Ken Burns Presents: The West - A Film by Stephen Ives: I think that it is no stretch to say that when Ken Burns first released The Civil War in 1990 it revolutionized and changed the documentary forever. It stands today as one of the most celebrated and imitated documentaries ever. After The Civil War, the name Ken Burns became synonymous with the documentary. Here he lends his name and is the executive producer of this film by Steven Ives.

The documentary tells the great story of the West from the Indians to the Spaniards to the Americans. It tells of how the land changed but was not so politically correct to rewrite history portraying the Americans as bad and the Indians as saints which is the modern way school textbooks like to tell it.

Ives apparently must be a pupil of Burns in that this documentary is styled very much like The Civil War. In some ways, parts of it act as a companion to The Civil War in that some of the same actors reprise their previous roles which is certainly much appreciated as the original actors were perfect.

In short, this documentary is excellent. I expected it to be great and it was.

Labels: Documentary, History