The Way West

Although we've been flooded with Native American history mini-series lately (including Kevin Costner's bloated textbook 500 Nations [VL-5/95]), this 6-hour entry in The American Experience is both more insightful and more interesting. Produced by Ric Burns (Ken Burns' younger brother), and narrated by Russell Baker, the film takes the now-classic Burns Bros. approach of mixing overlaid narration, plenty of archival photographs, voice-over narration of period documents (read by Holly Hunter, F. Murray Abraham, and Graham Greene, among others), and interview clips of historians and social commentators, including Robert Utley, Ian Frazier, and novelist Thomas McGuane. The Way West makes no bones about the whys of westward expansion: under the guise of the philosophically-shaky mandate of "manifest destiny," a never-ending stream of white settlers lit out for the west in search of gold, land, or simply escape. In doing so they ran smack into the indigenous peoples of North America. The Native Americans did not share the white man's concept of fixed property, indeed (although one commentator unconvincingly claims otherwise) they were a nomadic people. The reconciliation of these two ideals was called the "reservation system," as unjust and inept a solution as could be devised, which benefited the whites tremendously and the Native Americans not at all. Burns' epic charts the years from 1845-1890, from the first wagon trains to the massacre at Wounded Knee. A sad story, simply told, without Costner's visual pyrotechnics, but with a pretty sincere eye towards the truth. Highly recommended. [Note: this series is also available on home video from Shanachie Home Video (800) 497-1043 for $69.95.] (R. Pitman)