Lewis and clark corps of discovery movie

Lewis and clark corps of discovery movie full#

The story is one of individual triumph and tragedy, and its cast members-a slave, several women who save the expedition at key moments, and veterans of a bitterly fought revolution-represent the early Republic in microcosm. Having chronicled the Civil War and baseball, among other subjects, filmmaker Ken Burns collaborates with historian Dayton Duncan to craft this moving portrait of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-6. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. And a wealth of paintings, photographs, journal sketches, maps, and film images from the PBS documentary lends this historic, nation-redefining milestone a vibrancy and immediacy to which no American will be immune. Ambrose, William Least Heat-Moon, and Erica Funkhouser, enlarge upon important threads in Duncan's narrative, demonstrating the continued potency of events that took place almost two centuries ago. An elegant preface by Ken Burns, as well as contributions from Stephen E. Plentiful excerpts from the journals kept by the two captains and four enlisted men convey the raw emotions, turbulent spirits, and constant surprises of the explorers, who each day confronted the unknown with fresh eyes. Their story may have passed into national mythology, but never before has their experience been rendered as vividly, in words and pictures, as in this marvelous homage by Dayton Duncan. Along the way they would face incredible hardship, disappointment, and danger record in their journals hundreds of animals and plants previously unknown to science encounter a dizzying diversity of Indian cultures and, most of all, share in one of America's most enduring adventures. Together they would cross the continent, searching for the fabled Northwest Passage that had been the great dream of explorers since the time of Columbus. The unlikely crew came from every corner of the young nation: soldiers from New Hampshire and Pennsylvania and Kentucky, French Canadian boatmen, several sons of white fathers and Indian mothers, a slave named York, and eventually a Shoshone Indian woman, Sacagawea, who brought along her infant son. The expedition, led by two remarkable and utterly different commanders - the brilliant but troubled Meriwether Lewis and his trustworthy, gregarious friend William Clark - was to be the United States' first exploration into unknown spaces.

In the spring of 1804, at the behest of President Thomas Jefferson, a party of explorers called the Corps of Discovery crossed the Mississippi River and started up the Missouri, heading west into the newly acquired Louisiana Territory.

Lewis and clark corps of discovery movie full#

The companion volume to Ken Burns's PBS documentary film, with more than 150 illustrations, most in full color.