Written by Hanne
May 07, 2011
These six one-hour long DVDs was a delight for a history lover.
PBS has been my favorite TV channel for years, and more so as time goes by and the other channels show worse and worse programs! And "American Experience" is one of the best series on my favorite channel!
I am a transplanted European, and all of us just "love" the American West and its history, so these DVDs were just right for me - and they were extremely well done. There are six different DVDs, with each one focusing on a different famous person from the Wild West era.
"Geronimo" was made in 1998, the others are from the last five years and will be timeless forever.
All of them try to separate myth from fiction, and many of the "heroes" suffer from that!
Annie Oakley and Geronimo seem to be the best people in the group. Of course Jesse James is a complete villain, and Wyatt Earp is a man with many flaws. Kit Carson will always be stained by the Navajos "Long Walk", even if he just followed his military orders. And Buffalo Bill was mostly just a great business man, who understood how to sell himself.
Their stories are told by using original photographs, and there are comments by many historians, who know their subjects. But to make the films really come to life, there are "original" news clips, all fake of course, but done in muted colors and without real close-ups, so it all seems natural.
These six one-hour long DVDs was a delight for a history lover, and I can highly recommend the series to anyone, who enjoy the real Wild West.
