This is a fair attempt at reviving the Western genre. It attempts to imitate the success of "realistic" Westerns like "Deadwood", and does that pretty well. The narrative is clear, though it gets bogged down at the middle stretch, while attempting to add some "character development" during a break of the trek on the trail.
The roles are well cast, and though Duvall is a bit old to play this character, who's probably in his late 50s, not his mid 70s, as Duvall is, this is a rare exception to my objections to actors choosing their own material, since Duvall is an "executive producer" of this venture.
He does very well in the lead character, though I must say that I had a very hard time understanding his dialogue. In an attempt to use a "character" voice, his lines become almost unintelligible. A speech coach on the set would have helped him enormously to keep the integrity of the character voice without sacrificing intelligibility.
The violence is handled with some discretion, except for one totally unnecessarily graphic depiction of "on the trail" minor surgery.
The lack of "foul" language, however, seems a bit disingenuous. These characters would cuss up a blue streak, though they might tone it down around women. But these male characters in this movie don't swear at all, not even when they're alone together, and not even euphemistically (eg, "Dag nab it!") as in old-time movies.
And speaking of disingenuous, the way AMC presented this "miniseries" was that, totally. "Presented with limited commercial interruptions", they said at the beginning. Well, the "series" was aired in two blocks of one hour and 45 minutes of airtime. The first 45 minutes or so of each "episode" were aired without commercial interruptions, though the material is clearly edited to fit commercials in. After that 45 minute stretch of no commercials, the "series" was interrupted every ten minutes with almost five minutes of commercials!
By my (addmittedly clumsy) calculations, that means that the film itself is actually about 2 hours and 30 minutes long, the length of a long feature film, aired with about ONE HOUR of commercials, total! I DON'T think that counts as a miniseries!
The roles are well cast, and though Duvall is a bit old to play this character, who's probably in his late 50s, not his mid 70s, as Duvall is, this is a rare exception to my objections to actors choosing their own material, since Duvall is an "executive producer" of this venture.
He does very well in the lead character, though I must say that I had a very hard time understanding his dialogue. In an attempt to use a "character" voice, his lines become almost unintelligible. A speech coach on the set would have helped him enormously to keep the integrity of the character voice without sacrificing intelligibility.
The violence is handled with some discretion, except for one totally unnecessarily graphic depiction of "on the trail" minor surgery.
The lack of "foul" language, however, seems a bit disingenuous. These characters would cuss up a blue streak, though they might tone it down around women. But these male characters in this movie don't swear at all, not even when they're alone together, and not even euphemistically (eg, "Dag nab it!") as in old-time movies.
And speaking of disingenuous, the way AMC presented this "miniseries" was that, totally. "Presented with limited commercial interruptions", they said at the beginning. Well, the "series" was aired in two blocks of one hour and 45 minutes of airtime. The first 45 minutes or so of each "episode" were aired without commercial interruptions, though the material is clearly edited to fit commercials in. After that 45 minute stretch of no commercials, the "series" was interrupted every ten minutes with almost five minutes of commercials!
By my (addmittedly clumsy) calculations, that means that the film itself is actually about 2 hours and 30 minutes long, the length of a long feature film, aired with about ONE HOUR of commercials, total! I DON'T think that counts as a miniseries!