The Hatfields and Mcoys with an all star cast had me glued to the television for three days. Great show...A great job!
That cast of half-forgotten actors did a good job? That's great news. I thought half of them were gone forever.
I watched it and i was strangely unsatisfied. Well. not so strangely seeing as it was the 'history' channel.
I agree...and I did some poking around on some of the historical web sites on the feud afterwards, and it was pretty accurate...minus the hair color of a few characters. The Hatfields had a great many photos they took, but portraits of the McCoysare almost all artist drawings, and there are very few of Mr McCoy and his wife. Personally...I blame the Hatfields for the whole thing...Devil was a deserter, and should have been hung for that, but his uncle prevented that from being considered. If Hatfield would have served in the POW camp with McCoy, they'd have returned home fast friends.
They did a little documentary on the feud. It seems that the North was looting homes in the area and Devil went back to defend his family. I would agree that they may have portrayed the Mcoys in a less than flattering light.
What the (*)(*)(*)(*) are they doing playing historical stuff on that channel. I thought it was all about UFOs, ghosts, and Bigfoot so as to make you shell out for the Military Channel, History International, and wherever else all the interesting and historical shows went.
I saw part of two scenes. A woman with a bare back and some men talking. Incidentally, I didn't say they were nobodies. I saw a commercial featuring the stars and realized I hadn't seen any of them in a movie filmed in this century. All of Kevin Costner's movies are an hour too long, so this was right for him. I love Mare Winningham but I've learned not to watch long movies waiting for someone to appear. I know Bill Paxton was very busy for awhile, but the last time I heard about him was in an independent foreign film. In the late 1970's I saw the first few minutes of a movie about the feud. It was so dull I went to bed.
I thought the movie was great. Quite a fascinating story, but also a pathetic & sad American tale. Ego & alcohol were pretty much the triggers.
I found it very compelling, but then I think this was a situation in which advertising actually worked. I saw a trailer for it before Avengers. It looked really good on the big screen and quite compelling. I was surprised that it was a History Channel miniseries instead of an actual movie. But it lived up to the hype, it was really good.
Don't forget Pawn Stars and American Pickers...not bad shows I guess...just not my cup of tea. I think Ancient Aliens is a hoot....nobody at all in the ancient world could do anything without ouside help...give me a break!
I remember the scene where Devil was caught skeedaddling by McCoy, and McCoy almost shot him. I thought the reasons Devil gave him for deserting, as I remember, had more to do with Devil wanting to go back home because he was demoralized by the lostness of the cause, even though he'd distinguished himself as a hero. I think he was saying something like "I could be back making money for my family, or die here"...or some such. They portrayed both families in a balanced way IMO, and I don't mean in terms of the historical accuracy. I'm speaking in terms of an averge viewer's likelyhood to see the noble, and reprehensable, from both sides. They also did a good job adhering to anglo appalchian moral codes of the time, which obviously included unapologtetic child abandonment in certain cases, and how the man ran the house. Back to Devil's desertion.....the home guard was supposed to take care of yankee bushwhackers...you can't just let the whole confederate army go home because of it. JMO....I have no idea what it would have been like to be there. Guys from my generation will never know what that is like
