Just awful compared to the novel. The only made a minimal effort to stick to storyline, style, or humor of book. Many excellent and subtle satire missing. Telling the story as a flashback never happened and was the wrong format. Avoiding the time consuming and pointless flash back would have allowed more of the actual story as written by twain to be told. Etc. Etc. Don't waste your time. If you need an electronic version of this book, listen to the Librovox version. You can get the librivox version at Librivox.com. Movie versions of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer give a much more authentic Mark Twain Experience. Also try reading Innocents abroad or listening to libivox to get the true Mark Twain Humor

Roughing it is a great movie about the interesting life of Mark Twain. It is extremely accurate and is well made. Roughing it is an entertaining made-for-TV movie. You will learn a great deal and will enjoy it while doing so. The very underrated writer of this film, Steven H.Berman was nominated for his brilliant screenplay by the Writers Guild of America. James Garner is great along with his all-star cast. Robin Dunne does his job well as a young Mark Twain, Adam Arkin delivers with his role as does Ned Beatty and the rest of the cast. If you have not seen this film I suggest to rent and or buy it as soon as possible, you won't regret it. 10 out of 10

Roughing It is my favorite Twain novel and it has never been filmed before. After nine plus film versions of The Prince & the Pauper, what a delight to finally see Roughing It. This is a big sprawling novel, so a lot is missing, but I am still grateful.

Have you ever taped a show because you didn't really think you'd like it but wanted to be sure...and then when you started the tape, you found yourself watching it straight through. That's how this movie (actually a two part mini-series) caught me. James Garners' excellent voice overs and interludes as Mark Twain allow us to watch as if we were reading the book. Garners' performance and Adam Arkins' small but Emmy deserving turn as a man our hero Sam Clemmens meets in his episodic journey to find himself are the two best out of several good performances which brings this story to life and to heart.