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Post by Allen Wiener on Feb 5, 2012 11:42:46 GMT -5
If anyone's seen this series, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
I got the entire series on DVD for a very low price on one of those Amazon one-day-only offers a while ago; just started watching it the other day. Very impressive; I liked Carradine as Hickok & the cast is very good overall. The foul language sort of goes over my head after the initial shock and doesn't affect how I see this thing. It is violent at times, although the place was violent and lawless. All of these people were illegally squatting on Sioux land that had been recognized as theirs only 8 years earlier, but the government had decided to end efforts to keep whites out. I'm nearly through the first season and just watched the episode in which two teenage petty thieves are violently beaten and shot to death. It's probably one of the most disturbing scenes I've ever seen on film; really. Still can't get it out of my head.
Allen
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Post by Hollowhorn on Feb 5, 2012 13:38:47 GMT -5
Deadwood rates highly in my all time list of favourite TV shows alongside The West Wing / The Sopranos & The Wire.
The swearing tends to be explained this way:
I guess that makes sense.
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Post by Jim Boylston on Feb 5, 2012 15:24:34 GMT -5
One of the best series ever on television. It's Shakespearean in scope, with a cast of memorable characters both main and secondary. Jim
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Post by Jim Boylston on Feb 5, 2012 15:26:16 GMT -5
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Post by Allen Wiener on Feb 5, 2012 17:14:51 GMT -5
Like other HBO series, this one is totally addictive. No sooner is one episode over than I wonder how it went by so quickly and I can't resist starting the next.
By the way, I visited the real Deadwood a couple of years ago and commented to several people what a dump I thought it was. Having not yet seen the TV series, I did not quite get the irony when others responded by saying "that makes it one of the most authentic historical sites anywhere!" NOW I get it!
Jim - thanks for that link! It adds immeasurably to the viewing experience!
Allen
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Post by sloanrodgers on Feb 5, 2012 21:13:05 GMT -5
I only watched the first season before getting bored with the overdone violence and language. Deadwood started becoming a cowboy/ miner soap opera and the anachronistic bad language just kept getting worse. I had an ancestor in the early 1800s, who was thrown in the stocks for simply calling someone a damned liar and scoundral. Nobody cared if it were true or not. I don't think most 19th Century people, churches and law enforcement let you get away with even slightly crude language without some severe repercussions.
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Post by Allen Wiener on Feb 5, 2012 21:20:28 GMT -5
Remember, the premise is that they are all knowingly living in territory that does not really belong to the U.S. and has been designated Sioux land by treaty. There is no law at all; an oxymoron in a place that's illegal by its nature. These are not mild people. I see it as what "Gunsmoke" might have been if it debuted in the 21st century instead of 1955.
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Post by sloanrodgers on Feb 5, 2012 21:29:51 GMT -5
And that's why fisticuffs, brawls, knifings and duels sometimes commenced at the utterance of a mild insult or cross look. I think Deadwood language would have sounded more alien to people of that time period and resulted in a lot more dead.
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Post by Allen Wiener on Feb 5, 2012 22:09:28 GMT -5
Apparently, the foul language is NOT authentic and the producers knew that. According to some sources, they originally tried to use authentic profanity from that period, but it just didn't work in a film, so they opted for contemporary vulgarity so the audience could relate to it. In fact, I think the foul language is a device to emphasize the crude nature of the place and the people, rather than for accuracy. After all, this is art, not a history documentary. Devices are used to create an effect. If they work, than the artists have been successful. I'm moving on to Season 2.
By the way, I can see how "Hell on Wheels" took its cue from "Deadwood."
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Post by sloanrodgers on Feb 6, 2012 0:17:26 GMT -5
I don't expect any western to be authentic or accurate, but sometimes they surprise me. I think the best features of the first season were the attention to detail with scenary, costumes, various props and the performance of various actors. Sometimes the script was fantastic and Shakespean. but at other times it was so crude (w/ multiple cuss words in a sentence) and garbled that I couldn't understand what was being said. Of course this occurs in a lot of modern movies, so I sometimes have to rewind and listen again.
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Post by Seguin on Feb 6, 2012 3:05:01 GMT -5
'Deadwood' is the best western TV series I´ve ever seen, just like 'The Sopranos' is the best gangster TV series I´ve seen. 'Deadwood' contains lots of funny dialog, and how can you not like a scoundrel like Al Swearengen or a drunkard like Calamity Jane? Even the 'good guy', Marshall Seth Bullock, is a bit of a rogue. I don´t know how realistic the characters are, but they seem more realistic to me than many of the western TV series I´ve seen in the past, even though the way many of the characters act and talk seem a bit exaggerated.
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Post by timniesen on Feb 6, 2012 13:34:22 GMT -5
Deadwood was the favorite TV show of Tom Lindley, and he never missed an episode. One of my favorites too. I was quite disappointed that it ended, although I though that the last season was not up to the standards of the first two seasons. There is a historical account on the DVD that tries to justify the foul language used in the series. Tim
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johnk
Full Member
Posts: 67
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Post by johnk on Jan 23, 2013 5:29:46 GMT -5
I have read many books on Hickok and knew his biographer Rosa .I understand that Hickok liked to think of himself as a cultured man ,bathing daily so it goes against the grain to here him swear (In My Mind).Rosa told me a story back in the 1960s that he visited Hickoks grand niece when researhing his book and the old lady (then 100) told him how Uncle James used to bounce her on his knee......Really fascinating when you hear these stories makes a change from reading in a book.....Living history
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Post by sloanrodgers on Jan 23, 2013 19:07:28 GMT -5
I had an ancestor get really angry when a fellow politician referenced blood-sucking (the S looked like another letter in 19th Century newsprint) harpies in a speech about land speculators at the Virginia Assembly. He accidentally pointed in my ancestor's direction and almost started a brawl before he apologized for his wayward finger.
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