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