User Reviews

Some of the acting was good. The musical score was lovely. The scenery was pretty, for Colorado. It was not filmed in Alaska, OOPS! Colorado trees are nothing like Alaska trees, and the landscape is very different as our the buildings.

Unfortunately, there are so many inaccuracies in this film, too many to count, but the ones I am going to mention are the ones that stick out like a sore thumb.

The film begins in 1918 with the flu epidemic in Alaska specifically Nome. About half of the endemic population was wiped out because of this disease. Unfortunately, Hollywood decided to use Native Americans from the contiguous United States rather than Intuit people in Alaska. They look nothing alike. Inuit people are small in stature and their facial features are completely different as are their accents are completely different. Grizzly bears are not seen in the dead of winter fishing in streams. They are hibernating. The lovely Kiana did not exist. Leonhard Seppala did not marry an Intuit woman, and did not have a child with her. In fact, in 1908 he actually married Constance and they had a little girl in 1917 named Sigrid. So most of the story of Constance is garbage and Kiana did not exist at all.

Which intern makes most of the story of Sigrid also garbage 1925 let's start with the word NENANA, being mispronounced throughout most of the film. NENANA is a tribe of Indians. NENANA translates in English to a good place to camp between rivers. The stone cabin would not have existed in Nome then or today. The term LOWER 48 was not used until this country had 50 states. So that would've been after 1959. It referred to the 48 states of the contiguous United States, including MAINE. Another word mispronounced was MUSHER. It is not pronounced MOOSHER.

In the trivia of this IMDb post is a blurb Feb 2020, about a group of 15 adventurers in Alaska that will travel along the historic trail retracing history on the serum run expedition traveling from Nenana to Nome. Can you say annual IDITAROD RACE in March?

I was excited to see this film until I saw the opening scene of the trees in the mountains and the snow and the grizzly bear and I thought oh good grief. Hollywood did it again. Completely butchered a true story.

Pros: Absolutely gorgeous score. Excellent acting by Treat Williams.

Cons: EVERYTHING ELSE

Leonhard Seppala met and married Constance YEARS before this movie took place, and Sigrid was their daughter. Seppala never had an Inuit wife. There were LITERALLY PHOTOS AND VIDEOS at the end of the movie that show what Sepp and Togo actually looked like, but the characters in the film are not even close. Poor filming, terrible acting by Presley (among others), huge historical inaccuracies. Do yourselves a favor and just watch Disney's Togo. Infinitely better all around and IMO much more historically accurate.

Another captivating angle to this incredible story. All of the films about this historic true event are very good, including this version. I recently watched the movie Togo and thought that it was pretty good, which is what you would expect from a Disney film. This may not be Disney's Togo, but--it is actually just as good or...better? This film provides a warm and interesting reflection of the man who contributed 80% of the rescue effort, Leonard Shepard. His own daughter was one of the sick children, which was a very compelling motivation for Mr. Shepard to get the serum back to Nome expeditiously.