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The West
The complete Ken Burns documentary series which tells of the taming of the Wild West. Read more
| Starring | Peter Coyote, Gary Sinise, Matthew Broderick, Martin Moran |
|---|---|
| Director | Ken Burns |
| Genres | Documentary |
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The West
The complete Ken Burns documentary series which tells of the taming of the Wild West.
| Starring | Peter Coyote, Gary Sinise, Matthew Broderick, Martin Moran, Ken Little Hawk, Terrence Currier, Blythe Danner, August Schellenberg, Adam Arkin, Pamela Reed, Tony Plana, Julie Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Potts, Robert Prosky |
|---|---|
| Director | Ken Burns |
| Studio | DD VIDEO |
| Run time | DVD: 11 hrs 44 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Documentary |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 10 Mar 2003 |
| Format | DVD |
The West (4 discs)
Or you can rent each disc individually:
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Most helpful member's review
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24 out of 26 people found this review helpful
This will teach about the real west, not the one you see in the movies
Stephen Ives directs this mammoth undertaking of the
history of the West in America produced by Ken Burns. The film is
mammoth in its length, at over 12 hours, but, more importantly, it
makes a considerable effort to construct a balanced portrait of the
West and its inhabitants: Europeans as well as Native Americans,
Blacks, Mexicans, Chinese, etc. The film uses many actors and
writers in voice overs to tell its astonishing stories, some familiar
and some not so familiar. The series focuses on the many famous and not so famous
individuals, who played a significant role in the development of the
West in some way. Lewis and Clark, Kit Carson, Levi Strauss,
Brigham Young, John Brown, William Quantrill, Mark Twain,
Custer, Charles Goodnight, Black Kettle, Sitting Bull, Chief Joseph,
Benjamin Singleton, Theodore Roosevelt, Frank Hamilton
Cushing, William F. Cody, and Erskine Woods are just some of
the many individuals touched upon that had some role in the
gradual transformation of the West. Instead of just stories on each
individual, Ives weaves in the many significant landmark events
that the individuals either affected or took part in. The film explores virtually every major event of the 19th
Century that even remotely had anything to do with the West. The
film highlights the Lewis and Clark expedition, wagon trains, the
California Gold Rush, the founding of San Francisco, the
Mormons, the Sand Creek Massacre, Custer's Last Stand, the
Transcontinental Railroad, the great buffalo herds and their
dramatic disappearance, the origins of cattle drives and their
transformation of the western economy, European Immigration,
the origins of cowboys and cow towns, the Freedom Trail/Thieves
Road, Little Big Horn and the necessity of using the U.S. Cavalry
for protecting settlements, the western migration of Blacks, the
Great Oklahoma Land Rush, and Wounded Knee as well as the
history of specific Native Americans, such as the Lakotas and the
Nez Perce. The film uses these individuals and events, as well as many
others, to piece together a cohesive narrative that tells us a history
that too few history books in schools contain. It is nothing less
than the systematic assertion of one culture at the expense of
others, specifically Native Americans. For instance, the population
of Native Americans dropped from 150,000 to just 30,000 in 20
years from 1850-1870. By 1877, Indians were outnumbered by 40
to 1 in the West. Proportionally, the Indians lost over 100,000,000
acres of land to white settlers during this period. It illustrates how
Native American genocide was directly proportional to American
Government edicts, such as the Homestead Act and the Dawes
Act, which denigrated Native American cultures, tribal ownership,
and structure. This Act transformed many Native American
communities into Americanized individuals. However, the film
does not choose to present its views in a sentimental or even
subjective manner, which makes its points about history and
ultimately ourselves all the more poignant. There are several incidents that the film uses that lead up to
the Native American disappearance, including the ethnic strife
already present among miners during the Gold Rush. The
American cultural browbeating of Mormons, Blacks, Mexicans, and
Chinese occurs simultaneously during the American development
and expansion of the West. The vignettes about the Carlyle Indian
Industrial School in Pennsylvania and Frank Hamilton Cushing's
infiltration into the Zuni Indians of the Southwest as an
anthropologist and ethnologist suggest just how complete our
intent was in living above Native Americans rather than with them.
This intent was based more on our cultural ignorance than on any
hate. Native Americans lived in community groups and we lived
more as individuals, which is why it's no surprise that a mythic
individual played more of a role in relegating Native Americans to
second class status, however inadvertent, than any collective
group of Americans, at least in popular culture and entertainment:
William F. Cody. William F. Cody was Buffalo Bill, a shrewd businessman,
who developed a touring wild west show to entertain the white
American masses. The shows came complete with cowboy and
Indian battles with the Americans always coming out on top. The
film suggests that this is where the historical myth of whites being
victimized by Indians originated, later carrying over to dime novels
and movies. Likewise, William F. Cody reinvented himself in a role
as Buffalo Bill and inhabited it, blurring myth and reality. Buffalo Bill
becomes a metaphor for the U.S. Government's treatment of
Native Americans, and coming at the end of the 19th Century, he's
a metaphor for how America treated all other minority groups in its
development of the West as well. Perhaps he's a metaphor for
how we treat others even today. The film concludes with a vignette called 'The Gift' about
Chief Joseph, still another powerful example of how we
misunderstood Native American culture. The film informs us,
moves us, and teaches us in ways few history books can. The
voice overs are very interesting and moving at times. The
cinematography is breathtaking and the musical bridges are
wonderful, some of them (I believe) are authentic Native American
songs. This is a towering achievement on a grand scale, yet with
much to say to individuals with conscience. It is history as it should
be told, uncompromisingly painful but truthful. It should be -
Most recent members' review
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
absorbing
this is great even for non history lovers. enjoy
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News and features
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The Big Gundown
- 11 Sep 2007
The shoot-out. As both Shoot Em Up and 3:10 to Yuma demonstrate this week, this is one of those dramatic situations that's essentially cinematic. Writers, painters and playwrights might convey something of the tension and excitement, but none of them can compete with the full-blown experience of the expertly staged movie gunfight. That said, it was a novelist who started it all. Owen Wister's "The Virginian" was published in 1902, and set the template for what became the standard climax of the Read more
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