Product Description

Created by a five-time Emmy-winning filmmaker, "The Gold Rush" is a deeply moving documentary about the great quest for gold in frontier California. This award-winning program traces the epic saga of the bold adventurers who profoundly changed a young nation and redefined the American dream.

Narrated by John Lithgow, the film provides a comprehensive overview of the Gold Rush, including: gold discovery, the journey west, quick fortunes, winners and losers, frontier women, the collision of cultures, environment destruction, the birth of San Francisco, long-term impact, and much more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40777 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-06-01
• Formats: Color, NTSC
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 60 minutes

Sacramento Bee
"Polished... fast-paced... consistently interesting."

USA Today
"...an evocative overview."

Chicago Tribune
"...never less than interesting."

Customer Reviews

A GOLD Diggers life
The title of this documentary is The Gold Rush narrated by John Lithgow, and the director was Tim Boettcher.
60 min.

This movie is an interesting, factual, and well paced documentary with all the information on the rush for gold in California during the1800s and 1900s. It tells about how people made their fortune and how some people didn't just strike it rich by digging for gold, some people made money selling the supplies, some by selling and making food, and some by giving people places to stay (hotels/motels),

There were parts in the movie where they told about the Chinese workers who bought houses from people for 25 to 50 dollar's. Then they would pull up the floorboards and take the gold that had fallen out of the digger's pockets and went between the floorboards, and then the Chinese would sell the wood and make from 300 to 500 dollars.

It told about the inventions that crazy people made like jeans that had magnets on them so when you rolled down a hill there would be gold stuck on your pants. It told about Armor who started a meat story and now has a huge meat business called Armors Meats. It told about Studebaker who sold supplies, mainly wheelbarrows. Now Studebakers is the place to go for wheelbarrows the person to buy from. The movie goes on with much more interesting and strange facts about the gold rush.

What this movie didn't show was how the workers dug for gold, it didn't tell how they panned for gold and how they used there shovels to find the gold, and it didn't tell what they did with the gold after they moved away. There was no broad count, there were no workers mentioned to strike it rich by digging, it only told about the people who got rich by doing other things than digging.

There is a scene in this documentary that told about the first person to find gold in California. It told about Marshall and how he was building a saw mill and he saw some gold nuggets on the ground and then more and more, but he didn't want to tell anyone except the leader of the fort, John Sutter. They tried as hard as they could to keep it a secret. But the information got out and that is how the gold rush really started.

I would give this documentary **** (four stars) for its information and understanding of the history, and I would give this documentary *** (three stars) for how interesting and amusing/dramatic it was. So in all I would give this documentary *** ½ (three and a half stars).

Very entertaining
I laughed out loud in some spots--this was a fast-paced and fun production. Plus I've taught this subject for years, and this is a very accurate telling of the story.

Great movie for student research!
My 5th grade son is researching The Gold Rush for a school project and used this DVD as a resource. It was a wonderful film! We both enjoyed it very much. It was interesting, informative, funny, accurate, and gave us information we did not find in other books/articles. Well worth the money!