# Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery (1997)

> A two-part PBS documentary that retraces the 1804-1806 Corps of Discovery expedition through the many people who made the journey, not just its two captains.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/39555

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 2
- Episode runtime: 120 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: documentary, history
- Network: PBS
- Cast: John Logan Allen, Stephen E. Ambrose, Gerard Baker, Kevin Conway, Erica Funkhouser, William Least Heat-Moon, Gene Jones, Mylie Lawyer
- TMDB rating: 8.5/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129694/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: none
- Tone: reverent, measured, curious, wistful, contemplative

## Synopsis

Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery (1997) is a two-episode PBS documentary miniseries produced by WETA and Florentine Films. Rather than focusing only on its two captains, the program follows the whole Corps of Discovery, including the young army men, French-Canadian boatmen, an African-American man enslaved by Clark, and the Shoshone woman Sacajawea, who traveled with her infant son. Its engine is the long overland and river journey across a largely unmapped American west, and the obstacles of weather, terrain and the unknown that the group faced along the way. Presented as a single 120-minute story in two parts, it is shaped by reenactment, landscape footage and reflective commentary from historians such as Stephen E. Ambrose and James P. Ronda, along with writers and a Mandan-Hidatsa voice. The tone is measured, reverent and curious, with a wistful sense of the land's promise and the scale of the undertaking. Viewers drawn to The West and The Civil War, the Ken Burns style of public television history, will find the same patient, expert-led approach to the american frontier. It suits anyone wanting a sober, accessible account of westward expansion rather than dramatized fiction.

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