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Desperate Crossing: The Untold Story of the Mayflower
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Format | Multiple Formats, Color, NTSC |
Contributor | Paul Drinan, Rocky Collins, Sam Redford, Chris K. Layman, Erin Raftery, Lisa Wolfinger |
Language | English |
Number Of Discs | 1 |
Runtime | 3 hours |
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Product Description
Filmed on location in Europe and Plymouth Plantation and featuring dialogue taken from original source material, DESPERATE CROSSING: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE MAYFLOWER catapults viewers back to the 1600s. Actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company join members of the Massachusetts Wampanoag tribe in creating dramatic period reenactments that bring to life the Pilgrims' harrowing journey and first year of survival. (New Video)
Product details
- Aspect Ratio : 1.33:1
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : NR (Not Rated)
- Product Dimensions : 7.5 x 0.7 x 5.4 inches; 2.4 ounces
- Director : Lisa Wolfinger
- Media Format : Multiple Formats, NTSC, Color
- Run time : 3 hours
- Release date : January 30, 2007
- Actors : Paul Drinan, Chris K. Layman, Erin Raftery, Sam Redford
- Language : English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
- Studio : A&E Home Video
- ASIN : B000JU7JE6
- Writers : Rocky Collins
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #81,685 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #55,938 in DVD
- Customer Reviews:
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- Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2010After showing most of this video to my eighth grade American history classes, I find that it actively engages students to the story of the ordeals and hardships of the Separatists (Pilgrims). The beginning of the video tells the story of the lack of freedom of the press, speech, and religion in England in the seventeenth century. English, Dutch, and Native cultures are shown in the form of reenactments and primary source images. This video has quality acting, excellent historian commentary, and great reenactments. In watching the video many times, these are notes that I took from a Desperate Crossing.
Scrooby, England: This is the city and country where the story of the Pilgrims began.
Pilgrims: They were emigrants to a new world and history refers to the group of people on the Mayflower as Pilgrims.
William Bradford: He wrote most most of the information that is known about the Pilgrims. In 1607 he was an orphan, but was passionate about theology.
Church of England: It was established in 1534 by King Henry VIII.
Protestants: Martin Luther and others hoped to reform the Catholic Church. Many English people were happy when King Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church because they hoped the Church would be reformed.
Separatists: Some people felt the king's church could never be purified and wanted to separate from it. They thought there shouldn't be a church of England, but the English courts moved against these people.
Puritans: They wanted to make the Church a better place and remove bad practices from the Catholic Church.
King James: James is intellectual, a practical Scottish politician, and believes he is God's right hand man on earth because he was king. He believed in religious unity and obedience. (10 minutes)
Holland: The separatists decided to go to this country because they heard there was Freedom of Religion for all people. They were forced to secretly leave England for Holland, but were captured by an English magistrate. They were finally allowed to leave and emigrate to the Netherlands.
Netherlands: It is a country that is a melting pot. The Dutch state has seven sovereignties that allow religious tolerance. (15 minutes)
Amsterdam: The city is more industrial than agrarian and caused Bradford difficulty because his background was in farming.
Dorothy May: She was a separatist who came to Holland and eventually became the wife of William Bradford.
congregation: This is a religious assembly of persons or believers. Separatists, Pilgrims, and other Protestants had various congregations.
John Robinson: The pastor to the 300 English refugees or Separatists living in Holland.
William Brewster: He was a church elder and learned how to use a printing press in his fifties. He used the press for profit and publishing pamphlets against the oppressive rule of King James. (20 minutes)
Dutch: Many of the Separatists became concerned that the Dutch were too worldly and set poor Christian examples for their children.
America: This was home to only about 2,000 Europeans and millions of native inhabitants.
Jamestown: This was not a very successful colony, but the Separatists still discussed the possibility of moving to this area of America.
Native Americans: Some of these people were captured or kidnapped and brought back to Europe as human specimens or living advertisements of the Americas.
Virginia: The Pilgrims decided to settle in this location because it was claimed by the king of England.
Leiden, Netherlands in 1618: The Pilgrims had to get permission from King James in this year to go to Virginia in America.
Edward Winslow: He was a young printer who worked for Brewster and became a member of the Separatist congregation
Speedwell: Fifty-five Separatist colonists left Holland on July 23, 1620 to England on this small ship that was purchased for their voyage to the New World. (43 minutes)
Mayflower: In Southampton, England, the Pilgrims locate this ship. Its was a merchant vessel or cargo ship. It was not designed as a passenger vessel, but it was a standard form of transportation in the seventeenth century. There are 102 passengers that end up traveling on the Mayflower.
Tradesmen or Strangers: This group of people also traveled with the Pilgrims. Many of the people had special skills, such as a barrel maker. Bradford called the people "strangers."
voyage: On August 5, 1620, the Mayflower and Speedwell left on the trip to America. (52 minutes) The Speedwell was left behind and more people were forced to travel on the Mayflower because it was not seaworthy. Twenty passengers left the journey at Plymouth, England. The main beam almost broke in October and nearly caused the ship to split in two. Fortunately, a Pilgrim had brought a large screw that was used to jack up the main beam. A sailor died on the journey and a baby named Oceanus was born to the Hopkin parents. The journey took nine weeks.
Master Christopher Jones: He is the captain of the Mayflower was hired to take the Separatists to Virginia.
diet: hardtack, salted beef, and beer was the main food for passengers on the Mayflower
Hudson River: On November 9, 1620, land located at Cape Cod was spotted. This was the location that the Pilgrims hoped to establish their colony. It was far north of Jamestown, but legally still part of the English colony of Virginia. Master Jones was forced to go to another location because of bad weather.
Mayflower Compact: Pilgrims and the laborers argued over the leadership of the new colony when Master Christopher Jones was forced to land the Mayflower outside of the original patent for the Hudson River location. All settlers came e up with an agreement or compact that acted as a temporary government for the colony. The document does not create democracy, but an elected authority.
Nauset: This is the name of the land where the Pilgrims first arrived. It was also the name of a local tribe that attacked the Pilgrim.
scurvey: Bradford wrote that a lot of the settlers were sick with this illness because of their poor diet. Symptoms include bleeding of the gums, bruising, and bad pain.
hospitalization: Many settlers died in the months of January and February; two to three people sometimes died a day. The few structures the settlers had made were used for hospitals. In the "heart of winter," fifty settlers died.
Samoset: He was the first Indian to make contact with the Pilgrims and other settlers. He knew basic English and was able to understand both cultures and communicate with the Pilgrims.
Massasoit: He was the chief of the Wampanoag tribe and brought sixty men from his tribe to meet the Pilgrims. Squanto accompanied this chief at the alliance meeting.
Wampanoag: The tribe was weakened by disease and made an alliance with the Pilgrims as a protection from the larger tribes in the region.
Squanto: He spoke English better than Samoset and ended up staying with the Pilgrims and teaching them about his native culture and farming. He learned English from John Slany, a shipbuilder, and lived for three years in Corn Hill. He was taken back to Newfoundland and traveled back to his tribe where he discovered everyone had died of plague.
England: Due to the harsh winter, illnesses, and deaths, the Mayflower crew brought nothing of value back to England. Investors were very disappointed to learn the cargo was a bunch of rocks, which helped provide balance to the Mayflower.
Thanksgiving: The first Thanksgiving was a three day feast with the Pilgrims and Wampanoags. They feasted on turkey, geese, bass, fish, and five deer that the Wampanoag brought. This feast was a time of celebration and giving thanks to God.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2025The documentary presented a wealth of information not normally discussed...especially with regards to the native American perspective. Viewing this may become a family tradition on or around Thanksgiving!
- Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2013This is a fact filled presentation. It leaves out the fact the Catholic Church wouldn't grant the King's divorce and that is what led him to start his own Church but picks up pretty well from there. This has some acting demonstrations and tells the story in the usual semi flat way that history usually gets told.
I preferred the DVD called Monumental to this. The story is told with more passion and interviews and deeper explanation of the religious freedom aspect and the relevance to us today of what they did then.
They compliment each other though. Desparate Crossing tells more about the other people that they made the voyage with and lived with ealy on and Monumental tells the story more from the Puritan/Pilgrim perspective and purpose.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2012I am glad I read the reviews on the product page of this DVD. Otherwise I would not have purchased this DVD and would have missed a very good, even-handed and well-researched documentary.
This DVD, "Desperate Crossing: The Untold Story Of The Mayflower", impressed me as a very well made and carefully researched documentary that presented the facts of the story quite well and in a comprehensive fashion. It tells the story of the "Pilgrims", the English separatists who left England for the New World (with a stopover in Holland) to found the Plymouth Colony in what is today Massachusetts.
The story begins in England where separatists (those opposed to the Church Of England theologically), are hounded and persecuted for their beliefs. They believe they must leave their homeland for the freedom to worship as they choose. After moving to the more tolerant Holland, they become concerned that they are losing their identity in their new home and make the radical decision to go to the New World - America.
Their crossing of the ocean is fraught with delays and perils - uncluding damage to the ship which they make temporary repairs with a giant screw. When they reach the coast of north America, they find hostile indians, scurvy and sickness and hunger. The DVD highlights the first document of self-government in North America - the Mayflower Compact - even though it was but a temporary expedient. Their struggle to create a colony is well documented and told factually. I was surprised that the Wampanoag indians decide to assist the Pilgrims in part because they sought them as allies in their conflicts with other indian tribes.
The story of Squanto is well told as is the Pilgrims' attitude of peaceful intentions toward the indians. We come to know of the terrible effects of Old World diseases upon the indians and their understandable aversion to the newcomers.
This is a good documentary that is well worth the price. It is 180 minutes long - long enough to give in-depth treatment to the subject. I heartily recommend this DVD and give it five stars!
Top reviews from other countries
- Dani H.Reviewed in Canada on January 26, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!
It was brilliant! I am a descendant of a Pilgrim and thought it was the best reproduction of events I have ever seen.
- Peter WrightReviewed in the United Kingdom on November 12, 2015
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
interesting piece of history