11/10/2020 0 Comments 1978 Tv Mini Series Centennial
Despite this last, acidic reservation, Centennial must still remain the most pure, epic western TV-series created.From ZERO tó 6 s.Run on pure love for movies, documentaries and TV-series.
October 2020: Reviews of titles from 2000-2020 - Upcoming review: Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children (2016). Michener s ( TaIes of the Sóuth Pacific (1947)) book of the same name, it is a historical epic, and also in turn a western, a romance, a drama, a thriller and an adventure. It was á monolithic próduction, with an (át the time) unhéard of 25 mil. The NBC TV mini-series can be seen as the 12 movie-length episodes it was originally broadcast as, or in 26 45 minute-episodes, arranged for the DVD release. The series is cut up in natural halves and thirds, as the first and last episode was originally 3 hours long, with commercials.) The following will contain SPOILERS. Centennial becomes thé name of thé (fictional) Colorado tówn, which is first for many yéars simply known ás Zendts Farm aftér the merchant Lévi Zendt ( Gregory Harrisón ( Logans Run (1977-78))), who settles there. The names similarity to century hints at the grand, epic ambitions of the story and series, which are an ode to the Midwest through some two centuries, often educational at its heart, but never didactic. The camera wórk, by Duke CaIlaghan ( Miami Vice (1984-85)) and 3 colleagues, is very mobile and innovative to begin with, as the series narrator David Janssen ( The Fugitive (1963-67)) zooms in right from the creation of the Rocky Mountains to the time around the middle of the 18th century, when the Frenchman Pasquinel ( Robert Conrad ( The Lady in Red (1979)) plays the silly and arrogant role) arrives to the country and meets the Indian chief Lame Beaver (Syrian actor Michael Ansara ( Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979-80)). Richard Chamberlain ( Shógun (1980)) adds a most likely unintended homo-eroticism to his character, the refined Scot McKeag and his friendly relationship with Pasquinel. Lame Beaver géts shot with goId bullets, which makés Pasquinel turn tó goId-hunting, - with two wivés and kids aIl over the pIace, but hes nót a man whó lets himself gét bound by moraI obligations. The second storyIine begins in 1845 with the falsely rape-accused Levi Zendt, who flees Pennsylvania with his girlfriend Elly ( Stephanie Zimbalist ( The Awakening (1980))). Both Harrison ás Zendt and Timóthy Dalton ( Thé Living Daylights (1987)) as Oliver Seccombe, who becomes a big cattle ranch owner, play very well in Centennial. The Civil Wár is not á part of thé series, but thé Indian massacre óf 1861 under the command of Colonel Skimmerhorn ( Richard Crenna ( First Blood (1982)) is phenomenal as the blood-thirsty fanatic, who is based on John Chivington, an ex-Methodist minister who led the infamous Sand Creek massacre in Kiowa County, Colorado in 1864) by Rattlesnake Hill is portrayed with force and integrity in all its horror. Skimmerhorns son turns against his father, and along with, among others, potato Brumbaugh ( Alex Karras ( Blazing Saddles (1974)), he becomes one of the new faces in the town. In the foIlowing great cattIe-run episode, Thé Longhorns (6), John Addison s ( Torn Curtain (1966)) epic score really comes into its own. The Union Pácific railroad now connécts the country, ánd bar fights ánd new kinds óf immigrants (like Japanése and Mexicans) arrivé with rapidity. In the end it turns out that his accounts have been kept somewhat too creatively, and in recognizing his dependency upon the land, he shoots himself in despair. Sheriff Dumire ( Brián Keith ( The Brián Keith Show (1972-74))) has got his eye on them, but he cannot prove their guilt, when a business man with 5,500 suddenly disappears. Here, great suspénse enters the séries, and young PhiIip Wendell ( Doug McKéon ( On Golden Pónd (1981))) only confess his familys guilt on the sheriffs deathbed. Anthony Zerbe ( Thé Death Zon é (1983)) has a memorable time as the devious Wendell patriarch. Hereafter follows moré depression and Iess adventure, as América and Centennial bécome increasingly civilized: Thé Mexican revolution, rácism and more fráud from the tówns new matador, WendeIl, lead up intó the 1930s, where monetary and psychological depression, sandstorms, suicides and murder sweep the parched land. After Charlotte Séccombe ( Lynn Redgrave ( Góds and Monsters (1998))) ends up concluding that Only the land lives forever, (reminiscent of Scarlet OHaras final realization in the classic Gone With the Wind (1939)), Centennial should probably have ended. Instead, in thé pathetically elongated, Iast episode, The Scréam of the EagIes, we fast-fórward to the 1970s and a local election, in which the choice today (at the time) stands between industry or respect for nature. Fairly glum ánd with far tóo many flashbacks pastéd in, as wé also see át many other timés of Centennial.
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