The Trail

Amelia hesitantly follows her husband’s dream of heading west during the 1848 California gold rush. His rash decision to go ahead of the caravan results in his death at the hands of Indians, but Amelia survives. Alone in a wilderness that she never wanted to travel, she must find civilization with virtually no survival skills or supplies.

***Alone in the unforgiving western wilderness*** After a tragedy, a young woman (Jasmin Jandreau) is left alone in the remote woods during the mid-1800’s California Gold Rush. Can she survive and make it to civilization? “The Trail” (2013), aka “Let God,” is obviously a low-budget Western in light of the miniscule cast and limited setting & events, plus a couple of obvious anachronisms, like zippers on a pair of boots, which weren’t even invented until 1893, not to mention goofs (a visible crew member and boom mic, both of which you have to actually look for to notice). Despite these shortcomings, this is a professionally made film with quality locations, an effective score and a decent lead actress. It successfully brings you to that time & place and lets you see what it was like for many settlers. If you like settler/survival-oriented Westerns like “Meek’s Cutoff” (2010), “Gold” (2013), “The Homesman” (2014) and “The Revenant” (2015), you’ll likely appreciate “The Trail,” although it’s not as polished or eventful as the latter, which was a blockbuster. Unlike all of those modern Westerns, however, it shoots for something deeper, something spiritually profound, although it’s utterly subdued until the very end. It’s this particular aspect that makes the movie for me. The film runs 1 hour, 31 minutes, and was shot in the Lake Tahoe area, California, with some stuff done in Southern Cal (Temecula & Landers). GRADE: B-