So far very excellent!


I'm watching the premier which is so entertaining and appears to be quite accurate historically. Have rated it a 9.

"I am James"Sonny" Crockett!

Lorenzo In Sunny Arizona

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Nice!! Recorded it watching a little later

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If you think it's "accurate historically", that's sad. It doesn't say much for our educational system.

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Agree, it's crap. Looks and feels like another History Channel abomination.

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And apparently Red Cloud wasn't around for Red Cloud's War, just Crazy Horse, and Captain Fetterman wasn't around for the Fetterman Massacre, which can't be called a massacre, and a few outlaws robbing people in the central state of Missouri is "The South" on the brink of a new rebellion.

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I work in a votec high school in CT and you couldn't be more right.

Goddamit! Things ain't workin' out for me today!

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Custer was not a general at this time but a lieutenant Colonel.

Goddamit! Things ain't workin' out for me today!

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Pretty mediocre program, really.

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Yeah, not so much. In the fourth episode, it shows Custer at the Little Big Horn with long hair. Actually, he cut it short before he left Fort Lincoln. They show Sitting Bull in the battle. In fact he stayed in camp as he had previously cut 50 pieces of flesh from his arms to induce a vision that told him the soldiers would fall into their camp. They also show Crazy Horse shooting Custer....there is no evidence, or even Indian recollections, that Crazy Horse shot Custer. And Custer ordered that the cavalry sabers be left behind, yet there they are!

And this is just from a portion of one episode! I expect other knowledgeable viewers will find plenty of other errors in the other episodes. VERY disappointing! Especially with Redford as executive producer.......I would expect much better. This is the kind of crap that reinforces Western myths in the minds of the general public who assume they are watching history.

I would love it if a real historian would start a list of all the inaccurate stuff in this series ....I imagine it would be rather long!

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As requested: I teach Post Civil War American History at a state university. So far, I have watched all of the episodes of the American West and, not to nitpick, but there are some major and minor historical inaccuracies:
1. Massacre at the *beep* River: Custer's troops attacked at dawn in winter, not on a Fall afternoon. The snow muffled the charging horses to the point that it was only by chance that an Indian who had walked out of his tepee saw them and raised an alarm. Also, Custer had his military band with him to play 'Garry Owen' while his men charged. This scene was much more accurate in the movie 'Little Big Man'.
2, Use of Colt 1871 Peacemakers. I know this gun is identified with the west, but why show them in use in the 1860s. Most men would have used a left over revolver from the war. Jesse James used an S&W Schofield (remember Leonardo DiCaprio's line in 'The Quick and the Dead' that he and Jesse James thought the Schofield was the best handgun in the world) why Frank used a Remington New Army.
3. By the time of Custer's Black Hill's expedition, most of the soldiers carried Colt SAAs and Springfield Armory 1873 Trap Door Carbines (these were basic issue for the military). Officers were allowed to carry personal sidearms (Custer preferred a British made Bristol .45) not Colt 1860 Army revolvers.
4. In the scene where Crazy Horse is assassinated, the soldiers are carrying Springfield muzzle loaders of Civil War vintage. By 1877, infantry soldiers carried the Springfield Infantry Rifle which was the big brother of the carbine carried by the cavalry.
5. No mention of General (the only good Indians I ever saw were dead) Phil Sheridan who actually developed the strategy to kill off the buffalo and implemented most of the government's Indian policy.
6. A minor point, Sherman never wore cavalry boots unless he was in the field, but for some reason they showed him wearing boots all the time. Sherman usually wore standard issue infantry shoes.
7. Crazy Horse usually fought wearing only a loincloth. He also rarely carried a firearm, preferring to use a war club.
I'm sure I'll think of some later.

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I just watched Billy the kid break out of jail. It was so inaccurate it made me want to scream . . .

I know! The breakout scene from Young Guns II was closer to the true breakout.

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The series also make it looked like Major Reno and the soldiers under him were totally wiped out; when actually Reno and over half of his command survived. They also didn't show the 24 Shoshone and Crow Indians that scouted for and fight on Custer and Reno's side.

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There are a lot of factual errors in this series.

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Indeed, great series so far. The history is quite spot on except for a few changes, some ages here and there, and they fubared some of the military ranks, but understandable given there's several different accounts from that era.

A solid 9 is a great score so far.

Anyone pondering about watching this definitely should!

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I checked out a number of the people who received writing credits. They were writers who had written other TV shows. Not historians. I'm guessing they are given a basic outline of the history and asked to write a script to fill the time. Rarely are the details in the shows correct and often they are wildly inaccurate as if the writers knew nothing of the subject. Some viewers find it entertaining. But the producers are irresponsible to advertise it as historically accurate. Viewers who don''t know the difference will accept it as factual, which it certainly is not.

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