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.

My husband and I have really enjoyed the two episodes that have aired so far and we are eagerly anticipating the remaining episodes. This mini series is both entertaining and educational. I can only imagine the effort that was spent to recreate the look and feel of that period in time. The use of the native American language adds realism. Can you imagine how unrealistic it would look if all the native Americans spoke fluent English? This movie does a great job of depicting the journey west as something both exciting and extremely dangerous. I noticed in the comments section that some viewers find certain plot scenes unrealistic. You have to realize that the settlers were ordinary people with no special training regarding how to survive out west, therefore they succumb to drowning, diseases, and yes, getting run over by a wagon.

I also thought the casting was well done in this movie. I enjoyed watching Keri Russell, Matthew Settle, Jay Tavare, and the rest of the cast. At times the movie is moving at such a fast pace that I got the impression scenes were left out in order to fit into the time slot allowed. I hope a DVD will be released so we may see some extra scenes. I would highly recommend this movie to families or anyone who enjoys great entertainment.

"Into the West" is an amazing story, that anyone who calls themselves an American should see. This mini-series shows a heart-felt perspective of American History that no high school text book could possibly explain. The way they tell these unprecedented events through generations of two families, and the joys and tragedies that they endure keeps you glued to the screen every second. You have no idea how excited my mom and I were when we found out that EVERY episode would be two hours long!! We expected the first one to be two hours to reel you into the story, and then the rest would be an hour. But an hour each week just wouldn't be long enough to explore all of the different aspects of these people's journeys. And the cast is absolutely spectacular, especially Matthew Settle and Tonantzin Carmelo. The love they have for each other seems to make everything else in this tale a little more bearable. I'm going to stop now, because I could go on for hours and hours about this series if you let me. Steven Spielberg, you ROCK!!!

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.