A couple weeks ago I read the "Fire of the Covenant" by Gerald N. Lund. {If any of you haven't read books by him I STRONGLY suggest you do. The "Work and the Glory" series were amazing as well.} This is the story about the Martin and Willie handcart companies who left so late in the year, and all their hardships. I cried in a lot of parts while reading this book.
What an incredible, moving, movie. It was like a documentary, but turned more movie so it would be more enjoyable for more audience members. I cried through a lot of it. You can't help not too! The hardships, pains, and sufferings they went through, defy thinking. When reading a book about it, you picture what's going on in your head and that is poignant enough. But actually seeing the frostbite..the incredible lack of food..the fire they had in them..it touches you in a whole different way.
The end of the movie was the real tear-jerker. If i hadn't of been in a theatre and trying {not too successfully, but it was kinda workin.} not to cry too hard, I would have been sobbing. emotion just wells up in your heart for these people. At the end there was a sentence that really struck me.
"Miraculously, there were not too many more that died in these two companies than in any other wagon train that went across the Oregon Trail."The Lord did save His people. Their journey might have been more rough than others, but they were faithful, and endured, and He never let them down.
What made the movie experience even more wonderful, was that after the movie was over and the credits started playing, NOONE moved. There was a still, reverent, hush over the theatre. I know that not everyone in that theatre could have been LDS, but the Spirit was strong, and the story wonderful. And even as everyone left it wasn't loud and boisterous. It was a perfect ending to that movie, and I'm grateful I got to experience that.
I hope everyone gets a chance to see this movie. I hope we never forget their legacy or what they've done for us.
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