TNT Series - Into the West

[Diane Merkel]

Here's a link to an article about Joe Marshall, an advisor to the Into the West series on TNT. The series starts this Friday.

www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050607/LIFE/506070302/1004

[bhist]

Well, I watched Part 4 tonight and it was the better of the four so far. That doesn’t mean I liked it!

It was, again, full of historical inaccuracies and gross stereotypes. I do not have a problem with a movie playing with historical facts – it is just the way it’s done. However, a movie like this that tries so hard to look good, sound good, and be good and with Spielberg’s name on it – well, one just expects more.

Things that should have been done differently:

· All of the soldier forts were shown as stockades. Why not show the forts as they were?
· Sand Creek wasn’t brutal enough.
· Custer and the 7th cavalry’s mission wasn’t to rid the plains of the savages – won’t next week be fun?!?!
· Didn’t explain at all why Custer had the horse herd shot at the Washita.
· I was appalled with it showing the captives of the Washita being forced to march while tied to each other like slaves. The fact is that Custer had his soldiers retrieve two ponies for each woman captive from the herd before the horses were shot.


Things I liked:

· Bugler Metzger at the Fetterman fight -- I’ve always pictured after the fighting was finished a warrior or group of warriors standing guard over Metzger’s body to ensure it wasn’t mutilated.
· I think the film did a relatively good job at showing the political conflicts within the Indian community.

[markland]

Bob, I think you are only half right with the below statement:

"Custer and the 7th cavalry’s mission wasn’t to rid the plains of the savages..."

I just discovered this morning while proofing some scans of Sherman's report to Gen. Grant for the Secretary of War's Annual Report in 1868 this quotation:

"It is idle for us longer to attempt to occupy the plains in common with these Indians, for the country is not susceptible of close settlement with farms like Missouri and Iowa, and is solely adapted to grazing. All of our people there are necessarily scattered, and have more or less cattle and horses, which tempt the Indian, hungry, and it may be starving for want of his accustomed game and he will steal rather than starve, and to steal he will not hesitate to kill. Therefore, a joint occupation of that district of country by these two classes of people, with such opposing interests, is a simple impossibility, and the Indians must yield."

Annual Report of the Secretary of War - 1868 , Papers Acccompanying the Report of the General-in-Chief, p. 5.

So, while they (the Army) weren't to "rid them from the plains," it is pretty obvious that they were to force them to the "agreed" upon reservations.

Best of wishes,

Billy

[Lawtonka]

Did I miss something.......what I thought I saw on the show was when Custer came riding up to arrest the soldiers at the saloon....wasn't that near Omaha, NB? I don't remember him being in that part of the country at that particular time.

[El Crab]

You didn't miss anything, Tim. Just like General Custer being in Colorado around the same time as Sand Creek, according to the brilliant writers of Dr. Quinn.

[bhist]

markland said:

So, while they (the Army) weren't to "rid them from the plains," it is pretty obvious that they were to force them to the "agreed" upon reservations.

Best of wishes,

Billy

Agree with you 100%.

[arthur]

Right -- how hard would it have been for them to say:
"We need to strike the savages hard so that they'll stay on their reservations."

That would have been brutal enough, and actually something close to the truth.

[kay1876]

My Husband and I have tivo'd the series so as to watch it and critique it as we go. Today we saw Custer and ofcourse it was a great disappointment. Smirking at Margaret Wheeler's plight, well the whole Custer part is unsurprisingly awful! We will continue to watch, if only for the pleasure of seeing the scenery!

[bhist]

Hey Kay1876 -- are you my friend who moved from Colorado to California? Welcome aboard.

[bubbabod]

Into the West was showing last summer while I was driving from Texas to meet some friends in Buffalo, Wy. and then on to Rapid City for the LBHA seminar. What made it so fantastic for me is I gave myself four days to get to Buffalo, so I was able to follow much of the Oregon Trail through Nebraska and Wyoming. The night they showed the episode of the Ft. Laramie Treaty, also known as the Horse Creek Treaty, I think it was called, I had stopped at the historical marker and signage ad overlooked that very area where this huge assemblage of Indians and army met that historic day. Then to sit in my motel room and see Hollywood's representation of the scene, wow! I also visited Chimney Rock, Ft. Laramie and other places along the way. So I enjoyed the series all the more by having visited the actual places.