This was a low-budget effort to capture the dire straits that the Donner Party got into when they were stranded at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountains, running out of food. The most interesting thing about the Donner Party isn't the starving/dying, etc. It is HOW they got into the situation in the first place and the events that led up to the Sierras.
While this is primarily a talking head movie set in a bleak, snowy setting, it doesn't develop the characters that much, so in the end it's not exactly a character drama nor an adventure story. Some of the historical elements of the Donner story are accurate, some are not. Crispin Glover's performance was kind of over the top, while others were better. I'm giving it a 5 because I think shooting an indie movie in the snow isn't an easy feat and many of the locations, wardrobe, etc. Were well done.
While this is primarily a talking head movie set in a bleak, snowy setting, it doesn't develop the characters that much, so in the end it's not exactly a character drama nor an adventure story. Some of the historical elements of the Donner story are accurate, some are not. Crispin Glover's performance was kind of over the top, while others were better. I'm giving it a 5 because I think shooting an indie movie in the snow isn't an easy feat and many of the locations, wardrobe, etc. Were well done.