Into the West

To tell the story of the "West" you have to cover a period as long as the life of one man, but no one person ever experienced everything. Instead this mini series tells the story of a family. Some reviews have said two families, one The Wheelers, Wheelrights from West Virginia and the Lokato Indians, but they are related marriage.

The problem with telling the story of the West is that most of time it was grueling hardship, and not exciting action. What was recorded in people's letters and journals were these simple hard facts of life, while the myth makers, story tellers and newsmen made the west something it never was.

So since "Dances with Wolves" historical westerns tend towards the slower pace of life of the time. Of course this is accompanied by sweeping panoramic camera shots and a stirring sound track.

It starts by telling the story in two ways, one from the point of view of "The White Man" and other in terms of dreams and mysticism of the Indian people. But it doesn't go behind the facade of Indian story telling methodology or stay true to that methodology.

It all adds up to slightly disappointing tale, yet one that manages for maybe the first time I know of, to personalize much of the story that made up "The West". From the trail blazers, to the cover wagons of the first settlers, to Californian gold rush, building the railroad, and of course the Indian wars and massacres.

This is perhaps a goal so high, that if the film makers failed to hit their mark, the achievement is still of note.

I watched this not expecting much, and though the start was slow the show really picked up momentum by the second half. Acting was solid, but the storyline is what I think will really be good. I enjoyed the portrayal of both the settler/native side of the story. One thing that really makes the show unique is the use of native language- you hear English, several native languages, Spanish, and so on. That made it feel more authentic. I think that people who are interested in native culture will enjoy it, since it tells things from that point of view, but without being preachy or heavy handed- there are good and bad characters in both cultures. My only complaint is that the main character, Wheeler, is a little wide eyed and borders on corny at times, but hopefully that will get better as the series goes on.

This is 6 part min-series, 90 minutes each episode. This is a large scale production for a TV mini-series made by DreamWorks for TNT. It follows mainly 2 families in the 19th century as the wild west gets conquered.

One family is the Wheelers. They are wheel makers. Some of the family set out to go west seeking fortune and adventure. The other is a Native American family struggling to fight, survive, and adapt to the invading white world.

The production is big but sometimes just not big enough. The first lead Matthew Settle as Jacob Wheeler is just too weak of an actor. The native American actors were generally good. The ever changing characters do not allow for an easy even flow. This is especially true when different actors are used to portray the same character at different ages.

The stories are compelling, but the disjointed nature of the stories do disrupt its flow. Overall they make for some good single movies, but not as much as a single storyline.

"Into The West" is, in my opinion, some of Steven Spielberg's finest work. Watching the series itself stirred up inside of me mixed emotions-- joy, sadness, anger, and so forth. Spielberg did a pretty darn good job in capturing how the West was shaped and more specifically the people who risked their lives in shaping it. I only wish that he would have at least given some small amount of attention to the black cowboys of the West, who played just as significant a role as anyone. Overall it was definitely worth watching, and since I have purchased the DVD I plan on watching it again. I am not sure when or if it will ever be on television again, but if it does, I suggest to anyone who is fed up with repeats of other shows due to the writer's strike to tune in.

I thought this was a excellent series.For those who want to degrade it should take the time to research Indian Affairs .There corrupt policy from day 1.With the full support of the U.S.Government that simply made treaties with the Native Americans to disregard,break,or flat out lie about the content and sent military forces to support corrupt Indian Agents, land barrens, speculators for the railroads.

We stole their land and made promises that were never going to be kept and they knew it(the government). The final Episode Ghost Dance and the massacre at Wounded Knee was so intense it made me ashamed to know that we could do this and be proud of ourselves.I have been to Wounded Knee it is a very sad place and now this series makes it more realistic as to what happened there.These were innocent people they slaughtered!