The Donner Party

There's a 2009 movie with Crispin Glover.

Too soon.

I could see it as a musical, perhaps.

There is a great Ken Burns film too,

It was really rather foolish to believe they'd cross the snowy, intrepid Sierra Nevadas in late October. Even in the middle of summer, storms and weather are a real possibility up there.

I'm still waiting for the Dyatlov Pass series.

[quote]I could see it as a musical, perhaps.

God, that's good!

R3 Done!

I wish someone would do a Donner/Dyatlov-mash-up-via-tesseract movie. That would be some severely fun shit!

After going though all that, poor man.

That Hastings cutoff -- which took them through the Great Salt Lake Desert and added 40 miles to their commute, and multiple extra weeks of travel -- really screwed them.

It’s a depressing story. There isn’t any redemption, just misery. I guess you’d have to approach it as a disaster film.

The only way to sew it up with a message is “there’s no god and we’re all helpless, disposable trash,” but that’s not terribly uplifting, either.

R12, I would imagine the story would be told through the perspective of the Reed family. They're one of two families who all survived, and supposedly, they never partook in the eating of human flesh..

[quote]R13 They're one of two families who all survived, and supposedly, they never partook in the eating of human flesh..

Yuh. So THEY say.

They had the blood of babies dribbling down their chins ! !

The feel good story of the year!

An ABC After School Special!

That's my new album: "Madonna Party"!

^Speaking of school, was this story taught in elementary schools outside of California? I remember it being taught in a sort of module about 'California history' and the pioneers..

Yeah I learned way more about the Dinner (autocorrect ha) party and poor defenseless white settlers attacked by Indians than I ever did about the lives of slaves or native Americans.

R14, you're probably right. I don't see how they could've survived four months of being snowed-in without resorting to cannibalism like everyone else.

Preston and Child in their novel Old Bones provide an interesting and chilling interpretation of how the Donner Party fell apart.

Don't give Ryan Murphy any ideas.

I would be checking with my attorney about this for my old friends, but I ate him.

I spent many summers of my childhood at Donner Lake. The Donner Party was the first horror story I ever knew and it was real. f you visit Donner Lake park they preserved the pit where they burnt...things. We kids ran around the beautiful Sierras chomping on our arms and screeching yum!!!!

As an adult what I remember most is that women do MUCH better than men physically when starving--the men caved surprisingly fast in fact. The other thing that stayed with me is the young girl who went off with a small group to get help and as they were crawling up a mountainside, weak with hunger, she was suddenly struck with how beautiful and astounding nature is.

She survived, her companions didn't. Someone told me later that people who can hang on to one beautiful thing in the midst of horror have a better chance of living.

[quote] As an adult what I remember most is that women do MUCH better than men physically when starving--the men caved surprisingly fast in fact.

There is definitely truth to this. On shows like Survivor, I've noticed it's usually the otherwise strong young men who succumb the hardest to starvation/lack of food -- probably because their bodies are so used to high-calorie diets, having no food at all is a shock to their system.

But in the case of the Donner party, it was also the younger men who were out chopping trees, tending to the oxen, etc. That level of exertion wasn't offset with enough food. Women's bodies also have a greater percentage of stored body fat.

[quote]r25 But in the case of the Donner party, it was also the younger men who were out chopping trees,[bold] tending to the oxen[/bold], etc.

I thought this said "tending the OVEN" (!!!)

R25 I don't know that the men were working harder but certainly muscle takes more calories to maintain than fat. Another marked difference in survival was BETWEEN men. The single guys died first.

[quote] Another marked difference in survival was BETWEEN men. The single guys died first.

Yeah -- they had no family unit for sharing secretly-hoarded food, relatives to nurse them, money to barter, etc. The teamsters had it rough.

Worst. Party. Ever.

Why didn't they pack the Tupperware ?

The Ken Burns series said it all. "Never take no shortcuts".

Werner Herzog needs to make a movie about the Donner Party. Can you imagine the narration?

[quote] "Never take no shortcuts".

R31, that's also a quote from Virginia Reed, one of the survivors who was all of 12-years-old when this went down.

Damn, people back then were certainly made from different stuff -- constantly and hastily burying their own infants, setting off into uncharted unknown. I'll try to remember that next time I feel down re: covid..

How about a musical?

R325, my grandfather was in a POW camp in WWII. They were all men and they were starved and beaten. When he returned home, he weighed less than 100 pounds.

He was short, about 5’6.” He said there were other men there that were much taller and stockier than him. They had a much harder time of it, were always hungrier than the others and got really desperate for food. They would risk their lives to get a few extra crumbs. It was as if they lost all self control. They would fight others or do whatever. His mind seemed to stay clear longer. He needed less calories than they did to live.

Women have a much higher percentage of fat. They can lose a lot more weight without really touching their muscle, so they can buy extra time. Men are mostly muscle and when you get down to the burning muscle stage, your heart is a muscle. That’s why Karen Carpenter died. Men are going to get to that point much sooner than women. They don’t have as much to spare.

Sorry, that’s for R27. ^^

Maybe Armie Hammer could make his return to the screen in this.

R37, is he a method actor? Or would he be method acting just for this film?

Hammer isn't a cannibal. One of his retarded girlfriends pretended to take "I wanna eat you" literally for a payday through blackmail and obscene media coverage.

[quote] Don't give Ryan Murphy any ideas.

Ryan Murphy's Donner Party would look overly-glossy and plastic, with Bette Midler and Patti Lupone hamming it up as they gnaw on leg bones.

A Donner Party-themed dinner party would be fun.

It should be a rustic cookout, over an open fire.

Rack of man;

glazed frau loin;

Full rack of spare ribs

R43 Ladyfingers for dessert.

If the Donner Party had been offered my cooking they still would have eaten each other.

How about a special on the food Network? A Survivor episode?

James Reed -- ostensibly the 'hero' in any cinematic version of this story -- was 46 during the Donner Party voyage. Who plays him (and wife) in the film?

R47, Phil Burke

This is why I am NEVER without my Snack Purse.

Chrissy Metz could live for a decade off of that fat hump.