Tonight, I just finished watching all of “Hatfields & McCoys” on the DVR. I DVR’d them, ’cause I almost forgot this series was on this week, so recorded the reruns. Plus, I think it’s better watching stuff on the DVR to fast forward the annoying commercials. This mini series marks the comeback of actor, Kevin Costner. As most of you know, Costner took a long break from acting. He took a few years off, to focus on his music career with his band, Modern West. It’s no secret Costner is a huge fan of Western, ’cause he had starred in many Western films himself with films such as “Dances with Wolves”, “Wyatt Earp”, “Open Range” etc. Bill Paxton also may have starred in a few Western films as he can be seen in the movie, “Tombstone”. So both actors obviously already, have experience playing in Westerns.
Finally, Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton team up for a Western for the History Channel, “Hatfields & McCoys”, based on real life and true events. I’m going to keep this review short and brief without any spoilers, ’cause I know a lot of people out there still haven’t watched it yet, I can still give a brief synopsis though. It tells the story of two men who used to be best friends, Anse Hatfield (Costner) and Randal McCoy (Paxton), they were best friends up until the Civil War was over with. After the war, they return home to go back to living their lives. The feud between the Hatfield and McCoy families began with increasing tensions, misunderstandings, and resentments.
As soon as I started watching, I was immediately hooked. The show was pretty addicting, and wish the movie could be a lot longer! It should have been a good 5 part mini series. Costner and Paxton still has it with the acting. Those guys were phenomenal, Costner was a badass in that role. I think this was Costner’s best Western role. The movie felt like a true Western. It was pretty serious. It was a pretty realistic Western too. It had a lot of action and it was pretty violent.
After watching this mini series makes me want to research the history of the Hatfield & McCoy feud. I’m sure there are plenty of books written about this famous feud, so I’ll have to find one to read. I’ll start looking through the Ibooks store for the Ipad.
Back to the show, it was pretty intense and powerful stuff! I can see why this was the highest rated TV show ever, it broke world records in the ratings. It also shows that people are still interested in Western and Cowboys. After the success of “Hatfields & McCoys”, they should keep the Western genre going. The Western genre doesn’t get much respect by the Entertainment Industry because they’re afraid that people don’t care about it anymore. Well, we still do care about the Western genre. It’s cool stuff.
I think the History channel should do a mini series on the Billy the Kid story next. A more true and more accurate story on, Billy The Kid. Not the fake stuff from the, “Young Guns” movies. “Hatfields & McCoys” was the best thing I’ve seen all year. I wouldn’t be surprised if this Mini Series would win a lot of awards ’cause it could.
Kev
K'Brocking 
H&M was not a western. It was still a good show though. Westerns take place in the west and are about the struggles and challenges of making it in the west. Hence the name “Western”.
I think you may want take a few little geography lessons before posting such things. Since the “Hatfields & McCoys” feud was taken place around the borders of Kentucky and West Virginia, I would think it would make a lot of sense if those states are mid-western. So yeah, the Western genre for “H&M” is right on the money.
Kev
Kentucky and especially W. Virginia are EAST COAST. Midwest is Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma…
I was wrong. Kentucky and West Virginia are Southern.
They can be either way, Midwest or Southern. Kentucky and West Virginia has always been kind of weird, it’s always been hard to tell for everyone whether those two states are midwest or not.
Kev
…but whether they are midwest or not, I still call, “Hatfields & McCoys”, a Western genre ’cause as long as it has Cowboys, guns and horses, I still see it as a Western kind of thing.
Kev
So does that make Star Wars a western? It had cowboys (Han Solo) guns and “horses (tauntauns).
If Costner himself called it a Western, then he must be right, from the man himself:
“I don’t do sequels . . . so I think you ought to give me a break here that once in a while I go into our American psyche,” said Costner, 57, who plays patriarch William Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield, a scowling authority figure grounding the four-hour-plus TV miniseries. “I think, hopefully, why I do a lot of Westerns is because people like ’em and they remember them.”
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/media/content/kevin-costner-talks-hatfields-mccoys-loving-diana-ross-and-making-westerns-romania
Kev
I believe that the Warren Zevon song – Lawyers, Guns and Money – could be understood to have a Western music vibe to it. I also believe that This Is Spinal Tap, Shakes The Clown and Slapshot are “westerns’ as well. They were made in the Western hemisphere, no? So, I suppose the term Western could be construed to mean, ‘from the west.’ I would rate stars wars as more of a bollywood classic, since that bulk of it was shot in bolivia.
Yes it was a great miniseries – and the reference to Warren Zevon was somewhat prescient…The recurring haunting refrain was taken from Zevon’s “Desperadoes Under the Eaves” – I hope the estate was sufficiently compensated.