OUTLAWS & GUNSLINGERS

The stories were interesting and included quite a few early photographs, but the production seems very poorly funded, using re-enactor characters who aren’t at all good at their work. One or two of them are morbidly obese and reappear in different stories, recognizable by their huge bellies as the same actors who have appeared in previous stories in the series.

The subtitles are provided by writers who have a tin ear for the dialog they are transcribing, or perhaps the subtitles are produced by a woefully bad voice-to-text program, for instance, the Doolin Gang is referred to as “the dueling gang”.

Several of the stories seem to be from penny dreadful books and are historically inaccurate, painting the historical figures as heroes or villains without any attention at all to facts that are easily available. Current woke standards are applied as well.

I give this a 2.5 stars, rounded up to a three. I would give that same rating to an IMDB page if one existed at all, based on a possible 10 stars. The five star limit here doesn’t allow for that kind of accuracy.

I really wanted to like this series but the poor production as well as the grainy images were hard to overlook. I requested a return label I could resize so I could use a 6×9 envelope because the label kept printing out oversized and the tracking barcode would end up on the backside of the envelope. Because there was no option to resize I ended up taking a screenshot and reducing it down with my fingers on my iPhone then it printed perfect.

The seller’s reply:
Why do you want to return the item? There should be an option to print in a smaller format (nearly all of the returns I get have a half-page label that the customer printed). You only need the first page with the tracking number, don’t worry about the rest.

If you’re just a causal fan of this period in American history, this dvd is not for you. Mill Creek Entertainment has, once again, put together another excellent product. This program is an in-depth, detail-oriented documentary of the people and events which made up the “Wild West”. The usual recognizable characters and events are included (ie Billy The Kid, Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Gunfight At The OK Corral etc) as well as some lesser-known but relevant people and events which contributed to the development of this period. The chapters are explained with excellent narration, story-telling, reenactments, and photos. Each segment moves along in a very interesting and informative pace. Highly recommended for the viewer seeking both entertainment and some enlightenment about the post Civil War period in our country’s history. Some of it just may surprise you!

This is by far one of the best documentary series that Mill Creek Entertainment has ever produced. Over the years they produced some amazing documentaries ( America’s 60 Greatest Unsolved Mysteries and Crimes, Vegas: The City the Mob made ), and OUTLAWS & GUNSLINGERS is one of them. Produced by award-winning production company Centre Communications, this series serves as a follow-up to their smash hit “The Great Indian Wars 1540 – 1890”. This is the story of the West as it has never been told before…Myth and legend stripped away and the truth revealed by 17 of the nation’s top Western authorities. Learn the truth about Billy The Kid, Jesse James, Wild Bill Hickok and many more. I’m a History buff, I just really enjoy watching documentaries about History, other eras, other times. To me it’s a passion. Recently I discovered that I have a huge interest for the Wild West, stories of Cowboys and Outlaws, Billy the Kid, Jesse James and his gang. Fascinating stuff. Very fascinating. I bought this DVD last week, and I wasn’t disappointed by it.

Everything about this documentary series is great. The amount of information given to us is impressing, I’ve learned a lot while watching these 5 episodes. So many fascinating events or characters are covered: Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, how the Wild West begun, the evolution of guns and firearms, the gunfight at OK Corral, towns like Tombstone and Deadwood, the origin of the lawmen, The Civil War, Samuel Colt, John Coffee Hays, Samuel Hamilton Walker, history of the Texas Rangers, The Guerillas, William Quantrill, Allen Pinkerton, Boomtowns, and so much more. Very impressive list. The narrator is great, his voice is perfect for the documentary.

Other things I like about this documentary: First they don’t use a lot of footage from old western movies. Mill Creek have the reputation of filling their documentaris with footage from old movies, this is not the case for this documentary, I was very happy to see that the use of such footage is very limited. Also the number of people interviewed for this series is impressing; over 15 western historians were interviewed for this documentary, a lot more than most series produced by Mill Creek. All of them obviously knows what they’re talking about and all of them are interesting. So this series is in 5 parts, for a total of 3 hours. The episodes you’ll find on this DVD are:

1. ORIGINS OF THE GUNSLINGER ( 31 minutes )
2. JESSE JAMES & THE SOUTHERN GUERILLAS ( 38 minutes )
3. BILLY THE KID & THE LONE OUTLAWS ( 41 minutes )
4. WILD BILL HICKOK & THE LAWMEN ( 38 minutes )
5. WYATT EARP & THE GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL ( 38 minutes )

The reason why I’m giving this product 4 stars is because of the lenght, 3 hours is a little short for me. Usually most documentaries released by Mill Creek are between 6 and 8 hours long, sometimes more, and it’s difficult to understand how this series is only 3 hours long when they have interviewed more than a dozen experts and when there’s so many topics to cover. This is the only disappointment I had with this DVD, when it was over I wanted more, this is how great this DVD is. Plus I bought it for less than 5$, brand new here on Amazon, that’s one hell of a great deal. So there you have it folks, I think this DVD is a great addition to any collection, to any library. If, like me, you have a huge passion for History and Historical documentaries then you need to add this series to your collection. 🙂

This is a well-produced, well-narrated and well-edited historical and entertaining documentary. I have watched it, at least, three times and highly recommend it.

Great price. Well worth it. Arrived very fast. Highly recommend.