The film, Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery, is a Ken burns documentary that tells the remarkable story of one of the greatest exploration events of the 19th century.  Sent by President Thomas Jefferson in the early 19th centurry, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were charged with the important expedition of discovering the fabled Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean.  This expedition was full of danger and discovery.  It began as the intrepid explorers headed west from St. Louis in 1804 to the headwaters of the Missouri River and continued over the Continental Divide to the Pacific.  Once there, the group wintered on the Pacific coastline and in early Spring began their journey back to St. Louis where they arrived in 1806.  Incredibly, the expedition only experienced one death during their three years of exploration and that death was most certainly due to natural causes.  This statistic is all the more remarkable when one understands the dangers facing the explorers in the stark wildnerness of the wild west.  Other dangers included pursuing Spainish Soldiers and marauding native Indians.  The viewer of this film will get to know the entire Corps of Discovery not just the famous co-captains of this expedition.  Other characters reviewed in detail include the young army men, French-Canadian Boatmen, Clark's African-American slave and a Shoshone woman named Sacagawea who became an invaluable guide and interpreter during the expedition.  This film will appeal to anyone interested in both 19th Century American history and great explorations.  This film is narrated by Hal Holbrook and includes many interviews with subject experts like Stephen Ambrose, Ph.D..  Full screen in color.  Released in 1997.  Runtime 240 minutes.