In excess of 20 hours, when I had finished watching it, I wanted to start back at the beginning and see it all over again. Since this is a long mini-series, the characters and storyline are well developed. As characters grow old and die off, you feel a sadness that one rarely feels for a TV or movie character.
The lack of total good in any character adds to the realism. For instance, you find Pasquinel (Robert Conrad) very likeable, despite the fact that he is unfaithful to whomever he marries. As in real life, good does not always triumph over evil, as we painfully see when Pasquinel's "half-breed" son, Marcel, attempts to peacefully give himself up, and it brutally murdered.
And one better be prepared to have a whole box of tissues at hand during a most incredible scene where the army attacks a small tribe of Indian elderly, women and children and a young messenger boy evolves from hating the Indians to finding out very quickly that he does possesses a conscience and how painful that can be. The other scene which will haunt you long after it is over is where Lost Eagle stares tearfully into space as he holds a worthless trinket given to him by the U.S. government in exchange for his giving up his land and, more symbolically, his entire way of life and history.
The best way that I can explain how good Centennial is to put it this way: if the first few hours were chopped out and released as a movie the same year as Dances With Wolves, Centennial would have easily won the Academy award for Best Picture.
The lack of total good in any character adds to the realism. For instance, you find Pasquinel (Robert Conrad) very likeable, despite the fact that he is unfaithful to whomever he marries. As in real life, good does not always triumph over evil, as we painfully see when Pasquinel's "half-breed" son, Marcel, attempts to peacefully give himself up, and it brutally murdered.
And one better be prepared to have a whole box of tissues at hand during a most incredible scene where the army attacks a small tribe of Indian elderly, women and children and a young messenger boy evolves from hating the Indians to finding out very quickly that he does possesses a conscience and how painful that can be. The other scene which will haunt you long after it is over is where Lost Eagle stares tearfully into space as he holds a worthless trinket given to him by the U.S. government in exchange for his giving up his land and, more symbolically, his entire way of life and history.
The best way that I can explain how good Centennial is to put it this way: if the first few hours were chopped out and released as a movie the same year as Dances With Wolves, Centennial would have easily won the Academy award for Best Picture.