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List Price: $129.98Price: $74.99 You Save: $54.99 (42%)as of 11/24/2009 00:04 EST details
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780780643611
Format: Box set, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
ISBN: 0780643615
Label: PBS Home Video
Languages: EnglishOriginal Language
Manufacturer: PBS Home Video
Number Of Items: 5
Publisher: PBS Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: September 30, 2003
Running Time: 711 minutes
Studio: PBS Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1996
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Since its premiere on PBS in September 1996, The West has rightfully assumed its place as a milestone event in television history, and remains the single most ambitious and authoritative audio-visual history of the American West. Spanning centuries but focusing primarily on the period of 1800 to 1915, when America was virtually redefined by westward expansion, this outstanding 12.5-hour film is itself a triumphant effort to redefine Americans' collective understanding of the West and its impact on national identity. Directed by Stephen Ives and executive produced by Ken Burns (The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz), the film follows the theory adopted by previous Ken Burns productions--namely, that "history is biography"--and unfolds through a wealth of personal anecdote and intimate documentation.
The film's lasting achievement is its interweaving of the two distinct threads of western history--the triumph of westward expansion from the urban areas of the East, and the tragic dispossession of the Native Americans who had populated North America for thousands of years. Where previous historical perspectives tended to emphasize one direction or the other, The West (written by Geoffrey C. Ward and Dayton Duncan) achieves a delicate balance, illustrating how nearly every story of pioneering idealism was countered by incidents of tragic loss and suffering.
Brilliantly narrated by Peter Coyote, the series gains further depth and authority through interviews with more than 75 historians and experts. Foremost among them is N. Scott Momaday, scholar, historian, and Kiowa Indian, whose contribution to the series is deeply affecting. Other experts include historians Richard White, Patricia Nelson Limerick, and Stephen Ambrose; writers Michael Dorris and Maxine Hong Kingston; Lakota descendant Charlotte Black Elk; former Texas governor Ann Richards; and many others. When viewed in its entirety, this outstanding, truly epic documentary combines all of its separate episodes to form an emotionally involving narrative of astonishing depth and unprecedented accuracy. To say that The West is essential viewing would be an understatement; this film should be considered mandatory to any balanced awareness of America's turbulent and glorious westward movement. --Jeff Shannon
Description:
Produced by acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns, this sweeping documentary reveals the American West stripped of its Hollywood mythology, yet filled with intense drama and peopled with a mix of larger-than-life heroes and villains. Spanning the years from the first European advance into the wilderness to the dawn of the 20th century, the series portrays the profound, often devastating impact the onrushing white settlers, adventurers and exploiters had on Indian peoples and the land. In vivid imagery and in words spoken by many of today's best-known personalities, The West shows how the discovery of gold in California changed the country forever. Witness the torrent of violence triggered by the Civil War, the building of the transcontinental railroad, the tragedies at Little Big Horn and Wounded Knee -- all the key events and the people who created and shaped this great American story.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
When some people use the word "documentary" they seem to imbue it with an expectation of total objectivity--as if one could eliminate all traces of cultural experience from one's makeup and discover a shining path of ultimate "truth" simply by the act of becoming a filmmaker. Nonsense. We are all a product of our times and of the culture in which we were raised and educated. Documentaries are always, always, always selective. There is no such thing as total objectivity, either in writing or in ... Read More
Rating:  -
This series is very entertaining, which is certainly an achievement. However, political correctness does pervade it as previously noted. You can see this right away in the first episode. For example, it points out as false the notion that native people lived in harmony with each other before the white man's arrival, but then it fails to condemn the natives' wars with each other, or even to treat them negatively. Rather, the "warrior traditions" which included beheadings, mass slaughters, brutal subjugation ... Read More
Rating: -
Ken Burns 'West' was just what I as a resident alien wanted to see , after trying to find some comprehensive history of this region. The documentary puts everything in perspective with some memorable quotes 'One man's exploration is another man's home' , 'It is North for the Mexicans, South for the British Canada, Home for the Native people, West for the Americans'. But it is the 'West' that has attracted people from around the world. The dispossession of the Native Indians is indeed tragic. Most literature ... Read More
Rating: -
First, I wish to rebut the reviewer who calls this a dreary waste of time, -this is somewhat PC, yes. But it is the truth. These things did happen. It does not whitewash the ferocity of Indian tribes, but one must admit we were brutal also. Have you no heart, sir, to call this dreary? This documentary is fascinating and beautifully photographed. I especially love the story in episode 8 about David Love and Ethel Waxham, because I grew up in Wyoming not too far from the area they did.
Rating:  -
This is revisionist history at its best, the world according to Ken Burns. Where white men destroyed the earth, and it is saved by the black and red race.
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