America’s Wild West

It’s a quality documentary
I really enjoyed watching the wild West documentary. It’s interesting, it has actual photographs and old film footage of these outlaws and legends. It’s a 5 star.

An enjoyable history lesson of the American West
What this fine series does is give us a history lesson in America through the lives of eight people in the second half of the 19th century and a bit of the 20th: Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill, Kit Carson, Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, George Armstrong Custer, and Wyatt Earp.Some were especially admirable, like Annie Oakley and Bill Cody. One, Jesse James, was cruel and evil. The rest were doing the best they could, and I could identify with that. The telling of their lives is presented in the context of their times, and those times were fascinating. The character of America was changing in just a brief generation or two.All eight episodes are full of photos that help take us back to those times. The biographies are carried along by brief comments from historians and writers who I invariably found interesting and informative.The only recommendation I might offer is to watch the segments in a different order, mostly based on the time periods described. I’d do it roughly like this: Kit Carson, Jesse James, Billy the Kid, George Custer, Wyatt Earp, Butch Cassidy, Annie Oakley (who actually never lived in the West), and Buffalo Bill Cody. But even if we watch them as discs One, Two, Three, it’ll be fine. A better appreciation of post-Civil War history — Reconstruction, Native Americans, cowboys, railroads, banks, law and order — will be had.This isn’t a complete lesson – that would take many more episodes, and I would welcome them – but it’s a fine introduction. Though never expressed as the intent, I can see these episodes being of much moral value if watched with our children and then discussed afterwards.Two weeks later I watch THE WAY WEST, by Ric Burns. The two series couldn’t be more different. TWW is mistitled. It should have been called “How the Earth-loving Native Americans Were Screwed Out of Their Land by the Brutal White Man.” The series is six hours of unrelenting grief. Am not saying it’s not true, am not saying it’s not important, but am saying it’s not the main story of the American West. In its own way, “America’s Wild West” depicts that, even if incompletely, much better.A week after posting the above paragraph, I’ve now watched THE WEST, by Ric’s brother, the famous Ken Burns. This series is, as we’d expect, superb. Far more balanced, though as some will say, still doesn’t tell the whole story. As if what series possibly could.

VERY GOOD–BUT
a lot of good information but as usual PBS gives it a very liberal slant. anytime there is a issue between the red man and the white man PBS will ALWAYS slant the facts in favor of the red man. It is quite clear that PBS has no use for CUSTER and i noted some of the facts in the Billy the Kid program that are not supported by other sources.