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The Reel Review

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Pioneers, the U.S. Army, indigenous tribespeople, and lawless Mormon militias battle one another for survival and control in the Utah territory of 1857. Taylor Kitsch, Betty Gilpin and Shea Whigham star in this remarkably accurate Western drama series.

Preston Mota, Taylor Kitsch, Shawnee Pourier and Betty Gilpin in American Primeval

American Primeval is without a doubt the most violent and brutal Western ever made, showing shockingly aggressive savagery and portraying Mormon leader Brigham Young as a relentless theocratic villain. Working from a screenplay by Mark L. Smith (Overlord, The Revenant), director Peter Berg and his crew pay meticulous attention to period details. It is immersive, accurately capturing the harshness and brevity of life in the mid-1800s American West.

Irene Bedard and Derek Hinkey in American Primeval

Gilpin (The Hunt) and Preston Mota (Asteroid City) are the mother and son pioneers who eventually hire Kitsch’s Isaac, a surly recluse who reluctantly becomes their guide. Their journey is interwoven with other stories – an indigenous girl (Shawnee Pourier) who joins them after killing her rapist father, a Mormon pioneer (Dane DeHaan) searching for his missing wife (Saura Lightfoot-Leon) who has ended up on a Shoshone tribe after surviving a brutal massacre, Shoshone tribe leaders (Derek Hinkey and Irene Bedard) fearful that the encroaching white people will destroy their livelihood, and the badass owner of the Fort Bridger trading post (an excellent Whigham), who tries to hold off the increasingly hostile Mormons. A poignant, heartfelt ending is the bow on this riveting, well done drama series.

REEL FACTS

Memorial at the site of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, in Brookside, Utah

• The Mountain Meadows Massacre really did happen in southern Utah on September 11, 1857. Mormons fearing a U.S. government crackdown on their growing theocracy disguised themselves as indigenous people and murdered 120 men, women and children.

Located in present day far southwest Wyoming near the Utah border. Fort Bridger is now a U.S. National Park Museum.

• Fort Bridger was a real fur trading post in the 1850s, serving as an important resupply point for wagon trains traveling along the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails. Rebuilt by the U.S. Army a year after the Mormons burned it down in 1857, Fort Bridger remained a military post until 1890, when Wyoming became a state.

• Although set in the Utah territory, American Primeval was filmed at the Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe, New Mexico.

 

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