Ken Burns Presents: The West
by Stephen Ives
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Daniel von Bargen, Gary Sinise, Ossie Davis, Peter Coyote, Tantoo CardinalDirector: Stephen Ives
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
DVD Release Date: 2004-09-28
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Pbs Paramount
Movie Reviews of Ken Burns Presents: The West
Movie Review: Not actually by Ken Burns... and it shows
Summary: 2 Stars
I am surprised people can't get their facts straight surrounding this particular series: Ken Burns didn't write it, Ken Burns didn't direct it, it is "Presented By" meaning some cash was exchanged and the venerable Mr. Burns was able to tack his name onto the proceedings. This series was directed by Stephen Ives, and written by Dayton Duncan & Geoffrey C. Ward. This fact becomes eminently clear after about 30 minutes worth of footage & realizing, "Wow, these guys really wanted to emulate the Ken Burns style and failed miserably." The story is brutally long & brutally boring, whilst simultaneously evoking not empathy for its Native American subjects but an unfortunate casual contempt at the constant PC-run-amok tone that permeates the entire program.
The narrative is carelessly chopped up & regurgitated between heaping helpings of "oh, don't you feel bad for the poor Native Americans" and "don't you see how horribly our government treated the Native Americans?" and "oh goodness, don't you just want to give back Oklahoma to the Native Americans?" I find it amazingly ironic that a series meant to evoke pride along with sympathy for a people ends up alternating between brutally boring and brutally grating. Peter Coyote doesn't have the most pleasant voice for narration, so the proceedings are hobbled by that fact. And that's before you get to the "historical experts" and various presenters: the strangest cast of outsiders, cast-offs, and weirdos ever assembled in a historical documentary. Please don't mistake me for some sort of shallow frat-boy, but every time N. Scott Momaday appeared on screen I immediately busted out laughing at his creepy stentorian tone mixed with his used-car-salesman approach to spinning tales. Some of the other folks (Native American women in particular) were downright frightening.
It is difficult to do much more than evoke pity in a documentary this long because the consistent recourse of said tribes was to withdraw back into their "sacred medicine" and "spirit journeys" which to modern ears just sounds infantile and silly. So during passages where the authors are attempting to emphasize the difficult plight of the Indians, you're attempting to keep a straight face. Every once in a while they will drop events of actual historical significance... done poorly. It doesn't take a movie critic to immediate tell that this is NOT done by Ken Burns, it is done by people imitating Ken Burns BADLY.
And speaking of The Man himself, i l-o-v-e-d The Civil War, i l-o-v-e-d Jazz, and Ken Burns' Baseball is hands-down the finest TV series ever made about anything (as a baseball fan, i might be biased,) but The West was a series that i actually dreaded watching. I had to watch every episode to get the whole feel, but in addition to inspiring fits of laughter at inappropriate times, i fell asleep at least twice. If The Civil War, or Jazz, or Baseball is on then i am at full attention and enraptured. With The West i feel like Sally Struthers is going to bust in the room and demand i pay some Lakota woman's college tuition for the sins of my presumed forefathers. It's enough to make me wince.
I'd love to know what people think is so great about this series because I think it's unfortunate trash. Right down to the grainy new-age landscapes they use as backgrounds & the ripped-off attempt at Ken-Burns-style slow-pans across grainy photos (note to filmmakers: it helps if the photos are interesting & actually assist in telling the stories instead of just panning for panning's sake.) Westward expansion is usually underrepresented in the history books, and once in a while you will get a nugget of interesting info, but if you came here looking for history you will be sadly disappointed. BUT, if you came here for unintentionally hilarious melodrama, told by scary shut-ins and presented with pointless grainy photos & bad new-age visuals, brother you came to the right place! Personally, i will watch no more forever.
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