This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

It seems like every time I see one of these movies, Jim Vance (Tom Berenger) is always the bad guy. Clocking in at just under five hours, one must make time to watch this film which is not as much fun as LOTR or the "Star Wars" saga. I enjoy watching histories when they are not too long. Clearly this could have been condensed with some of the opening Civil War scenes edited except for the fact Civil War pictures are popular.I almost turned it off when 'Devil' Anse Hatfield (Kevin Costner) said "brain pan." I also didn't like Bill Paxton's portrayal of Randall McCoy. I thought much of the supporting cast was excellent. This version appears to be one Charles Beard might have written as the origins of the feud is economic. As a history, this was far superior to the version with Christian Slater, but then what isn't better without Christian Slater in it? This is a History Channel presentation, where unfortunately history occasional gets sold out for ratings.PARENTAL GUIDE: 2 f-bombs, Rear nudity. Couples in bed. Prostitution.

I think it's time for me to play the Samaritan again. When I read the favourable Advertorials of my fellow reviewers I feel a word of caution might be appropriate. The script has undoubtedly been written by a genius. His knack to corner the attention of semi literate human resources, who don't know who Shakespeare was but have heard about Romeo and Juliet, is simply uncanny. Sort of Downton Abbey of Kentucky with Deadwood overtones, if you get my drift. Layered appropriately thickly with doses of sex, violence and political correctness. With a sort of biblical intonation in speech and manner. If truth be told I didn't get much further than the first instalment without the slightest urge to see how it ends.But then, I only got myself to blame. Kevin Costner should have rung all the alarm bells. When I think of Waterworld or Open Range, I still shudder.PS a Lolly-Madonna it is not, no matter how hard it tries!

Before you go ballistic about this rotten review of what is otherwise a pretty good flick, I feel I needed to take a stand against the recent trends in the opening "credit reel" in films like this. There is NOTHING worse than credits that roll incessantly into 10 minutes or more of the film, rolling in the background over scenes meant to draw you in with the drama taking place - yet you are obliged to read another credit being splashed on the screen. I liken this to the inane "popups" we all get in the Internet world. Sorry, but when during the opening scenes in Part 2 showing Costner rescuing Matt Barr (Johnse Hatfield) from certain death, I don't give a damn who the Asst Asst Producer is. And this crap continued even deeper into the movie, so I hit the eject button. Where did these people learn how to make a movie? Do they understand the nature of continuity and how it is absolutely destroyed when credits continue unabated well into the dialogue, drama and action taking place? Awful. And, I fully blame the director here for allowing this sort of thing to ruin the most critical part of the film - the first 10 minutes – the time to either draws in the audience or put them to sleep with endless advertising for people that might have had some vicarious connection to the movie or maybe a relative of the Key Grip guy. So, there it is - 1 star. Maybe if enough of us complain, this grotesque filmmaking trend will go to the cutting room floor where it belongs!

I watched the first two parts of this mini-series yesterday and then found out Kevin Costner picked up a Best Actor award at the Golden Globes later in the evening for his role as the patriarch of the Hatfield Clan. I don't think I've seen him give a finer performance. There's an interesting dichotomy to his portrayal of Devil 'Anse' Hatfield. Viewed objectively, the character does live up to his nickname with a stone cold heart and an unwavering quest for revenge for every wrong committed against his extended family. The odd thing is, somehow he comes across as reasonable, even when he's about to execute a trio of McCoy kin propped up in front of a Hatfield firing squad.The same holds true for his nemesis Randall McCoy (Bill Paxton). Randall is the more tragic of the two figures, who succumbs to alcohol and a placid sort of dementia over time after witnessing so many of his family fall victim to the infamous feud. Paxton could have been a contender for the same Golden Globe award, but his character didn't have the kind of charisma that Costner brought to his portrayal. Even so, Paxton does a superb job in his role.Other standouts in the story include Tom Berenger as Uncle Jim Vance on the Hatfield side, and Mare Winningham as Randall's wife Sally. Berenger's completely unrecognizable, at least to me, underneath the woolly beard and all that mountain man gear. Whenever I see Winningham, I think back to her Brat Pack days in "St. Elmo's Fire" and marvel at how she's developed as an actress over the years. The writers gave her a great line when she made an observation about the newly discovered light bulb, calling it Tom Edison's electric lightning ball - that was a hoot.Over the years and like most people, I had heard of the feud between the Hatfields and McCoys without ever knowing anything about it's history. After a falling out over Anse Hatfield's desertion from the Confederate Army in 1863, and Randall's serving time in a Union prison camp, the two men always seemed to have something come up between them. Sometimes it involved cousins or other kinfolk, but the matter generally landed at each other's doorstep forcing one man's hand against the other. The war between the families didn't end until 1891, and even then only unofficially. The end credits state that a formal resolution wasn't reached until, get this, 2003!, when a formal peace treaty was signed by sixty descendants of the original ancestors. One hundred thirty eight years - and you thought your neighbor was a pain in the neck.