Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

chas437 I was a history major in college, but I'll admit I'm not a fan of historical fiction.I was bored over the 4th of July weekend, so I watched as much of this monstrosity as I could handle.Let me say that the subject matter is compelling. I believe this is the reason for so many positive reviews here. The idea of two young people with nothing to live for in the oppressive climate of early 18th century, setting out for the American West with nothing to their names is indeed romantic.The issues with this massive mini-series are acting, production value, and screen writing. The actors all seem be from a stable TV actors of late-1970s, which is to say that the acting in Centennial is poor to mediocre. Robert Conrad is painful to watch as the little French trapper. I can't think of a single actor from this rather extensive cast who was ever successful in film.The production value is that of a TV movie, in other words, its tends to be like a series of old TV westerns strung together. We are treated to cliché after cliché, bar room brawls, old West style shootouts, cowboy/Indian battles, etc.In keeping with the B-rate acting and cheesy production, the writing is amateurish at best. The final episode with David Janssen preaching about the noble Indian is absolutely laughable. This episode should have been omitted and knocks the entire mini-series down a few notches.The one redeeming part of Centennial was that it gave voice to the Native American experience during the days of Manifest Destiny. But, like other elements of the mini-series, this is clumsily written and at times borders on the comedic.Lastly, for god's sake, get Native American actors to play Native American characters!

Richie-67-485852 We all know a ten has to pull its weight and be earned at first glance. That is what you have here. What makes this movie work so well is that what is portrayed is easy to accept when introduced. The viewer doesn't have time to think if it happened. It IS happening before your eyes. It was a colorful difficult life and not for everyone. That is why the characters makes sense. Anyone watching can easily identify with any character and live through them being content to have the opportunity shared. The author Michener displays his depth and detail and the mini-series is taken seriously by all in it. The result is nothing less than it holding up over time. View it today and you are enthralled and thoroughly entertained. Buy the DVD or book and you have a life time investment...Have a good meal ready to go while watching, a tasty drink and some snack on stand by. Enjoy

John Longo Starts out well, but after the characters of Pasquinel (Robert Conrad) and Alexander McKeag (Richard Chamberlain) leave the scene, it bogs down into retrospectives of earlier episodes. The last 3rd ends up as a preachy interpretation of Michener's liberal views of white guilt over treatment of the Indians and discrimination toward Hispanics and the trashing of the environment by big businesses. If they had only maintained the high quality of acting and script in the last half as they did in the first, it could have been a REAL epic series. Again, kudos to Bob Conrad for his portrayal of French-Canadian trapper Pasquinel, which is a great jump from his 4 seasons on the Wild Wild West.

milbankj I'm enjoying this series, largely because I'm a big fan of such stories; my library includes several works covering the same territory and era by such accomplished writers as Will Henry, A.B. Guthrie, Vardis Fisher and others. It may be correct to describe "Centennial" as the best mini-series ever, but that's close to damning praise considering the general shoddiness of such productions for TV. It has nowhere near the class of the best movies made for the big screen, but my enjoyment of the storyline enables me to overlook its shortcomings...average but typical TV acting, competent but nothing-special photography, and a cheap musical score. It has a certain educational value, but I wonder how effective is the message about the treatment of native Americans and whether it's submerged by the general theme of the settlement of the West. A pity if it is.