****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Viewed strictly in terms of time and money this is a pretty awesome looking 'deal' - "Go West - Americas's Western Frontier" provides over 26 hours of viewing for less than the price of a typical DVD movie feature. But, as is often the case, you sorta 'get what you pay for' and in this instance my feeling was that the quality of the content was not all that exceptional.There are 3 separate DVD offerings in this 'box-set' package and each individual DVD case contains 2 discs. Two of the DVD sets focus primarily on famous personages of the 'wild west'. All the well known 'outlaws' and 'lawmen' are covered, as well as, some of the prominent Native American figures of the period. The series purports to be presenting 'new' more truthful depictions of what really went on back in the day - 'stripping away the myths' and providing a more actual/factual recounting of many of the Western legends. The DVDs do live up to this promise, BUT - much of the more 'factual' data has certainly been extensively covered previously in other venues and I doubt that western history buffs would find much surprising new information in this package. There is a lot of good material presented, but the format is pretty static and production values low. Most of the content is delivered via a voice-over format behind a mix of archival photographs and drawings, with some film clips from old Hollywood western movies and a few amateurish dramatic recreations. The historic and pictorial material is quite interesting - it's just not presented in a very dynamic or creative fashion.Personally, I was drawn to the product by the third DVD set that, ostensibly, focuses on the role of railroading in the West. Again, the actual product gets a 'mixed review'. There are 36 separate train oriented (short) features on the 2 discs and all of them appear to be 'promo' or 'instructional' pieces produced by various major American railroads - covering a wide range of RR subject matter from the 1940's -60's period. The majority of the films are in B&W and the visual quality is variable. Many of these little vignettes must be 'public domain' items by now - and I have seen several of them included in other, similar, compilations. Taken as a whole they represent a lot of interesting old images of vintage steam and diesel power on US railways, but they do not present any 'cohesive story' of the railroad's history in the development of the American West... as the write-up for the box set would imply. Regardless - railfans would likely find this a worthy addition to their collection.Given the 'cost to content' ratio I'm generally satisfied with the material provided in this "Go West..." package - but I have seen much of the same information better presented in other, similar, sets, and would thus caution other potential buyers as to what this product actually delivers within it's 1607 minutes!
