Keeping the Promise (1997) (TV)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Sheldon Larry

Writer:

Gerald Di Pego (writer)

Release Date:

5 January 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Harsh elements, disease and dilemmas mark a Massachusetts family's move to uncharted Maine and a better life in 1768. |

Plot Keywords:

New England | Reading | Promise | Pioneer | 18th Century

Cast

Keith Carradine	...	William (Will) Hallowell
Annette O'Toole	...	Anne Hallowell
Brendan Fletcher	...	Matthew (Matt) Hallowell
Gordon Tootoosis	...	Sakniss
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Maury Chaykin	...	Hunter Ben Loomis
David Cubitt	...	Boat Agent
Darrell Dennis
Allegra Denton	...	Sarah Hallowell
Nell Geisslinger
William Lightning	...	Attean
Ashley Saulnier	...	Older Child
Ben Saulnier	...	Young Man Walking
Justin Saulnier	...	Young Child
Pauline Saulnier	...	Woman with Children
Todd Saulnier	...	Man loading drum onto ship
Michael Stevens	...	Colonial

Also Known As:

The Oath (USA) (working title)
The Sign of the Beaver (USA) (video title)

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:L

Filming Locations:

Kleinburg, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Rabbit Ears Productions

Well-meaning but rather wan

An admirable attempt to make a meaningful film about people struggling with real, life-or-death problems, and based on "The Sign Of The Beaver," a well-regarded children's novel. The scene in which the mother (Annette O'Toole) realizes that her child, whom she is cradling in her arms, has just died, is heart-wrenching, because you know that as rare as it has become in modern-day First World countries, it has happened millions of times in human history and probably still happens quite often in some places today.

However, the film suffers from being sanitized for modern TV audiences. Nobody was that clean in colonial times. And with few exceptions, the actors fail to convince that they are playing real people instead of performing for the camera in a Meaningful Period Piece. Also, I recall several glaring anachronisms that ought to have been picked up by any competent script editor and distract from the attempt at realism, as when Matthew says, "I tell you, I'm OKAY." (Emphasis added) According to the Oxford English Dictionary, that famous Americanism was not recorded in print until 1840.