"History's 'Hatfields amd McCoys' a bleak depiction of famous feud"

Four hours into the six hour miniseries I'm quite impressed. From the few reviews I've read they appear to have stayed at least marginally close to the truth of rhe story. Whiule the violence can be mind-numbing its a very thoughtful depiction of a different time not so far removed from the violence experienced during the Civil Rights movement in the 1950's and 1960's.

Its worth the time....




http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/23/3623630/historys-hatfields-mccoys-a-bleak.html

In "Hatfields & McCoys" - a grim three-part, six-hour History miniseries that has no heroes - Costner and Paxton get a couple of their darkest roles yet as, respectively, Devil Anse Hatfield and Randall McCoy, patriarchs of the infamous feuding families. Hidden behind forests of facial hair, the actors manage the neat trick of playing deadly serious roles and yet looking like they're enjoying tearing into them.

And why not? These are meaty parts that provide plenty of excuses for scenery-chewing, with the characters' backwoods backgrounds and unforgiving natures, their weariness and near-madness stemming all the way back to the Civil War, when Hatfield sows the seeds for bitterness by deciding that he's had enough of fighting and deserts to start a lucrative lumber business. The anger between the two men infects their families, and when killings start happening, the factions begin having a civil war of their own, straddling the Kentucky-West Virginia border with the McCoys to the west and the Hatfields to the east.

In fact, all the veteran actors here - Mare Winningham as McCoy's increasingly drained wife, Tom Berenger as Anse's amoral and bloodthirsty Uncle Jim, Powers Boothe as Anse's brother, a judge trying to stay above the fray while remaining loyal to his family - bring a lot of gravity to their roles. History is sliding this minseries in right before the May 31 deadline for 2011-2012 Emmy eligibility, and Berenger's lusty performance and Winningham's heartbreaking one would seem to make them good bets for supporting-actor nods.

This is a multigenerational story, though, and when the younger actors show up, it risks becoming a CW version of the feud - especially when we get to the Romeo-and-Juliet plot line of Johnse Hatfield ("One Tree Hill's" Matt Barr) and Roseanna McCoy ("True Blood's" Lindsay Pulsipher), who fall for each other in seemingly less time than it takes to load one of the families' many rifles. And as Roseanna's cousin Nancy (Jena Malone) becomes increasingly manipulative, it looks like we're steering into soap-opera territory.

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