the classic TV series, the writers should have said "Loosely based on the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder".
Fair enough, it did stick to the books better than the series, but still bad acting!!
shareYes, it stuck to the text, but the continuity stank. When they leave town to start their new life, and it's deep snow everywhere - except in some shots where it's green summer grass! Ouch!
Still, I'd recommend it as an introduction to the less sacharrine-sweet side of Laura's life. She burns the house down, Manly gets sick, people die, Mrs Bouchie is horrid. It wasn't all flowers and sunshine.
It could have been a better movie, if the casting choices were picked better. What a lousy choice for Laura. All of the cast could have been picked better, and are there no burnett little girls and teenagers out there to play Rose? Tess Harper as the narrator? Come on, pleasssse. In the series Melissa Gilbert did the narration, now why didn't they ask Melissa to do it? It would have sounded and felt more like a Laura movie.
shareI think it could have been a better movie if they had gotten the facts right. I'm not just talking about the books Laura wrote, but also biographies and research outside of that.
This "True Story" is pockmarked and littered with dozens of inaccuracies.
I understand that her life was not very glamorous from a Hollywood standpoint but the fact of the matter is that Mrs. Wilder's life and the facts as she put them to paper are what her fans want to see. Not Hollywood's idea of what we want to see.
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