Hatfields & McCoys [DVD]

I was just in that area, still full of history.

Obsessed with this movie. Kevin Costner is incredible in this movie. Worth the price.

I found this film to be completely entertaining. From beginning to end never a dull moment. If you enjoy films regarding historical events re-enactments. Might want to try this. I bought it for $5.00 it more than paid for itself.

Awesome movie from beginning to end

Got a great deal on such a great movie!!

Although I am not biologically related to either the Hatfields or the McCoys, I have known people who are. As a child, I heard stories of the feud from descendents of the McCoys who lived far away from Kentucky. They were afraid to speak openly about it because they thought maybe some of the Hatfields had moved out where they were living. But because I was just a kid, they didn't worry too much about what they said in front of me.I remember their fear, and what I recall them saying was that one of the Hatfields had tried to marry a McCoy girl and that neither family would have it. But from what I heard, she didn't sound like a nice person, not like the very sympathetic Roseanna McCoy in the movie. I heard that she and he went swimming and that during that seemingly harmless activity, she did something to him, something that McCoy women were known for. She hit him in the head and almost killed him. In his dazed state, she fed him lies, and they became a couple. In the South when someone is hit in the head very hard or almost drowned to death or choked almost to death, he can from then on be seen as "changed." It's not that he was born with mental retardation, mental illness, or some other mental ailment; he was violently attacked with the sole purpose of rendering him brain damaged. This is, according to what I heard as a youngster, what happened to one of the Hatfield sons at the hands of one of the McCoy daughters. Later, the same son married another McCoy girl, but just as in the movie, she was a bad character. This violent "changing" of someone at the hands of a McCoy stands in contrast to how the Hatfields treat people. In the movie, the boy Cotton, who is developmentally disabled, was not "changed"; he was born different, and this is pointed out for good reason. The filmmaker did not want any of his viewers to think that the Hatfields had mistreated the boy, making him different.Another thing I heard as a child is that the McCoys didn't just shoot people like crazy and hit them in terrible fights, but they also poisoned people. This was lightly touched upon in the movie when Johnse was captured by Roseanna's brothers, and one of them suggested that they make him drink poison. However, as I was watching the part when Johnse and Roseanna's baby dies and then when Roseanna dies, it occured to me that perhaps both of them had been poisoned by her family, the McCoys. The McCoy descendents that I knew were not gentle people; both the men and the women were subject to violent fits of rage. The women didn't usually raise their voices; they could almost whisper a threat. Furthermore, they all behaved as one huge criminal family that reminded me of organized crime families associated with the Mafia. But they were not Italian, nor were they very religious. Some of them went to church, but it was only for show.As an adult, I have met many people related to the Hatfields, and many of them are in the U.S. military. Generally speaking, I have found them to be trustworthy, hard working people who despise trickery of any kind. They have said that many of the McCoys have gone into law enforcement (the movie reflects this at the very end), where their presence has become detrimental to decent society. They cautioned that in places like Kentucky and Tennessee, it can be risky to call 911 because the police officer who shows up might be a McCoy. In the movie, some of the worst criminals wear a badge.Just as the McCoys have many different last names now, so do the Hatfields. You can't tell much of anything by the last name, but you can identify a real McCoy by his or her behavior. Some of this is touched upon in the movie, and I found that fascinating. The character Uncle Jim, a Hatfield, has a dog he loves, and he fits the dog with a colorful, decorative collar to show that his dog is beloved, not some uncared for stray. This is significant. He's a hunter, and dogs are often beloved by their owners who rely on them when they hunt. The McCoys to this day have the reputation of being dog killers. Sometimes the dog is brutally killed, and other times the dog is poisoned to death, either in stages or all at once. So early in the movie when a McCoy insults a Hatfield in a bar by saying that the Hatfield fornicates with a dog, that part rings true based on what I have heard from those related to the Hatfields. Also, I have known people related to the McCoys who kill the dogs of those they dislike or disapprove of. The unspoken threat is "First, I kill your dog, and then I kill you." There is even a scene in the movie in which Johnse kicks his uncle's dog because he's angry about the treatment of his wife's family. It's like he's becoming a McCoy. It's all very subtle in the movie, but it's there. Later, the Hatfield patriarch contemplates killing his own son Johnse when they're out fishing. He doesn't go through with it, but his extreme anger is over his son becoming too much like a McCoy. Of course, his son has married Nancy McCoy, who is influencing him.Also, as a child, I heard about the whipping of a McCoy girl by a Hatfield man. A lot was made of that by the female descendents of the McCoys, and a lot was made of the kind of whip that was used--a "cat." I think that they were afraid that a Hatfield man would come after them and whip them. I'm still not completely sure about what that all means or why the whipping scene is an important part of the story, but I am glad to see that it made it into the movie.In the movie, I found the love story between Roseanna and Johnse to be particularly heart-breaking, and even if it's not completely historically accurate, the whole idea of their story fits with the reasons for the feud. From what I could gather from the people I knew who were related to the McCoys, it was not unheard of for a McCoy to steal a boyfriend or a husband. She would approach her victim as a "friend," often with accomplices. Then she or one of her accomplices would whack him in the head with a hard object, and then the McCoy woman would pretend to be right there to help him and offer him a pillow or some sort of comfort. In his vulnerable state, he would take her up on her offer of help, and she would continue to play him to get him where she wanted. This is the sort of thing that Nancy McCoy did to Johnse and her cousin Roseanna. It's the icy coldness of it that is so disturbing. In the movie, Nancy finally admits that she never loved Johnse and that she took him from Roseanna purely out of revenge. It was all part of her plot and her hatred for Hatfields. She didn't care that Johnse and Roseanna loved each other. Love meant nothing to her.Another thing that I noted was that even though Mare Winningham did a great acting job as Mrs. McCoy, what I had heard about Mrs. McCoy as a child didn't quite go with how she was characterized in the movie. In the movie, she's sympathetic. But I heard that she was not so nice. Her husband, the McCoy patriarch was nice, but she "changed" him and then told everyone that the war was to blame for his declining mental state. Also, in the movie, when he comes back from prison and she hardly recognizes him, her statement that she almost forgot she was married has a double meaning. That statement to the McCoy descendents I knew was almost a joke. It meant that she wasn't faithful. But in the movie, her statement isn't spoken in that way, almost as if it was lifted from some historical document and stuck in the movie despite a lack of understanding of the implication. Toward the end of the movie, when she leaves to go stay in a mental hospital, she still seems sympathetic and docile, but the female McCoy descendents I heard talking stated that her husband had her committed to keep her out of prison and away from him and other potential victims.Whether you're descended from Hatfields or McCoys or not, this movie is a reminder that tricksters, swindlers, murderers, and drunks are all threats. They seldom act alone. Like almost everybody else, they reproduce and grow in numbers. There are Hatfields and McCoys among us now and not just in Kentucky and West Virginia either.I would give this movie only four stars, not five, simply because it did not address some of the accusations against the McCoys, particularly the McCoy women, that I had heard. It's all hearsay, of course, not anything I've read. The movie portrayed the McCoy women as victims more than anything else. But from what I have heard, they were dog killers, husband and boyfriend stealers, head bashers, and poisoners. The Hatfields, on the other hand, were absolutely not going to stand for any double dealing nor any trickery. The Hatfields were armed and dangerous, and they forbade their men from associating with McCoy women for good reason. Both families were violent, but there were big differences between them. The Hatfields may have been ruthless killers, but they didn't pray to God one minute and then commit murder the next as the McCoys did.

It is said that the feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys made it so that one name cannot be said without the other. Starting at the end of the Civil War, and bringing the states of Kentucky and West Virginia close to a war of its own, the events of that bloody conflict have left their mark on American history. Now, the History Channel ventures into scripted drama for the first time with the miniseries "Hatfields & McCoys," an intense, character-driven film that looks at the price of feuding.What really drives this four-hour plus film are the outstanding performances by the cast, which works from a powerfully-penned script. Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton do brilliant work. You do not really "like" either character in the traditional sense of the word, but you definitely find them fascinating, and cannot help but enjoy the powerful work these two do. The supporting cast is fantastic as well, really finding the human drive behind these real-life characters.The filmmakers have also done a brilliant job of bringing 19th Century Appalachia to life, through the beautiful cinematography, set design, and even the music of the period. John Debney and Tony Morales' score is haunting and wonderful to listen to when set to the imagery. Even though the film was shot in Romania, you cannot help but feel as if you are in the Tug River Valley of West Virginia/Kentucky in the mid to late-1800s.Overall, "Hatfields & McCoys" is a brilliant, powerful and dramatic look at this dark time in the Appalachians, when a quarrel between two families escalated into a blood feud, with innocent lives taken down along with the guilty. If you love historical drama, westerns, or great film, then you are sure to enjoy this series!Grade: A

This is a very entertaining and well acted mini series. Doing the research on the history shows that it is pretty accurate as well, right down to the agonizing way Old Randall McCoy ended up dying. The only thing that they did romanticize a bit was that they made Johnsey Hatfield more of a nice guy than in real life. In real life, he never offered to marry Rosanna, and she left him after a few months because of it. And the baby did die early, as did Rosanna herself not long after. They do say that they think it was from “a broken heart” since she had no specific disease, to speak of. Tidbit…. I live in Maryland very near West Virginia, and one of the great grandsons of Devil Anse Hatfield is my mechanic!