海角大神

There is something about portraying grimy men聽shooting one another in the woods that speaks to many actors of a certain, let鈥檚 say, experience.

The History Channel鈥檚 鈥淗atfields and McCoys,鈥� a six-hour miniseries about the 19th-century folk legend, airing on the basic cable channel through Wednesday night, is chock full of some of Hollywood鈥檚 top frontier-lovin鈥� hombres.聽Star Kevin Costner won an Oscar for his Civil-War-era 鈥�Dances with Wolves,鈥� and Powers Booth may have set a high-water mark for portraying gritty聽outlaw life in HBO鈥檚 "Deadwood.鈥�

But this is not a feature film or even HBO. This is the History Channel debuting its first scripted series, coming out of the gate with the somewhat lofty goal of illuminating some of history鈥檚 lesser-known corners. While聽most Americans may know the reference to the 19th-century Appalachian blood feud, few know more than the gun-toting, cartoon聽cowboy characters who shoot at each other and miss.

And so, this largely unfamiliar but profoundly foul-mouthed, violent depiction of frontier justice and family revenge may be just the ticket for a channel trying to shed its somewhat stuffy legacy, says Josh McMullen, chairman of the Government, History, and Criminal Justice Department at Regent University's School of Undergraduate Studies.

鈥淭he History Channel鈥檚 'Hatfields and McCoys' is in keeping with the station's recent trajectory towards popular culture rather than rich, historical analysis,鈥� he says via e-mail, adding that much of the programming on the channel 鈥� such as 鈥�American Pickers"听 and 鈥淧awn Stars" 鈥� is 鈥渕ore akin to reality television than it is to a historical documentary.鈥�

These shows focus on Americana as much as they do on American history, notes Professor McMullen. The History Channel鈥檚 "Hatfields and McCoys" continues the theme, as it has been a long-standing American folk legend, he adds.

As with any program trying to separate the threads of a little-documented historical period, he says, the difficulty is separating fact from fiction when discussing the famous feud. One major problem anyone faces in attempting to explore history鈥檚 overlooked, disenfranchised, or maligned is that often these are individuals with little desire 鈥� or little capacity 鈥� to tell their own stories. 鈥淭hese were not regions of the country where people were keeping careful track of their own stories,鈥� says Thomas Flagel, a historian at Columbia State Community College in Franklin, Tenn., and author of听鈥淭he History Buff鈥檚 guide to the Civil War.鈥�

Many participants in this story lived in isolated areas where it would be difficult to trace events accurately, he says. This was not helped by the yellow journalism of the time. If the聽sketchy events emerging from news accounts as the bodies piled up were not sensational enough, he adds, 鈥渘ewspapers of the day often had no problem with simply making things up.鈥�

Nonetheless, the show's producers were at pains to point out in press materials that while not actually filmed in Appalachia 鈥� the incentives are better in Romania, where it was shot 鈥� the miniseries 鈥渢ries to capture accurately details of the family fight that eventually involved the US Supreme Court, made international headlines, and nearly pushed Kentucky and West Virginia to the brink of war.鈥�

Historians and educators were also brought in to vet the story, according to the show's producers, though writers 鈥渢ook such traditional liberties as compressing characters and the timing of events.鈥�

How far is too far often depends on whose views are offended, says Bob Thompson, founder of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University in New York. He points to the ruckus raised over recent programs such as 鈥淕ame Change,鈥� about the 2008 election, noting that criticism often had as much to do with politics as history. Beyond that, 鈥渄rama has no obligation to be historically accurate,鈥� he says with a laugh, pointing to such august precedents as Shakespeare鈥檚 history plays.

But, notes McMullen, the miniseries also raises larger questions for the History Channel itself. Does the show do justice to its historical claims, he says, 鈥渙r is it simply content to entertain its viewers?鈥� he asks. With other cable television shows such as听鈥�Game of Thrones鈥� and 鈥�True Blood鈥� pushing the envelope in terms of sex and blood, he says, 鈥渋t appears that the History Channel is simply following suit.鈥�

The question is, he says, 鈥渨hether or not the History Channel has a different mission than an HBO or Showtime.鈥� As the Hatfields and McCoys slug it out on the station, 鈥減erhaps the History Channel needs to have some of its own internal feuding over its identity.鈥�