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The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This Canadian two-reel documentary was an Oscar nominee (albeit in the Live Action Short Subject category) and is even favourably reviewed in the "Leslie Halliwell Film Guide". While opening in a contemporary setting, we are eventually taken back by narrator Pierre Berton to the days of his father as a prospector in the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush. Interestingly, while the modern footage is captured by a moving camera, the past is effectively represented via a succession of stills – relating the trials and tribulations of the people who came from afar to make a fortune but who, we are told, sometimes lost it after a while or even lost interest in pursuing it further once they settled in a community that would soon thrive and become an established city! All in all, the film makes for a vivid and nicely-detailed look at the pioneering spirit. Incidentally, co-director Koenig was featured as an actor in Norman McLaren's Oscar-winning short NEIGHBOURS (1952), which I watched a day prior to this one.

The National Film Board of Canada produced this 32 minute 1957 film that was nominated for an Academy Award for Live Action Short, one of two shorts produced by the National Film Board of Canada in this category. Using shots of still photographs and a voice-over narration, it tells the story of Dawson City, a mining town during the Klondike Gold Rush. It's a fascinating look back at an era long gone and little remembered. Well worth tracking down. It was the first film to use an animation stand to concentrate on details of still images and move around within the frame for dramatic effect. It is the direct ancestor of Ken Burns documentaries. Turner Classic Movies ran this once as part of a celebration of the NBC's 60th anniversary a few years back.

This short was nominated for an Academy Award for Live Action Short, one of two shorts produced by the National Film Board of Canada in the category. Using largely shots of still photography and a voice-over narration, it tells the story of Dawson City, a mining town during the Klondike Gold Rush. It's a fascinating look back at an era long gone and little remembered. Well worth tracking down. Turner Classic Movies ran this once as part of a celebration of the NFBC's 60th anniversary a few years back. Recommended.