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Airdate: Robert Redford’s The West

Docudrama produced as The American West for Sundance TV, debuts on SBS.

Docudrama Robert Redford’s The West, produced as The American West for Sundance TV, debuts on SBS this Sunday.

Oddly, it features interviews with James Caan, Tom Selleck, Danny Glover, Burt Reynolds, Kiefer Sutherland, Ed Harris and Mark Harmon.

This is an 8 part series which begins with a double episode.

It screened in the US in June 2016 on the History channel last October.

Before the West was won, it was bloodied by gangs, infighting and a turf war on a scale never seen again in the US. It was a unique period in history, where anyone could wander into the unknown and take from it what they wanted – as long as they were willing to fight for it.

Robert Redford’s The West is a docudrama miniseries spanning from the post-Civil War to the closing of the Western Frontier, portraying the remarkable real-life stories behind the infamous Wild West legends: men like Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull and George Custer. From the battlefield of Little Bighorn to the lawless boomtowns of Dodge City and Tombstone, actor and host Robert Redford captures the incredible sweep of one of America’s most turbulent periods as these towering figures helped forge America as it’s known today.

Season One, Episode One: America Divided (8.30pm)
The Civil War ends in 1865, and America looks West to repair the nation. As unrest in the South continues, rebel fighter Jesse James becomes a politically-minded outlaw fighting to rekindle the flames of the Confederacy. Out West, conflict with the Sioux Indian leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse threaten America’s continued expansion. Crazy Horse makes his stand against the US military at the Battle of 100 Slain, triggering another war.

Episode Two: Two Front War (9.25pm)
Between the deep unrest in the South and the mounting war with the Plains Indians in the West, America’s military is stretched thin. So rather than continue a costly war with the Sioux Indians, President Ulysses S Grant decides to uphold a peace policy with the Sioux.

8:30pm Sunday on SBS.

3 Responses

  1. Robert Redford’s The West could become a popular SBS On Demand streamed binge offering. Hopefully, SBS who obviously own the broadcast rights to their shows will concentrate more on whole seasons instead of weekly releases, as is happening with the most recent season of the detective series Bosch.

  2. I hope that this is not going to be a celebration of firearms … something a great percentage of Americans are unable to distance themselves from over more than 200 hundred years later.

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