The Great Indian Wars: 1540 – 1890 (Mill Creek DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: C     Episodes: B

 

 

A pleasant surprise, the five-part documentary mini-series The Great Indian Wars: 1540 – 1890 is a bold, honest, uncompromising look at the time period and the ugly truth about how Native Americans were slowly but surely moved out of their lands by colonial expansionism.  The five parts are:

 

The Indians

The Calvary

The Indian Warrior

Battle For The Northern Plains

Battle For The Southern Plains

 

 

While the current cycle of Westerns have either outright addressed Native American issues (Dances With Wolves) or minimized them or been stories only barely touching on them, this very well-researched, articulate series starts with the way tribes had populated what was the land that became the U.S. and things you rarely hear about.  There are many political interests that would prefer to censor this, but it is great that you can get this on DVD and if you like the subject matter or are not well versed in it, you should consider this a must-see.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image is a bit soft throughout with some haloing and aliasing errors, but the quality of what is shown is worth suffering through any imperfections.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is stereo at best, has some compression and can be uneven, but is good for such a documentary presentation.  Extras include stills, interactive timeline and text biographies.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo