Tales From the Oklahoma Land Runs

In America in 1889 it was thought that the fairest way for people to acquire land was to line them up on the edge of a vast open space and let them race across the plains to stake their claims. "Survival of the fittest was a very fashionable idea at the time," says narrator Samuel West at the start of this fine film about the Oklahoma land runs. Having galloped through the statistics (there were 13 million acres of available land in the former Indian territory divided into 168-acre plots), the rest is devoted to personal stories told by the descendants of the Land Runs and it's fascinating stuff. We hear about the reactions of young brides on seeing the isolated shacks that were to be their homes, the hardships of the early years, the occasional fun of a square dance or a rodeo, and the pioneer spirit that was still evident when a massive bomb exploded in Oklahoma City in 1995.