| The West | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover forThe West | |
| Also known as | Ken Burns Presents: The West |
| Genre | Documentary |
| Written by | Dayton Duncan Geoffrey Ward |
| Directed by | Stephen Ives |
| Voices of | Adam Arkin Matthew Broderick Keith Carradine John Lithgow Gary Sinise Jimmy Smits Eli Wallach |
| Narrated by | Peter Coyote |
| Theme music composer | Matthias Gohl |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 8 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Ken Burns |
| Producers | Stephen Ives Jody Abramson Michael Kantor |
| Running time | 12 hours (8 episodes) |
| Production companies | Insignia Films Florentine Films WETA-TV Time-Life Video and Television |
| Original release | |
| Network | PBS |
| Release | September 15 (1996-09-15) – September 22, 1996 (1996-09-22) |
The West, sometimes marketed asKen Burns Presents: The West, is a 1996television documentaryminiseries about theAmerican Old West. It was directed byStephen Ives and featuredKen Burns as executive producer. It was first broadcast onPBS on eight consecutive nights from September 15 to 22, 1996.
Stephen Ives and Ken Burns had worked together on several previous series, includingThe Civil War (1990) andBaseball (1994).[1] In 1988, Ives created his own production company, Insignia Films, and began working onThe West as director, with Burns signed on to the project as executive producer.[1] In order to createThe 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.[2] Research consultants includedPeter E. Palmquist, independent research expert on photographs of the period. The film's production was funded byGeneral Motors.[3]
Notable interviewees included historiansStephen Ambrose,J. S. Holliday, andRichard White; novelistsMaxine Hong Kingston andN. Scott Momaday; environmentalists and writersTerry Tempest Williams andMarc Reisner; and politiciansBen Nighthorse Campbell,Ann Richards,Stewart Udall, andRalph Yarborough.[4]
Many notable actors lent their voices toThe West, includingAdam Arkin,Matthew Broderick,Ossie Davis,Keith Carradine,John Lithgow,Mary Stuart Masterson,Blythe Danner, the famous playwrightArthur Miller,Jimmy Smits, andEli Wallach. The film's narrator,Peter Coyote, would later narrate ten more documentary films directed or produced by Burns, includingThe National Parks: America's Best Idea (2009),Prohibition (2011),The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (2014),The Vietnam War (2017),TheMayo Clinic: Faith--Hope--Science (2018), andCountry Music (2019).
The West premiered on September 15, 1996, onPBS. The series was split into episodes, with one episode being aired each night for eight consecutive nights. Episodes were cut to about 90 minutes each in length, for a total length of over 12 hours for the entire series. The final episode aired on September 22, 1996.[5]
| No. | Episode | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The People" (to 1806) | September 15, 1996 (1996-09-15) | |
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| 2 | "Empire Upon the Trails" (1806–1848) | September 16, 1996 (1996-09-16) | |
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| 3 | "Speck of the Future" (1848–1856) | September 17, 1996 (1996-09-17) | |
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| 4 | "Death Runs Riot" (1856–1868) | September 18, 1996 (1996-09-18) | |
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| 5 | "The Grandest Enterprise Under God" (1868–1874) | September 19, 1996 (1996-09-19) | |
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| 6 | "Fight No More Forever" (1874–1877) | September 20, 1996 (1996-09-20) | |
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| 7 | "The Geography of Hope" (1877–1887) | September 21, 1996 (1996-09-21) | |
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| 8 | "One Sky Above Us" (1887–1914) | September 22, 1996 (1996-09-22) | |
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WhenThe West was released on VHS, the finale episode, "One Sky Above Us," was divided into two one-hour episodes, titled "Ghost Dance" and "One Sky Above Us." This VHS edition was released September 24, 1996. PBS later released a five-discDVD set ofThe West on September 30, 2003.[6]
The West was well received by both popular audiences and historians. Over 38 million viewers watched the series during its original airing,[1] and it earned an average nationalNielsen rating of 5.0.[7] In 1997, theOrganization of American Historians awardedThe West itsErik Barnouw Award.[8]
Film and television critics also responded positively toThe West. Caryn James ofThe New York Times praised the series for its "enthralling detail" and authenticity, calling it "fiercely and brilliantly rooted in fact."[9]Richard Zoglin ofTIME judged the series "a sweeping, thoughtful, often moving look at America's conquest of the West",[10] andHoward Rosenberg of theLos Angeles Times wrote that, "director Stephen Ives succeeds magnificently, delivering a lush work at once fully documented and fully entertaining... no one could ask for better television."[11]
