p_nikolic Although I wouldn't consider myself to be a biggest fan of Civil war and post-Civil war part of American history, this title is just amazing. Let me say that I've decided to watch this 3-part 5-hour story at approximately 00:30 AM and wanted to watch one episode per day. The plan went wrong, it's 6:10 AM in Serbia and I'm amazed by this picture. Enough said...The story is full of content, a mix of amazing love stories, vengeance and moral doubts about it. When you watch this, you switch your favorite side every five minutes, driven by a thought of right to collect the debt and again just wanting it to stop. As I come from a war-torn country, with former neighbors killing each others children, I kinda get the logic of blood-blinded, loss-driven minds of people who seek for what they think is justice. There's no easy way out of this circle and after years and years of blood sheds, people come to realization that the whole thing could be managed differently. That is the worst curse of mankind and that's what this film is all about...

plex This series resided on my DVR for a full year before viewing. I'm confused. Maybe I lost sight of the forest for the trees. This film seems to do nothing more than what Hollywood consistently does to musicians, portray them as a bad cliché. While production standards are well executed, those are the only things I give kudos to on this production. Costner and Paxton are the standouts in the film, as they are the only two that the film /script allows for any real character development. As there are so MANY players in the film, the rest of the performances get a bit muddied from time-to-time. Im amazed how many night sequences were in this film. I am from WV and I can tell you traveling at night in the woods of WV is simply not possible, especially during that time. The pacing of the film is inconsistent, with at least an hour possible to truncate from its length. What sticks out the most to me, aside from the rushed dialog, is the persistent casual murderous intent and reactions to death. Its a wonder our population grew at all, as everyone seems to look for some minuscule reason to kill, and only care about it to exact revenge to kill some more. Its hard for me to believe that just 150 years ago we were such a nation of savages and sociopaths, at least drug dealers kill each other for business reasons. Or is it, we ( West by-God Virginians actually weren't as bad as the film portrays but, once again, are stereotyped for entertainment purposes? Lastly, the still-framed epilogue of the film runs by so fast and is so incomplete, that a lot of the real questions never get answered, in other words 5 hours of film, and then a summarization that last only a few seconds and barely addresses the key points of story, characters, and outcome. I don't need to see this one twice.

chaos-rampant Apparently, this set a viewing record for cable TV and was nominated for no less than 15 Emmies. On one hand, it is good to know there is a modern audience for westerns, a genre that has largely drowned in the Lucas-noise of the last 30 years. And I fully support the mini-series format, it may just be the right canvas for cinematic narrative these days—indeed, it seems that quality American narrative tradition has largely moved to TV.On the other hand, we get close to 5 hours of the following:1) repetitive bushwacking to the point of complete numbness, and the same dour, one-note mugging throughout by rival family patriarchs Costner and Paxton. (this Deadwood writer ought to have studied Lonesome Dove: you CAN show broken lives in the afterglow of dreams)2) trite soap opera on an emotional level, with a Romeo and Juliet subplot that entirely drags this down like the James subplot does Twin Peaks.3) the same bleached , dishwater look throughout, supposedly in the name of authenticity.4) The story here is of celebrities and all the American violence that fuels and prints the legend. This is so old and familiar by now, it neither exposes nor deconstructs anything. It feels as tacked-on now, as it was once fresh in Liberty Valance.I'd like to think Costner is to fault, who like other megastars Redford and Cruise always has to appear in a streamlined environment that doesn't challenge. But no, I think what really happened was TV executives who conceived this on the lowest common level possible. It worked.

LeonLouisRicci This long stretching out of the infamous feud is not bad just nothing special. There is nothing here cinematically, literary, or artistically that hasn't been seen before. It breaks no new ground and is an interesting piece of history but doesn't have enough diversity or depth to allow for such length. Therefore, the story and its machinations becomes repetitive and if there isn't anything in the style or packaging to endear it flounders and fails.The performances are professional, but nothing to get all riled up about. Revenge, hate, misunderstandings, ignorance, blood lust, and not the least, stubbornness are all here in abundance but it is nothing we would not expect from the backwoods at a time of little education and much clannishness.One historical theory...one wonders if Hatfield would not have deserted during the war in front of Mccoy, who stuck out "the cause" to the end and ended up being mistreated in a POW camp...would he have been as bitter towards his friend? That seemed to be where the seed of hate was planted.