Available at Amazon.comThe Real West: Cowboys and Outlaws boasts sight of their documentaries in one collection.
With two features per disc, each features something about the old west that has largely been fictionalized over the years. The first disc features Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickok in separate features, discussing the two legends of the Old West in some detail from cradle to grave. The second is a more generic one, focusing on Legendary Cowboys of the west. The other feature on the disc is Law From Behind the Tin Star about legendary lawmen. Jesse James and the The James Gang are included on disc three, as well as a feature on the legendary Texas Rangers. The fourth disc has two features on it. The first is about the legendary criminals of the west entitled Outlaws: The Ten Most Wanted. The other feature on the disc is The Guns That Tamed The West.
The interesting part about the documentary series is that The History Channel has gone to a lot of steps to research the piece. Running at 45 minutes or so apiece, stretching to an hour with commercials normally on broadcast television, the documentaries condense tons of information into 45 minutes when the whole disc set of information couldn’t cover all of it. It makes for a good introduction to the topics covered, and is a good overview of the topics covered, but obviously isn’t as in depth as it could be. It is about six hours worth of good information, removed from the mythos that typifies the movies made about historical events.
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Presented in a full-screen format with a Dolby Digital sound, the audio/visual aspects vary from piece to piece. Some of the piece are a bit older and show the grain of some aging, whereas the more modern ones look a bit better. The History Chanel has never been known for having terrific audio on their DVD releases, mainly using the center speaker for all of the sound, but the pieces were initially designed for television and not as an audio experience.
