SummaryThe two-part miniseries about the first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims led by William Bradford (Vincent Kartheiser) and the Native Americans led by Massasoit (Raoul Trujillo) with English-speaking Squanto (Kalani Queypo) acting as an ambassador.
SummaryThe two-part miniseries about the first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims led by William Bradford (Vincent Kartheiser) and the Native Americans led by Massasoit (Raoul Trujillo) with English-speaking Squanto (Kalani Queypo) acting as an ambassador.
All in all, National Geo should be justifiably proud of this production, which serves Kartheiser well while also telling the companion stories of the people who got to Plymouth first.
There are moments of touching transformation among the characters in Saints & Sinners, none more so than that of the bluff Hopkins, who starts with a purely sanguinary view of the Indians he calls savages.
The film had multiple writers, and keeping the many characters straight requires some effort, but it stays watchable to the end. And it stays relatively true to events, even those that don’t fit into a Scriptwriting 101 template.
Though neither ["Saints & Strangers" and "The Pilgrims"] are particularly notable examples of their genre, they are welcome additions, and perhaps antidotes, to a historic holiday increasingly driven by gluttony and football. Used as companion pieces, they should make excellent viewing for families able to persuade their children to watch historic dramas and/or documentaries.
The serious intent of Saints trips it up at times; many characters remain one-dimensional, and some sequences are plodding or repetitive. That said, the mini features nuanced work in a number of the Native Americans portrayals--often the best-developed characters on the screen.
Though it's true this isn't some whitewashed, grade-school version of history, the mini never comes fully alive, feeling more often like a dutiful soapbox lecture occasionally interrupted by a few shoddily staged action scenes.