'The Great Alaskan Race'

Earnest intentions can only carry a movie so far — and not as far as the sled dogs and their human guides in the fact-based drama “The Great Alaskan Race.”

It’s 1925, in Nome, Alaska, where a diphtheria epidemic has broken out, specifically threatening the town’s children. The town’s physician, Dr. Welch (Treat Williams), says the last shipment of medicine didn’t include antitoxin, and the supplies he has have expired. The only hope is to get more antitoxin shipped in from Anchorage, more than 1,000 miles away.

In Anchorage, an argument ensues about the best way to get the antitoxins to Nome. A forward-thinking newspaper editor (Henry Thomas) urges the governor (Bruce Davison) to send an airplane, but the governor distrusts the untested aviation technology. He sides with the Nome city fathers, who organize a relay of dog sleds to cover the 700 miles between Nome and the nearest train station. (The movie waits until the ending to state what the title already implies, that this incident inspired the famous Iditarod race.)

That’s where Leonhard Seppala, played by the movie’s writer-director, Brian Presley, comes in. Seppala, we’re told, is the best musher in Alaska. We’re also told, through an eyeroll-inducing narration by an character identified as a “shaman,” that Seppala was adopted into the Inuit community — and married an Inuit woman, whose death years before has turned him sullen and withdrawn from the townsfolk.

The light in Seppala’s life is his daughter, Sigrid (played by Presley’s daughter, Emma), Sigrid is also a favorite of her church choir director, Constance (Brea Bee) — who’s also Dr. Welch’s daughter and head nurse, and has an obvious crush on Seppala. When Sigrid becomes one of the children hit by the diphtheria epidemic, Seppala’s motivation to drive his dogs just grows.

The movie is clearly a labor of love for Presley, but it’s often just laborious to watch. Chunks of dialogue, and even entire characters, exist to provide constant exposition that beats the lead characters’ heroism into the audience’s skulls. 

There are high spots. Williams brings a gravitas to the role of kindly town doctor. The action sequences, as Seppala and his dogs brave freezing weather and unstable ice to get the serum home, are energetic and well-staged, given the miniscule budget. Too often, though, “The Great Alaskan Race” is as much a slog as anything the sled dogs have to navigate.

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‘The Great Alaskan Race’

★★

Opens Friday, October 25, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG for thematic material, brief bloody images, some language and smoking. Running time: 84 minutes.