Although we have
grown accustomed to television series with narratives more fitting a theatrical
story, complete with a bevy of new shows taken directly from successful films
(“About a Boy,” “Fargo”), this is a practice which has been around for quite
some time. Before “How the West Was Won” the TV-series in the late 1970s, there
was a successful and extremely cinematic film version in 1962 starring James
Stewart, John Wayne, Gregory Peck, and Henry Fonda, among others. The TV-show
may not have the extreme widescreen or the star power, but it allowed the story
to be stretched out with even more wonderful detail.
I suppose this
is technically a mini-series, since it had a clear end in sight, but it is far
from short. This is only half of the show, but it still has fourteen episodes
on six discs. James Arness heads up the cast as the head of the Macahan family,
Zeb. Living in the Colorado wilderness, the
Macahans find themselves caught in a frontier war between the Sioux tribe and
the U.S.
All fourteen
parts of the second set are included on six discs, with an average of three of
the lengthy episodes fit onto each disc. There are no special features.
Entertainment Value:
7/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 7.5/10
Historical
Significance: 8/10
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