Hatfields & McCoys (2012)

Kevin Costner is Anse Hatfield and Bill Paxon is Randall McCoy in this mini-series about the most infamous family feud in American history.

As the story begins, the two are comrades in arms, fighting for the same Confederate unit in the Civil War.

That’s until Anse decides the Confederate cause is lost after a particularly desperate battle and decides to quit the fight.

Randall warns him that he’s deserting, but allows Anse to leave. Randall’s later wounded and winds up in a Union prisoner of war camp.

Once he returns home, Randall discovers tensions are rising between the families.

And he’s still bitter over Anse’s decision to return home to make money by running a logging business while he continued to fight for the Southern cause.

A quarrel over timber rights and the ownership of a pig — a case that winds up in the courtroom — keep the feud escalating.

It reaches new heights when Roseanne McCoy (Lindsay Pulsipher), Randall’s favorite daughter, falls for handsome Johnse Hatfield (Matt Barr), one of Anse’s sons.

The two hope to marry. Neither family will sanction the union.

Instead, McCoy’s sons, capture Johnse for soiling their sister’s reputation and condemn him to death.

Anse later has those same McCoy brothers executed after they take part in the killing of his brother Ellison.

From that point on, the feud escalates. And neither side has trouble recruiting relatives — or outsiders — to participate.

Review:

An extremely well-acted and beautifully filmed mini-series that aired in three parts on the History Channel.

Of course, it helps when you have Kevin Coster and Bill Paxton as your leads. Costner and Tom Berenger, playing Jim Vance, won Emmys for their performances.

Unfortunately, as retribution follows retribution after retribution, keeping track of the various members of the Hatfield and McCoy families becomes difficult.

Caring about whether they live or die is even more so. This is a story without heroes, only family members determined to exact vengeance against neighbors on the other side of the Kentucky-West Virginia border.

Viewers do have Johnse Hatfield and Roseanne McCoy to root for. But their relationship dissolves amid the feuding and Johnse winds up marrying another McCoy, the conniving Nancy. Jean Malone delivers a fine performance in that role.

Andrew Howard is Frank Phillips, a Pinkerton detective turned bounty hunter who works on behalf of the McCoys. Powers Boothe is also effective as the judge in the Hatfield family.

One of the most memorable scenes in the film is the recreation of the chaotic 1888 Battle of Grapevine, in which Anse and Randall both lead men into action in hopes of stopping the feud once and for all.

Both fail.

Directed by:
Kevin Reynolds

Cast:
Kevin Costner … “Devil” Anse Hatfield
Bill Paxton … Randall McCoy
Matt Barr … Johnse Hatfield
Tom Berenger … Jim Vance
Powers Boothe … Judge Valentine “Wall” Hatfield
Andrew Howard … “Bad” Frank Phillips
Jean Malone … Nancy McCoy
Sarah Parish … Levicy Hatfield
Lindsay Pulsipher … Roseanne McCoy
Ronan Vibert … Perry Cline
Joe Absolom … Selkirk McCoy
Noel Fisher … Ellison “Cotton Top” Mounts
Boyd Holbrook … William “Cap” Hatfield
Tom McKay … Jim McCoy
Sam Reid … Tolbert McCoy
Mare Winningham … Sally McCoy
Greg Patmore … Good Lias Hatfield
Max Deacon … Calvin McCoy
John Bell … Audie
Katie Griffiths … Alifair McCoy
Nick Dunning … Preacher Dyke Garrett
Joy McBrinn … Aunt Betty Blankenship

Runtime: 290 min.

Memorable lines:

Randall McCoy: “What do you think would happen if every soldier decided for himself when the war was lost?”
Anse Hatfield, preparing to desert: “Be shorter wars, for sure.”

Anse Hatfield: “You hate ’em so much, how come you didn’t sign up to fight ’em?”
Jim Vance: “Fighting on other’s terms is how you lose. And losing is intolerable to me.”

Eric Cline, a McCoy cousin: “War changes men. Peace time can turn them into scheming snakes.”

Judge Valentine “Wall” Hatfield: “If you two don’t mend what’s wrong between ya, hellfire’s for certain gonna rise up and consume both our families.”

Roseanne McCoy, of Johnse Hatfield: “He sure is handsome.”
Nancy McCoy: “So’s ‘Devil’ Anse.”
Roseanne: “I ain’t never seen no devil look like that.”

Anse Hatfield to Johnse: “God dammit, boy, they tried to kill you! Now you wanna marry into that?”

Sally McCoy to daughter Roseanne: “You came home with a Hatfield bastard in your belly?”

Sally McCoy: “You ever get tired of prayin’, Randall. Seems like it so rarely works.”

Jim Vance to Cap: “God dammit, boy, I said git. Or I’ll come back from hell and tan your hide.”

Johnse Hatfield: “You know I hate all this. I always have. I think all I ever wanted to do was just play. Just laugh and play. Seems like nobody round here laughs no more. ‘Cept maybe when a McCoy gets maimed or killed.”

Sally McCoy: “You’re not sending me away to get better. You’re sending me away so you can go to hell with Perry Kline.”

Male, when his wife questions why they traveled so far to watch a hanging they can barely see: “This is history. The Hatfields and McCoys are famous.”
Wife: “Famous for what?”
Another attendee: “Killin’ each other.”

Noel Fisheer as Ellison ‘Cotton Top’ Mounts, wanting for the judge to announce his sentence in Hatfields & McCoys (2012)

Boyd Holbrook as William ‘Cap’ Hatfield, a sharpshooter among Anse’s sons in Hatfields & McCoys (2012)

Damian O’Hara as Ellison Hatfield, urging brother Anse to find a peaceful alternative in Hatfields & McCoys (2012)

Jilon VanOver as Ransom Bray, offering to join Frank Phillips posse in Hatfields & McCoys (2012)

Sam Reid as Tolbert McCoy, targeting Jim Vance in Hatfields & McCoys (2012)

Jonathan Fredrick as Jefferson McCoy, Nancy’s brother, on the run for his life in Hatfields & McCoys (2012)

Kevin Costner as Anse Hatfield, making it clear he won’t compromise with Randall McCoy in Hatfields & McCoys (2012)

Bill Paxon as Randall McCoy, learning Anse Hatfield has McCoy family members in his custody in Hatfields & McCoys (2012)