The West— is a documentary film about the American Old West. It was directed by Stephen Ives, the executive producer was Ken Burns and the narrator was Peter Coyote. The film originally aired on PBS in September 1996.
Stephen Ives and Ken Burns had worked together on several films, including The Civil War (1990) and Baseball (1994). In 1988, Ives created his own production company, Insignia Films, and began working on The West as director, with Burns signed on to the project as executive producer. In order to create The West, the film crew traveled over 100,000 miles (160,000 km) via airplane, conducted 72 interviews, visited 74 archives and collections, and filmed more than 250 hours of footage. The film's production was funded by General Motors.
Episode 7: The Geography of Hope" (1877–1887)
Aired, September 21st 1996; Narrator Peter Coyote
Episode Seven chronicles a decade with equal measures of hope and hardship. By 1877, the continent seemed firmly conquered -- whites outnumbered Native Americans 40 to 1, and several seasons of unusually heavy rainfall made it seem as though industrious farmers had actually turned "the Great American desert" into arable farmland. Former slaves, calling themselves "Exodusters," migrated en masse to Kansas amidst refrains about the promised land. But in the early 1880's, economic depression led to increasing tension between differing racial and religious groups. In 1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which prohibited immigration from China for the next ten years. That same year, polygamy was declared a federal crime -- a calculated blow to the powerful Mormon community in Utah. Race riots broke out in California, Wyoming, and Washington state. Native American children were shipped off to eastern boarding schools, forbidden to speak their own tongue, and taught to think and act like whites. In the midst of this shameful era, however, this episode,Geography of Hope, also catalogues the enduring seductiveness and ever-growing myth of the West by profiling swashbucklers like Teddy Roosevelt and William F. Cody -- better known as Buffalo Bill. Like every period in this colorful history, the decade from 1877-1887 tells a tale of human victory, human cruelty and self-defeat, and surprising flashes of humor and spirit.
Specs and Sample Images
