The Awakening Land (DVD)

Unschooled homesteader Sayward Luckett couldn't read her name if you showed it to her, yet she fell in love with and married agnostic, book-learned frontier lawyer Portius Wheeler. Now it's time to make a life with him in wild, wooded 1790s Ohio Territory. There will be children, seven in all; joy and hardships aplenty; inconstancies of heart; and the enduring legacy of settling a new land. Based on Conrad Richter's trilogy of novels (he received a Pulitzer Prize for the third), this miniseries nominated for 6 Emmy Awards? celebrates the pioneering spirit as it chronicles Sayward's heroic, unadorned life. Elizabeth Montgomery and Hal Holbrook (earning two of those six Emmy nominations) lead a strong cast that includes Jane Seymour and W.H. Macy (his first screen credit).

Starring: Elizabeth Montgomery, Hal Holbrook, Jane Seymour, Steven Keats, Louise Latham, Tony Mockus, Derin Altay, Michelle Stacy, Barney McFadden, William H. Macy, Jeanette Nolan, Chelcie Ross, Wilford Brimley, Jerry Tullos, Jane Alderman, Charles Tyner, Robert Padilla, Bert Remsen, Art Kassul, Sean Frye, Johnny Timko, Dennis Dimster, Katy Kurtzman, Byrne Piven, Devon Ericson, Joan Tompkins

Rating: NR