The West

This documentary was incredibly well done and well researched. A lot of very sensitive white people on IMDB have been leaving reviews about how this documentary is a "revisionist" history and framed as all white men are evil. As a guy who teaches history I find it fascinating that so many people believe whatever version of history they learned growing should be the only version that future generations learn about. History is something that can be interpreted differently by different generations. Just because you were raised with some baby boomer propaganda filled version of American history does not mean that any other version is "revisionist" or "PC."

I'm sorry, but I have to bitch. Writer Terry Tempest Williams says in the last part of this huge series on the subject of the romanticized version given of the west in Hollywood westerns: "One of the dangers of looking at the American West - our past - is to paint everything in black and white" - and another scholar seconds this: "The true complexity of what was going on in the west has almost never been the subject of film in Hollywood". These statements, however, end 537 minutes of a documentary that insists on showing everything in black and white, or red and white, rather, and although the program faithfully records facts - on occasion - it keeps concluding that the west was peopled at the expense of a peace-loving red people who lived much purer, much nobler, than the white settlers who inundated America and stole the red man's land.

All the scholars quoted and interviewed seem to lament the settling of the west, since it ruined so much more than it built, and everyone seems to agree that the Native Americans have been treated harshly in Hollywood. Had this series been from the early sixties, they would have been right, but all through the 70s and on we have been subjected to idealized portrayals of Indians in films like "Little Big Man", "Soldier Blue" and "Dances with Wolves" - haven't they been to the movies since that? Millions of dollars have been spent to atone for the old Hollywood redskins, and in forgetting this fact, "The West" indulges in America's favorite pastime: flagellation, self-reproach. It joins the chorus of penitent sinners: Please forgive us for introducing democracy to the modern world, please forgive us for putting an end to two world wars, for fighting communist regimes that cost the lives of seventy million people, and so on.

If we keep seeing the West as another fall of man, the devastation of another Eden, we overlook the fact that people are rotten wherever. That the Indians spent a thousand years in various tribal wars, and that they were eventually beaten by other people who were better at that game. We also overlook the fact that the British before the American revolution actually paid Indian tribes to butcher peaceful white settlers , and that the Indians continued to do so, unpaid and willingly, because only vast expanses of land could support their lifestyle, while over-crowded Europe could no longer support its own. Thousands of poor Europeans who came over in modest search of a small plot of land perished at Indian hands.

Another group of glorified victims are the Mexicans, who got the raw end of the deal from the Texans. The series readily forgets, and never mentions, that these poor people were descendants of conquistadors, who butchered Aztecs, Mayas and Incas wholesale. As all the scholars agree: there can only be one villain: the white man. Does this ring a bell from the happy hippie days of the sixties? "The true complexities of the west", indeed!

This series is beautiful, truly, and the wonderful photo and film footage is breathtaking and catches the essence of the romantic west. It's too bad, really, that the material is only used to cement a romanticized, mock-documentary rehash of ideas that should have disappeared decades ago.

I bought the series because I believed Ken Burns made it. It turned out he's only the producer. For real documentary, I can recommend Burns' Civil War or his documentary on Mark Twain.

PS! Although it may be in poor style, I'd like to correct my Australian co-commentator Nospheratu (above): I'm not jingoistic, and if I should be waving any flag, it would not be the Stars & Stripes, since I'm not American either. I just hope that Americans will soon stop wallowing in guilt and bad conscience in endless series of apologetic documentaries, that's all. For a more balanced view on the Indian wars, I can recommend the documentary "The Great Indian Wars." A tacky, but historically far more objective production.

In response to the ludicrous comments of the aforegoing jingoistic 'type': The writers of The West must have had more than a few facets of their mammoth piece right in order to elicit such a typically moronic right-wing-styled response in its appeal to nationalistic myth, grand-narrative delusion and brazen stereotype positing. Not to mention - the ironic circumstance of contending that 'we' as the Caucasiatic race are being slighted in some way, in order to showcase the romanticised moanings of other races. The series does no such thing... in fact it habitually (and necessarily) DOES turn about much of the essential Ameri-myths of Frontier and Manifest Destiny (and sundry others), which have been/are so central to your much lauded and generalised "natioanl consciousness". The series, in the main, does NOT disparage these! - nor is there essentially any need to - since they're not altogether bad, of course.

So, once you're finished waving your flag about, and - somewhat ironically - prattling on about the reductive "black and white", perhaps consider that an expansive narrative like The West MUST contain motifs and themes... it cannot present a comprehensive or 'complete' history (there is no such thing)... and is perfectly entitled to present perspectives that don't accord with someone-or-other's ideal of a 'balanced' account. 'Balance' is NO objective reality, and shouldn't be thought of as 'existing' as a universal truth awaiting insertion into subjectively-conceived narratives - not even quality history docos such as The West. As far as I could ascertain, The West does NOT prefigure or predetermine to depict white settlement as inherently disastrous in any event. It is celebrated as much or as far its nasty consequences are elucidated. And, the perspectives of native peoples OUGHT factor decisively anyway - it is no narrative flaw of The West to present this perspective... especially when facts abound to corroborate.

Also, to the aforementioned 'patriot' who seems fond of collectivising white America concerning all that overstated 'swell'stuff like "fighting communism" and "winning two World Wars" ... you're okay with maintaining the 'we' for all the OTHER stuff too, right?

The West does present narrative, production and continuity issues for me also, but I'm loathe to be allied to a K.P. such as thee.

This documentary mini-series does a decent job of covering such a huge, complex subject in 9 episodes (about 10 hours of time). I like that appropriate focus and time given to American Indians, who played such a crucial role in the story, and to other groups like Latinos, blacks, and Chinese immigrants who played vital roles, as well.

(I'm also offended by a number of reviewers who complain that too much screen time is given to Indians and minorities. These same reviewers complain that whites aren't credited enough for their courage and virtues in subduing the "wild west" and "civilizing" the Indians. The irony is that these reviewers are the very sort of racist people who caused so much trouble and misery while the real history was being played out!)

On the whole, I do recommend watching this mini-series.

I am a huge fan of the West so watching a docu-series by Ken Burns on the West was a must for me and he delivered. High quality content and excellent narrating from Peter Coyote!