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Jubilee Trail
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by Republic Pictures
Sales Rank: 1629
Price: $14.98
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Viewer Reviews
I just love Gwen Brister's 1950 book "Jubilee Trail," a vivid piece of historical fiction which travels from the rarified upper class world of Victorian New York City to the wild frontier of Mexican-ruled pre-statehood California. It is a great love/adventure story with two amazingly strong female protagonists, Garnet, the sheltered wife; and fallen woman Florinda; who travel together with the Santa Fe traders via wagon train along the Jubilee Trail from Missouri to California. I had no idea it was ever a movie so imagine my excitement when I saw it was available for home viewing.
Boy, what a disappointing adaptation. They omitted or edited out the courtship and marriage between Garnet and her physically strong but weak-willed hubby, handsome Oliver, so you have no sense of what is going on with them or why his cruel brother Charles is such a jerk to poor Garnet. The story also revolves around the absolutely gorgeous but tragically disfigured Florinda, "a glorious strumpet" to quote Oliver. Much of the book's plot revolves around Florinda's Nordic complexion and blonde hair. So what do they do in the movie? They cast a brunette instead! Hello!
Then there is the problem with John Ives, Oliver's Heathcliff-type partner: silent, likes nature better than people, etc. The screen writers completely ignore his emotional make-up which makes him a one-dimensional, unsympathetic character. They re-wrote(and totally screwed-up) the sexiest scene in the very chaste book. Garnet is shot by an arrow during a Digger Indian attack (cool villians-they eat pet horses and living lizards) and has to have her arm cauterized with a hot poker. I know this sounds sick but while she is being held down by John Ives and her husband (no morphine here), to prevent from crying out Garnet bites John's muscular thigh hard enough to draw a mouthful of blood and you know it's not over for those two yet!
Ah, the 1950s. The female roles are all co-opted by male characters, nobody looks good enough (except Garnet) and it makes me so mad I am tempted to rewrite it as sort of Thelma and Louise go goldrush.
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Jubilee Trail
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