And do you really want me cluttering up this blog with entries all of 4 paragraphs long about the monster of the week Mulder and Scully took down or if Nemoy's ear prosthetic was convincing or not? I mean, what am I supposed to say about a single episode of "Mythbusters?"
"Well, Adam and Jamie blew something up, it was awesome, and I am still firmly set in my commitment to happily cut off my left leg for a chance to be with Kari Byron. The end."
"KARI! I DO THIS FOR YOOOOOOOOOU!!!"
In this case, "Hatfields & McCoys" was a mini-series on the History Channel, when in a surprising development they found a block of time to show us something that wasn't Hitler. Normally I would have been only slightly curious about it, mostly because after seeing "Deadwood," I'm not sure that I'd want to see that kind of setting done outside of HBO. I'm not sure I'd want to commit to its 3-part, roughly 5 hour run time unless there was something really special about it.
But I saw the commercial for it during another soul-sucking, methamphetamine-level addictive run of "Pawn Stars," which of course they can never show a single episode of. No, when you're watching "Pawn Stars," they will be playing that mess for 15 hours straight, and there will be neither rest nor reprieve for you until it has run its course to its conclusion. But that's another discussion which can be summed up with the warning "For the love of god, never watch "Pawn Stars.""
While waiting to find out whether or not the dude's collection of Donald Duck comics are worth anything (seriously, why do I even watch that show?), the commercial for "Hatfields & McCoys" came on, and I must admit that it did look promising. The production values looked good, it appeared to be surprisingly violent for regular TV, and to be honest, I really don't know anything about the Hatfields or the McCoys, so learning about them seemed like something that would be cool. And the fact that it had Kevin Costner was a plus.
I like Kevin Costner, but only to an extent. Honestly, I really don't think he's that great of an actor much of the time, but I don't think it's always his fault. I am of the opinion that it's the roles he's in. He's not good at playing action heroes, but he's good when he's playing an average Joe. "Field of Dreams" and the excellent straight-to-DVD affair "The New Daughter" are good examples of that. Just compare those to "Waterworld" or "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves."
So Costner playing "Devil" Anse Hatfield I could see happening. At least he's rocking an awesome beard. But "Hatfields & McCoys" needed something else for me to really be interested in it. Something that would put it over the edge. Something that screamed "Dude, there's no way you can miss this." It needed some top-echelon, hopeless man-crush, I-want-to-buy-this-man-a-beer talent.
You rang?
Oh thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you "Hatfields & McCoys." You've been reading my "Suggestions on Making Everything Awesome" list, haven't you?*
Bill Paxton is one of my all-time favorites, as you can plainly tell. And while I do enjoy how absolutely over-the-top he can get at times, I find Bill to be an inexcusably underrated actor. It seems that as the years have gone by he has become a bit more acknowledged as a legitimate actor, probably thanks to "Big Love," but I've been a fan of his for years. Honestly, when you look back on his earlier roles, oftentimes he's one of the most memorable aspects of the movie, even if it was a small part.
*By the way, "Put Bill Paxton in it" is number #4 on it.
Think back on "True Lies." Aside from Arnold in a jet, Jamie Lee Curtis' body double stripping and the fact that it was the last good movie James Cameron made, the next thing most people would probably remember is Bill Paxton's scumbag car salesman who has what is the single greatest scene of cowardly self-emasculation ever filmed. Remember "Predator 2?" The answer is probably "Barely," but you probably remember Bill Paxton getting killed in the subway, since that was the point where the movie becomes not worth watching anymore. And what is always the very first line quoted from "Aliens" when it's being talked about? That's right, it's "Game over, man! Game over!"
And yes, Bill was kind of goofy in all those roles, and he plays the comic foil shockingly well, but if you watch something where he's serious you'll see that the dude's got some heavy duty acting chops. I'm not joking. Remember him in "Apollo 13" and "Tombstone?" Just watch "A Simple Plan." Watch "Frailty." He's AMAZING in that. The man knows what he's doing, and when he's playing a serious role, he has this aura of sincerity just pouring off him, and that makes me completely buy every single line coming out of his mouth. He is one of the most believable actors around, because he really doesn't look like he's acting at all.
And when watching "Hatfields & McCoys," for me at least, that made the whole thing worth it. To be honest everyone does a fantastic job of acting throughout the whole thing, particular Costner, Tom Berenger, and Powers Booth who all consistently just light up the screen like napalm, but Bill Paxton is the real standout here. He is just killing this role, and of the two leads, between him and Costner, Bill's got the juicer part as Randall McCoy if you ask me.
Anse Hatfield is more of a calculating badass, and he suffers a lot of loss, but McCoy is the guy who really has everything taken from him. This part must have been actor's dream for Bill as he gets whittled down smaller and smaller as more and more of his family dies, until by the end he's practically a dried out husk. There are scenes in the third part with Bill that are absolutely heartbreaking, one scene in particular where he is sitting outside the burned remains of his house, seeing drunken visions of Costner mocking him, but most of the third part consists of Bill giving a master's course on acting.
I don't think the story needs much explanation, because it's part of American culture that the Hatfields and McCoys hated each other and were very good at making each other dead. Of course, finding out all the details of the (we're assuming true) story does make for compelling television. What is surprising to me was the scale of the conflict into which the whole thing escalated, because it gets pretty nuts. I had no idea that there were actually mini-battles that occurred with full out charges on horseback and whatnot. I guess I just didn't realize how many people were involved in the fighting. Of course this was back in the day when it was common for one family to have so many siblings and cousins that you could fill the cast of "Les Misérables."
"I dreamed a dream of shooting you in the brain."
It is fascinating to see the origin of this famous feud, which really stems from Kevin Costner quitting the confederate army and Tom Berenger shooting a guy because the guy had been a union solider. Because of that, these two families are forever going to be going around in this inescapable cycle of revenge that wipes out a good chunk of both families, although the McCoys really do get hit the hardest.
As well acted and written as the show is, "Hatfields & McCoys" does suffer slightly from "Band of Brothers" syndrome, meaning that there is an slightly absurd amount of characters to keep straight. But whereas "Band of Brothers" had 10 hours to tell its story, "Hatfields & McCoys" has less than half that, and covers a much longer period of time. For that reason the characters aren't dwelt on for too long, with the exception of the ones that actually live through to at least the final part. I didn't even know 80% of their names, and it's not like you can just look at a guy and say "Oh, that dude's a Hatfield."
That brings up what is the biggest flaw in the series, which is that as early as the beginning of the second part it really just degrades into a whirlwind of violence, and it has a tendency to become pretty redundant. Nearly any time a gathering of people occurs, someone gets drunk, sees a member of the rival family, gets in a fight with them, and then they or the other person gets stabbed to death and/or shot. After this, the other family gathers up a posse and haunts them down, swearing revenge. Then when that's done, the first family calls it injustice and swears revenge on the posse. Then Powers Booth kind of calms everyone down, bringing them back to Defcon 2 from Defcon 1. Then there's another gathering of people. And it goes on and on like this.
How is it possible that he's actually more intimidating here than he was as Sgt. Barnes?
Sometimes it wasn't even that complicated. Sometimes a McCoy just sees a Hatfield and shoots him in the face since, hey, it's the weekend. By the end I got to the point of not really concerning myself too much with who the characters are, because odds were pretty good that they were going to be dead soon anyways. Really the most important thing to discern is which team they're playing for.
You know, the inevitable thing you think about while watching a show like this is how close it is to real life. The characters here act like such animals, oftentimes being slightly less civil than your average raging, blood-lusting barbarian, and it's easy to really not like any of them at all, because they're all horrible people. One would like to think that it's highly overblown and dramatized, but unfortunately it's probably pretty close to the truth. And watching "Hatfields & McCoys" is an interesting look into pure, blind hatred for no reason other than it being the status quo. And for that reason, it's kind of scary.
And quite sad.
THE BOTTOM LINE - If you've got roughly 5 hours to kill, "Hatfields & McCoys" is a solid period piece with top notch acting by a powerful ensemble cast. As redundant as the plot can get by the end, this look into American history is well worth the time. And hey, 5 hours with Bill Paxton sounds like a good time to me. Recommended.
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