The history of the Indians - 500 Nations

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Television series
German title VHS : The history of the Indians - 500 Nations
DVD, TV:
500 Nations - The history of the Indians
Original title 500 Nations
Country of production United States
original language English
Year (s) 1994
Production
company
Tig Productions
length a total of 394 minutes
Episodes 8 ( list )
genre documentary
Director Jack Leustig
production Kevin Costner ,
Bernd Eichinger ,
Ralph Tornberg
music Peter Buffett
camera Dyanna Taylor
Initial release 1994 at the latest on VHS

500 Nations is an American documentary from 1994, the German version of which is subtitled The story of the Indians . In eight episodes, it tells the story of the Native Americans and focuses on the decline of a large part of the Indian peoples in the course of the colonization of America by immigrants and white settlers. In parallel to the documentary, a non-fiction book and a computer game with the title 500 Nations , which refers to the number of Indian peoples in North America, were also produced.

content

In the eight episodes 22 stories are told, beginning with the colonization of Central and North America by the Anasazi , the Maya and the Aztecs ; about Columbus' discovery of the Native Americans; the looting and enslavement of the people of South Florida by the forces of Hernando de Soto . The documentary ends with the Wounded Knee massacre , which broke the Sioux resistance against the white settlers; the ending is also anticipated at the beginning of the first episode.

One intention of the film is to correct the history of the Americans by pointing out that there were high cultures in America even before the arrival of Columbus and the Pilgrim Fathers .

In the original version of the series, Kevin Costner is the host and Gregory Harrison is the off-screen narrator . The events are also portrayed from the point of view of Indians, including Tantoo Cardinal , Graham Greene and Gordon Tootoosis . With computer animation the culture and buildings of the Indians are visualized, photos, maps and statements of historical personalities are staged.

Emergence

Kevin Costner had the idea for the documentary during the making of his movie Dances with Wolves (1990). Its success was one of the reasons that Costner found other donors who co-produced the documentary. Directed by Jack Leustig , who processed a large amount of archive material for the film from 1991 to 1994.

The documentary cost $ 8 million.

publication

The US first broadcast took place in April and May 1995 in four double episodes on the Network CBS , beginning on April 20. The documentary was already available in German last year, namely on VHS from October 10, 1994 , in an edition of eight video cassettes published by Odeon Video , entitled The History of the Indians - 500 Nations . On television, the WDR began broadcasting the episodes in German for the first time, on July 2, 1997 in the evening program. From July 6, 1997, the regional broadcaster B1 also broadcast the episodes.

The documentary was released in English and German on DVD in 2004.

Episodes

No. German title Original title First broadcast in the USA German-language first broadcast ( WDR and possibly a.)
1 Maya , Mississippi Indians , Anasazi : flowering of great cultures The Ancestors Apr 20, 1995 Jul 2, 1997
2 Rise and Fall of the Aztecs Mexico Apr 20, 1995 1997
3 Two worlds collide: Enrique and Columbus Clash Of Cultures Apr 21, 1995 1997
4th The European invasion: Chief Metacom is at war Invasion Of The Coast Apr 21, 1995 1997
5 In the cauldron of revolution and civil war: the Indian peoples' struggle for survival Cauldron Of War May 27, 1995 1997
6th Chief Tecumseh : The Indians' dream of their own land Removal May 27, 1995 1997
7th Settlement of the West: Murder and Displacement Roads Across The Plains May 28, 1995 1997
8th Geronimo and Chief Joseph : Desperate Struggle for Freedom Attack On Culture May 28, 1995 1997

reception

Some of the critics found words of praise for the documentation. The author of the US magazine Variety, for example, judged the director to be “great” and predicted the work would be a “respectable success”. Howard Rosenberg saw it in the Los Angeles Times similarly and underlined that the film gains in authenticity through the numerous Indians speaking into the camera. Critics praised the documentary for its computer animation, through which viewers could put themselves in the world of the Indians. The critic of the Tagesspiegel, for example, called it “sensational”, the TAZ commentator judged it as “amazing”.

Critics found the film's intention to show the truth about Indian history to be problematic. The author of the newspaper Baltimore Sun, for example, criticized the fact that, although the film tells a story from a one-sided perspective, it speaks of “truth” with great certainty. Therefore, the film offers an even worse story than entertainment. In the Bonner General-Anzeiger it was said that the documentation glorified the life and culture of the indigenous people, because the Indians always appeared in it “only as pacifists who apparently submit to the whites without a fight”, and their problematic situation in the present is not mentioned.

The work was nominated once for an Artios Award and a Television Critics Association Award in 1995 .

Related publications

Non-fiction

A non-fiction book was also published under the title 500 Nations , which is based on the research for the documentary and was written by the historian Alvin M. Josephy .

Expenditure:

Interactive CD-ROM

Interactive software was also created based on the documentary and the non-fiction book, which Microsoft Home published in 1995 under the title 500 Nations - Stories of the North American Indian Experience . It was published on CD-ROM for the MS-DOS (at least 3.1) and Microsoft Windows (at least 3.1) operating systems . The user thus has the opportunity to get to know the history of the Indians in multimedia.

Soundtrack

That of Peter Buffett originating soundtrack for the documentary series was published in 1995 under the label Sony under the title 500 Nations - A Musical Journey .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d Tanz mit der Maus , in: Der Spiegel No. 36/1994, accessed online on March 15, 2020
  2. a b 500 Nations - History of the Indians , in: Film-Dienst , accessed on Nov. 3, 2018
  3. ^ A b Reinhard Lüke: Kevin Costner presents: "500 Nations - a story of the Indians" , in: TAZ of July 2, 1997, accessed online via GBI-Genios on October 31, 2018
  4. Tony Scott: 500 Nations , in: Variety, April 20, 1995, accessed Oct. 31, 2018
  5. ^ Walter Goodman: North American Culture Before the Europeans , in: The New York Times, April 19, 1995, accessed online on Oct. 31, 2018
  6. ↑ Who dances with wolves , in: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung of Nov. 19, 1994, p. 920, archived online, accessed via GBI-Genios on Oct. 31, 2018
  7. a b c Frank Bretschneider: “Are you still surprised?” , In: Lausitzer Rundschau of July 2, 1997, p. 17
  8. Kevin Costner is dancing with Indians again , in: Der Tagesspiegel from July 6, 1997, accessed online from GBI-Genios on November 2, 2018
  9. 500 Nations Due 9/21 , in: IGN of Aug. 17, 2004, accessed on Nov. 4, 2018
  10. Tony Scott: 500 Nations , in: Variety from April 20, 1995, accessed on Nov. 3, 2018, original quotations: “superbly”, “succes d'estime”
  11. ^ Howard Rosenberg , '500 Nations' Sets the Record Straight , in: Los Angeles Times, April 19, 1995, accessed Nov. 3, 2018
  12. ^ Anne P. Meyer: Costner's Truths , in: Der Tagesspiegel of July 8, 1997, accessed online from GBI-Genios on October 31, 2018
  13. David Zurawik: '500 Nations' is not good history and not good TV , in: Baltimore Sun of April 20, 1995, accessed on Nov. 3, 2018
  14. Dieter Deul: Declaration of love to the eternally noble America , in: Bonner General-Anzeiger from July 19, 2001, accessed on November 3, 2018
  15. Awards , in: IMDb , accessed on Nov. 4, 2018
  16. [1] , in: Die Zeit No. 52/1996, accessed from Zeit online on Nov. 3, 2018
  17. Alice M. Cornell, Linda Newman: 500 Nations: Stories of the North American Indian Experience , in: American Library Association (Ed.): RQ No. 2/1996 (36th year, ISSN  0033-7072 ), p. 279-281