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Reviews
1883: The Weep of Surrender (2022)
Authentic Old West Story
This show (entire season) is the coming of age story of a young woman as she and her family venture forth across the prairie to a new home. The new home is a dream, and ideal, of the father of the young woman, James Dutton. His goal is to offer his family his vision of a freedom they could not obtain in their prior home of Tennessee.
The story is through the eyes of Elsa, the young woman, whom is the protagonist of the epic. The story of the Dutton family, and their journey to eventually live in Montana, is through her eyes.
Taylor Sheridan has created a drama that draws on many historical facts, but more importantly, the feel of the old west.
As a viewer, you may recognize the names and places, and feel the romanticism of the era accompanied by the reality that death through accident, illness, or violence was all to common as well. As viewers, we may be prone to understand the immigrants on the trek, since few of us today may be able to survive such an arduous journey.
Elsa, could easily be a young person today, protesting against the norms and status quo of society and risking it all for the experience to live as she wants.
But, aside from much of the authenticity and historical accuracy, the series thus far is about unbridled risk and hope for a better future. Whether it be the immigrants escaping the torments of their homelands, or the Dutton's fleeing impoverishment and the melancholy of life in Tennessee, or Captain Brennan seeking to view the ocean as a remembrance for his late wife, or even Thomas' new hope for a future with love, all of these travelers are risking their very lives to be part of the American Promise: freedom. Freedom from autocracy and tyrants, freedom from societal rules, freedom to make a life as one dreams, freedom to love whom one wants, freedom to explore, and freedom to live. And this is really what the romanticism of the Old West is really about.