Ken Burns Presents: The West
by Stephen Ives
List Price:
Our Price: $114.99
You Save: $15.00 (12%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1 to 2 days
Buy Used: from $64.97 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Daniel von Bargen, Gary Sinise, Ossie Davis, Peter Coyote, Tantoo CardinalDirector: Stephen Ives
Brand: Paramount
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
DVD Release Date: 2004-09-28
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: PBS Paramount
DVD Reviews of Ken Burns Presents: The West
DVD Review: The West
Summary: 5 Stars
Excellent video!! Very informative as well as entertaining.I hope you produce more of similiar quality,
Thanks again for this very informative video.
John M. Blair
15540 Blair View Circle
Anchorage,Alaska 99516
DVD Review: Not actually by Ken Burns... and it shows
Summary: 2 Stars
I am surprised people can't get their facts straight surrounding this particular series: Ken Burns didn't write it, Ken Burns didn't direct it, it is "Presented By" meaning some cash was exchanged and the venerable Mr. Burns was able to tack his name onto the proceedings. This series was directed by Stephen Ives, and written by Dayton Duncan & Geoffrey C. Ward. This fact becomes eminently clear after about 30 minutes worth of footage & realizing, "Wow, these guys really wanted to emulate the Ken Burns style and failed miserably." The story is brutally long & brutally boring, whilst simultaneously evoking not empathy for its Native American subjects but an unfortunate casual contempt at the constant PC-run-amok tone that permeates the entire program.
The narrative is carelessly chopped up & regurgitated between heaping helpings of "oh, don't you feel bad for the poor Native Americans" and "don't you see how horribly our government treated the Native Americans?" and "oh goodness, don't you just want to give back Oklahoma to the Native Americans?" I find it amazingly ironic that a series meant to evoke pride along with sympathy for a people ends up alternating between brutally boring and brutally grating. Peter Coyote doesn't have the most pleasant voice for narration, so the proceedings are hobbled by that fact. And that's before you get to the "historical experts" and various presenters: the strangest cast of outsiders, cast-offs, and weirdos ever assembled in a historical documentary. Please don't mistake me for some sort of shallow frat-boy, but every time N. Scott Momaday appeared on screen I immediately busted out laughing at his creepy stentorian tone mixed with his used-car-salesman approach to spinning tales. Some of the other folks (Native American women in particular) were downright frightening.
It is difficult to do much more than evoke pity in a documentary this long because the consistent recourse of said tribes was to withdraw back into their "sacred medicine" and "spirit journeys" which to modern ears just sounds infantile and silly. So during passages where the authors are attempting to emphasize the difficult plight of the Indians, you're attempting to keep a straight face. Every once in a while they will drop events of actual historical significance... done poorly. It doesn't take a movie critic to immediate tell that this is NOT done by Ken Burns, it is done by people imitating Ken Burns BADLY.
And speaking of The Man himself, i l-o-v-e-d The Civil War, i l-o-v-e-d Jazz, and Ken Burns' Baseball is hands-down the finest TV series ever made about anything (as a baseball fan, i might be biased,) but The West was a series that i actually dreaded watching. I had to watch every episode to get the whole feel, but in addition to inspiring fits of laughter at inappropriate times, i fell asleep at least twice. If The Civil War, or Jazz, or Baseball is on then i am at full attention and enraptured. With The West i feel like Sally Struthers is going to bust in the room and demand i pay some Lakota woman's college tuition for the sins of my presumed forefathers. It's enough to make me wince.
I'd love to know what people think is so great about this series because I think it's unfortunate trash. Right down to the grainy new-age landscapes they use as backgrounds & the ripped-off attempt at Ken-Burns-style slow-pans across grainy photos (note to filmmakers: it helps if the photos are interesting & actually assist in telling the stories instead of just panning for panning's sake.) Westward expansion is usually underrepresented in the history books, and once in a while you will get a nugget of interesting info, but if you came here looking for history you will be sadly disappointed. BUT, if you came here for unintentionally hilarious melodrama, told by scary shut-ins and presented with pointless grainy photos & bad new-age visuals, brother you came to the right place! Personally, i will watch no more forever.
DVD Review: THE WEST (KEN BURNS PRESENTS)
Summary: 5 Stars
I LOVE IT! I HAD WANTED TO PURCHASE THIS ITEM FOR A LONG TIME AND I AM NOT ONE TO NORMALLY DENY MYSELF MUCH; IF I WANT IT, I BUY IT! HOWEVER, THIS WAS ONE THAT I HAD ADMITTEDLY HELD OFF ON JUST BECAUSE I WAS UNCOMFORTABLE WITH SPENDING THE AMOUNT THAT IT ALWAYS SOLD FOR. FINDING IT ON AMAZON WAS A GREAT DEAL AS I FIND NEARLY ALL AMAZON DEALS TO BE. YOU ARE TREMENDOUS TO DEAL WITH. I BELIEVE THAT THIS WAS ONE OF THE ITEMS I ORDERED FROM "CAIMAN". THEY HAVE BEEN MY FAVORITES TO DEAL WITH FOR EVERY REASON, SO IF I AM ORDERING THINGS LIKE DVDS, I ACTUALLY SEEK THEM OUT DUE TO THE FACT THAT THERE ARE NEVER ANY PROBLEMS WHATSOEVER AND MOST OF THE TIME THEIR PRICE IS EITHER THE BEST OFFERED OR SO CLOSE THAT I CHOOSE TO ORDER FROM THEM. THEY'RE TERRIFIC!DVD Review: A ten star effort.
Summary: 5 Stars
The West
DVD ~ Peter Coyote
When some people use the word "documentary" they seem to imbue it with an expectation of total objectivity--as if one could eliminate all traces of cultural experience from one's makeup and discover a shining path of ultimate "truth" simply by the act of becoming a filmmaker. Nonsense. We are all a product of our times and of the culture in which we were raised and educated. Documentaries are always, always, always selective. There is no such thing as total objectivity, either in writing or in filmmaking.
That said, this is an enormously valuable effort to sift through an extraordinary cross-section of materials and condense them into 12 and 1/2 hours of very viewable, enlightening and often extremely moving stories. Yes, that's right, I said "condense". The documents available on the history of the West literally fill many museums, and unless you plan to spend every waking moment of your life from the time you learn to read until the day you die as a serious scholar of western lore, you will never gain a complete knowledge of the subject. This is an outstanding effort to provide a distillation of the sense and feel of the west from the earliest days of indian tribal inhabitation to the passing of the frontier. To have even attempted that feat in a 12 and 1/2 hour presentation took courage and imagination. Although I have often grumbled to myself about Ken Burn's relentless imposition of an over-stylized montage technique on the presentation of his documentaries, I have nothing but astonished admiration for his accomplishment in crafting this mini-series. Bravo.
Yes, yes, it doesn't tell the whole story of the West. Yes, it is selective. And, yes, there are other things that could have been included. C'mon guys, quit sitting back like Monday morning quarterbacks and griping about what is missing from this presentation. Think about what he WAS able to accomplish! He captured a sense of sweep, a sense of the development of the frontier, and an extraordinarily vivid impression of the cultural, religious, social, economic and racial collisions that occurred in this vast space over a period of a couple of centuries. Good grief, what do you want, blood? If he had never made another movie, this series would still have placed him in the pantheon of American documentarians. No one is claiming that this is the only document you need to expose yourself to in order to achieve perfect understanding of the history of the West. But it's certainly one absolute requirement for inclusion in any attempt to understand the subject.
For any collector of Western memorabilia and lore, for any teacher who wants to enrich a class in American studies, and for anyone at all who simply wishes to gain a sense of the West in our history, this is a must-have set of dvds to add to your collection. It should be available in every school and public library and rerun regularly on PBS. It's the best thing Burns has ever done--the Civil War series notwithstanding--and those who chirp like little toads that it should have been better are welcome to make an effort to direct and produce a version that improves on it. Don't hold your breath until that happens.
Now I'm about to suggest a bit of social heresy in this day of 30 second commercials and infinitesimal attention spans. If you really want to gain the ultimate impact, try total immersion. Choose a rainy or snowy Saturday or Sunday, lay in a goodly supply of your favorite food and drink, lock the door and turn your phone off (!), and then do a total viewing immersion. Watch the entire series from beginning to end in one marathon day. And by the way, treat yourself to some solitude. That's right, do it alone; spend one day watching this without having to pay attention to the needs or attitudes or reactions of a viewing companion. Let it surround and soak into your senses. Embrace the barrage of images and sounds. Plunge headlong into that amazing collection of stories about people and places and events. It will change you. You won't come away with total recall of details, but you will achieve a new sensory and intellectual appreciation of our history that is geometrically greater than watching it piecemeal with days or weeks intervening between the episodes. Later on, after some time has passed, you can go back and view it again in the self-contained capsules; that time through, you will absorb the detail. Go ahead, try it. Challenge your mind.
Well done, Mr. Burns! My hat is off to you. And thank you PBS for reminding us that our brains are for thinking.
DVD Review: Go West!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an incredible piece of filmmaking. This is Ken Burns' long-overlooked documentary masterpiece about the birth and transformation of the West of America. Every "chapter" is more engaging than the last. This doc is also very well-balanced as far as the white Native American points of view. "The West" spans the devastation and ingenuity unique to American History. This doc is completely overshadowed by "Baseball" and "The Civil War," (IMDB.com has thousands of votes for those two and only about 100 for "The West") but this is as good as it gets. Go West!
Description of Ken Burns Presents: The West
Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 09/30/2005 Director: Ken BurnsGeneral DVDs
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Bestsellers in General DVDs
Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht, Seasons 1 - 2Release date: 2008-09-09; DVD
Best price: $12.36
Price in other shops:
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER (DVD MOVIE); Release date: 2008-09-30; DVD
Best price: $16.99
Price in other shops:
CSNY / Deja VuRelease date: 2008-09-30; DVD
Best price: $7.80
Price in other shops:
The Universe - The Complete Season One (History Channel)A&E; Release date: 2007-11-20; DVD
Best price: $20.99
Price in other shops:
Spirit of the MarathonRelease date: 2008-10-07; DVD
Best price: $19.70
Price in other shops:
Shine a LightSHINE A LIGHT (DVD MOVIE); Release date: 2008-07-29; DVD
Best price: $13.49
Price in other shops:
Sicko (Special Edition)WELLSPRING/GENIUS; Release date: 2007-11-06; DVD
Best price: $4.86
Price in other shops:
Expelled: No Intelligence AllowedRelease date: 2008-10-21; DVD
Best price: $17.99
Price in other shops:
Young@HeartYOUNG AT HEART (DVD MOVIE); Release date: 2008-09-16; DVD
Best price: $16.49
Price in other shops:
Planet Earth - The Complete BBC SeriesWarner Brothers; Release date: 2007-04-24; DVD
Best price: $21.20
Price in other shops:
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
John Adams (HBO Miniseries)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2008-06-10; DVD
Best price: $33.90
Price in other shops:
Ken Burns' America CollectionRelease date: 2004-09-28; DVD
Best price: $77.77
Price in other shops:
Thomas Jefferson - A Film by Ken BurnsParamount; Release date: 2004-09-28; DVD
Best price: $15.27
Price in other shops:
Jazz - A Film By Ken BurnsParamount; Release date: 2004-09-28; DVD
Best price: $101.38
Price in other shops:
500 NationsWarner Brothers; Release date: 2004-09-21; DVD
Best price: $32.99
Price in other shops:
Ken Burns - American Lives (Thomas Jefferson / Lewis & Clark / Frank Lloyd Wright / Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B Anthony / Mark Twain / Horatio's Drive / Unforgivable Blackness)Release date: 2005-10-25; DVD
Best price: $91.59
Price in other shops:
Baseball - A Film By Ken BurnsTeam Marketing; Release date: 2004-09-28; DVD
Best price: $102.20
Price in other shops:
Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of DiscoveryRelease date: 2004-09-28; DVD
Best price: $15.52
Price in other shops:
The War - A Film By Ken Burns and Lynn NovickParamount; Release date: 2007-10-02; DVD
Best price: $27.98
Price in other shops:
The Civil War - A Film by Ken BurnsParamount; Release date: 2004-09-28; DVD
Best price: $70.23
Price in other shops: