TaryBiggBall
It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.
Scarlet
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Billy Ollie
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
bob-1135
Any series that tries to paint a psychotic murdering thug like Jesse James as something of a nice guy, just isn't going to work. It tries to excuse him by saying the war changed him, no he was a terrorist during the war, not having the courage to put on a uniform he joined a group of murderous thugs who shot down unarmed Union Soldiers.(Centralia) The whole series is full of such appalling inaccuracies it is difficult to pick just a couple. Start with the firearms, all totally wrong. When you know that certain people used certain weapons why give them anything else? Billy the Kid's enemies were called The House? No they were the Santa Fe Ring whose store and headquarters was called the house. As for all the other parts of Billy's story surely the end of him was the worst. We know what happened, why completely invent this final shooting? No mention of the other major players such as McSween etc. As for Wyatt Earp whole swathes have been omitted. His problems with John Behan for example, the fact that he was married and having an affair with Mattie, but worst of all having Virgil and Morgan shot on the same night. And what about Bat Masterson and his brother Ed? Leaving them out of the story is rather like leaving the whale out of Moby Dick. A appalling mess all round and something to be ashamed of.
robotovictor
This Series are the perfect introduction to the Old West for the young and not so well familiarized with it audience and good overall summary that will enjoy the vast mass of western lovers (like myself) that had already seen all those movie versions of the popular stories. All those Hollywood titles evolved trough the years towards better and more accurate depiction of characters and this documentary series of are the last and best so far to show it altogether, in a larger scale.There are some new facts for everyone to discover in the series. For me the big revelations came in the Sioux story with the fact that the mass extinction of an animal kinds was actually masterminded. The photograph of four thousand skulls of killed animals represents what was deemed heroism in it's real light for first time like that. That is the new course to truthfulness in the depiction followed now in the 21st century. And doesn't steal any of the drama! As Isaac Asimov has written: ''The Truth is the most powerful Lie''. There is a new fact to everybody here or there, i guess..or not but the strong point is the big picture. The big question is what it would have been if the authors have divided the story lines in separate episodes focusing at only one at a time instead of focusing of separate and uninterrupted development of the not linked characters. That would have given them the opportunity to include also the story of Geronimo that took place mainly after all of the rest story lines. I bet new facts would have appear that have not been covered even by the perfect 1993 Geronimo biopic.. But the timeline of that relentless Indian and his fate were different to be honest. Here we have another goal: the rapid loom of an epoch and its fatally bittersweet end.The 8 episodes can't cover everything but focus on a somewhat of a quarter century period (1865-1890) in which the Wild West became Old West and gradually died. Perhaps that i why the four separate stories are presented not separately but part form the only flop: the alleged meeting between Jesse James and Billy The Kid in Arizona where its very doubtful the former has ever been. Good at least it is admitted it part of a LEGEND. Because of that it should not have been part of the otherwise accurate series.It is not so important how many gangs and members Jesse James had or who shot who and where exactly in Tombstone. What does matter are many facts that seem to have been contradicted or set aside so far in the big cinema: like Pat Garett as former member of a gang. What we are being shown fully here is the formation of the certain stereotypes of the West instead of losing ourselves counting bullets and badges. We are the ones who unveil the facts missing from the known history while set in a overall situation where we are capable of accomplishing that task that we are doing anyway... Or Asking and answering to what extent exactly was Jesse James following a credo of defeated but not surrendering South. The Big story in this large glimpse of the Wild West where ''people didn't live that long'' is of Wyatt Earp. IT the best known as facts and stands alone and most defining for the image of the era. And in the same time was never presented in such a full light, given history, reasons and ways of Wyatt that are both new and determining. i will not reveal it here of course. I will just comment how really struck do i feel that is possible the mass audience (at the time) to be so fond of the criminals, proclaiming them heroes while celebrating defeat of the law enforcement.With grasping the historic era of the USA emerging as the one and only free country and promised land for settlers from around the globe while being born in tones of unlawfulness and mortal sins that are present not only in all of the characters (except the Native Americans) but mark with filthy stigma all layers of that society. I almost can not believe how bad was that Old West with real sheriffs unable to do justice and even being persecuted or hired to ''convert'' into man hunters by rival governor candidates. As one of the documentary specialists said it in the series: The Justice system was ... (totally corrupt)- probably cut in the editing as it sounds... not good - left after the editing.Everyone has to see how the West was ''cultivated''. Because this is the foundation of the so-called Modern World we live in. There is good and bad mainly for everyone to find...
pipewrench_dale
Would not recommend anyone to take this series too seriously. The props are lower end. Using Colt Peacemakers before they were even invented. Jesse James flashing a Colt Dragoon, just after the civil war, with engravings from the Indian wars. General Custer carrying his Colt army holster backwards. Hats are plain awful and don't look anything like they did in the west. Worth noting is that all the props seem to be cheap Pakistani made reenactor gear. Everything from hat-cords to boots. This type of gear is generally considered not up to standard among reenactors. Due to its inaccurate construction and appearance. Guns are mainly non-firing Spanish made Denix replicas.Looking at the facts they present its also debatable. As an example the description of the Pinkerton raid on the James ranch is more or less completely wrong.To summarize. A series with OK screen value but with very low historical accuracy.
CinemaZealot57
There are spoilers in this review if you haven't watched the latest episode. This review primarily concerns the next to the last episode, "Frontier Justice". Redford IS rewriting history. I don't really think he's doing it with a revisionist attitude but I just can't figure out his motivation. Between him, all his money and no telling how many researchers and interns that had to be working on this I have no doubt they could have made this show entertaining and historically accurate. In other reviews I saw mention of many mistakes. Things like using the pictures from other shootouts for the wrong event/locale. In this last show I watched it shows Earp investigating the wagon train robbery and murder of one or two teamsters. Earp picks up a double barrel shotgun, breaks it open and says, "he didn't even have time to get a shot off'. Really? What I saw was a shotgun breech showing a 12 gauge shell in place with the primer dimpled. Anyone who knows guns knows dimpled primers means the shot was fired (or rarely a misfire). What ever it was it was ridiculous. The trivia section on this episode mentions the very same thing. And would someone please explain the Earp/Clanton $3600 deal to me??? I've never heard of that in my life. Even if it were true it's no different than using any other informant. The stuff they showed about the arrest of Billy the Kid was so wrong it was embarrassing. Everything I've ever heard and read about that escape said that Billy the Kid shot the deputy with the shotgun as the deputy was returning to the jail. Billy shot him from the upper window of the jail. When Billy got killed they got that all wrong too. A lot of the info on Jesse James is not accurate or true. The info on Sitting Bull is very sketchy. The way they portrayed the killing of Crazy Horse WAS a PC Retell. Everything I've ever read said that Indian Security at the Fort killed Crazy Horse. Redford obviously THINKS otherwise. To bad he can't stick to history. I know that all the people that have been involved in this show are aware of these stupid mistakes. So the question is why? Why would they spend all that money to put out a half ass effort that is historically so inaccurate it is laughable? There is a lot more that is wrong with this show. And that really points out the fact that there was enough money and experience involved here that they could have easily made this show a premier example of historically accurate Western documentaries.
