'Hatfields & McCoys' Tom Berenger: 'They are a bunch of hillbillies that went at each other'

I was born and raised in pike county, my parents as well.. I have always wanted to know what really happened between the Hatfield and McCoy family's...
I honestly don't think anyone other than God knows the full truth to the story. Everyone has their own opinion some good some bad. Regardless of what really took place, people were killed! I cant believe anyone would turn a blood-bath between two family's into entertainment.... My opinion is when this feud started both family's had no other way to protect themselves and had to take the law into their own hands and use a gun... Some people today forgot this all took place way back when...

Deputy Dog wrote:

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That is hsrdly the point, a lot more pack today than then probably. Pocket guns hidden and out of site, under the front car seat. Some got the Concealed to Carry Permists some don't, still nobody wore side arms in Pikeville and other cities like you see in the old western movies..They may have had pocket guns or holsters under their jacket but few of them...Good for the movie but not realistic and it just was not done...

Oh yes it certainly was that way, still is in some hollers and familys. Go look at up some old pictures from that area, even the very familys in this miniseries. Everyone packed, all the time.

here is one of the hatfields, hell four people in the picture are packing heat. a mans gun was his best friend and if he was going to be in a photograph he was going to be seen with his best friend in hand.

http://www.wvculture.org/Archives/images/Hatf...

How is pikeville wrote:

Wife and i want to just go for a drive far from owensboro . Is pikeville safe to stay a few days there and site see.

Okay people of Pikeville, you can use this movie as a good thing to help draw tourism like this to the area, even if just for a short while.

Or can you can continue to make the world think we really havent changed all that much since then.

Be a Good Time wrote:

The made for TV movie is racking in some very high viewing numbers. Calls about the WVa. KY. Pike County area are flooding the tourism site's. Emails and people expresssing interest in the area. It would be a good time now to rename that backward festival they started in Pikeville that celebrates our stupidness. With the name recogniton of Hatfield & McMcoy you would double your attendance if you renamed the Hillbilly Days festival Hatfield & McCoy Days...
Someone please take the opportunity to change the name on that embarrassing tribute to the ignorant and stop perpetuating the stereotype.

I couldn't agree more. Pikeville can benefit from this, even if just temporarily or they can bitch and moan.

Opinion wrote:

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That’s actually an excellent idea. No one in the Appalachian region should name anything “Hillbilly”. People do that all the time in East Tennessee as well, and it drives me nuts.

Ashamed of who you are?I'm was born a hillbilly and will die hillbilly!!I can't imagine living anywhere else....

Be a Good Time wrote:

The made for TV movie is racking in some very high viewing numbers. Calls about the WVa. KY. Pike County area are flooding the tourism site's. Emails and people expresssing interest in the area. It would be a good time now to rename that backward festival they started in Pikeville that celebrates our stupidness. With the name recogniton of Hatfield & McMcoy you would double your attendance if you renamed the Hillbilly Days festival Hatfield & McCoy Days...
Someone please take the opportunity to change the name on that embarrassing tribute to the ignorant and stop perpetuating the stereotype.

too damn bad the people who live here cant actually afford to do anything, lay offs and job losses and the lack there of, and they want to spend coal severance money for a commercial airport, to bring in tourists, well heres news for ya the more coal jobs that are lost, the less coal severance money u will get for your big projects...oh and imagine the disappointment of the tourists who travel here to see the hatfield/mccoy land and find it empty, paved over and a walmart

wtf wrote:

<quoted text>Ashamed of who you are?I'm was born a hillbilly and will die hillbilly!!I can't imagine living anywhere else....

You will die gay, broke and stupid! No one said anything about living here or being from here but the stupid hillbilly stereotype is insulting and derogatory! You want to be a friggin hillbilly put on your Dueling Banjo tape and squeal like a pig, I do not want the area thought of as a bunch of stupid hillbilly's..

lija wrote:

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Oh yes it certainly was that way, still is in some hollers and familys. Go look at up some old pictures from that area, even the very familys in this miniseries. Everyone packed, all the time.
here is one of the hatfields, hell four people in the picture are packing heat. a mans gun was his best friend and if he was going to be in a photograph he was going to be seen with his best friend in hand.
http://www.wvculture.org/Archives/images/Hatf...

Need to make a follow up on the movie with them making a movie about the Battle of Blair Mountain.

Maw wrote:

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Need to make a follow up on the movie with them making a movie about the Battle of Blair Mountain.

Coal Corporations will fight that one, they want to do a Mountain Top Removal on that Mountain..

well wrote:

devil ance was a deserter ?

Devil Ance was not a deserter he came home as decortive soldier the movie showed this inaccurate and Randall and him was not in the war together.
but i still enjoyed the movie.

hatfield wrote:

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Devil Ance was not a deserter he came home as decortive soldier the movie showed this inaccurate and Randall and him was not in the war together.
but i still enjoyed the movie.

Not much about the movie was true.Devil anse was not the prick he was made out to be,and randall Mccoy was not the retard he was made out to be.

Mccoy wrote:

<quoted text>Not much about the movie was true.Devil anse was not the prick he was made out to be,and randall Mccoy was not the retard he was made out to be.

Did Randall McCoy operate a ferry across the river to Pikeville before the bridges were put in..I hear he did that after the feud for several years..a flat boat ferry I think..

well wrote:

devil ance was a deserter ?

According the historical events I have read he was not He was a Confederate Home Guard. They more or less guarded their home areas against raiders and raided themselves. I think that part was a Hollywood throw in. Also from what I read the McCoys were for the most part for the Union. I am also from the Appalachian Area, Scott County,Tenn. I think they could have used someplace in West Virgina or Ky to film it. All in all I liked it but I don`t think they got it all down as it happened.

hatfield wrote:

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Devil Ance was not a deserter he came home as decortive soldier the movie showed this inaccurate and Randall and him was not in the war together.
but i still enjoyed the movie.

I agree and my agreement is based on ehat I have read and what I heard the old timers say when I was a little kid. I am from scott County,Tenn. We had a few feuds thre too. Feuding was not all that uncommon in those days.I think both the Hatfields and McCoys were people of their time and they dealt with things the way things were done then

Some of you are fools for hand-waving away the reasons why they should have filmed in the area they were trying, and failing, to portray.

Strip-mining, meth heads, pill poppers, and strip malls have f%*#!-all to do with the decision to film in Romania. The real reason, the only reason, is money. They simply, for whatever their reasons, decided to save money by filming in Romania.

So they saved some cash and were able to hire...Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton? Did I step into a wormhole and end up in the year 1994 when these actors were relevant? We need to form a posse to catch Bill Paxton with all that loot he stole from the producers of this show. Minus a wage in-line with what he's worth in 2012, of course:$2200 and an old broken pinball machine.

I also like how they chose to hang the one mentally retarded character on the show as a nice little commentary on the evil South and its death sentencing.

I'm just glad I didn't pay a dime to watch this dog turd. Because, while I can never get back the hours of my life I wasted on this steaming pile, I would feel compelled to ask for my money back.

How is pikeville wrote:

Wife and i want to just go for a drive far from owensboro . Is pikeville safe to stay a few days there and site see.

Safe for travelers? Yes. Pretty much same as Owensboro, in that respect. You can find anything you are looking for. If you want friendly, fun and pleasent you look for that you will find it. If you want mean, dirty and trouble you look for that and you will find it. Some places you should visit and some you should not visit. Like I said earlier, pretty much the same as your Owensboro.

NicB wrote:

Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton? Did I step into a wormhole and end up in the year 1994 when these actors were relevant? We need to form a posse to catch Bill Paxton with all that loot he stole from the producers of this show.

Kevin Costner produced the show.

Do they learn y'all to read these here days?

Devil Anse deserted, that's a fact. He's a deserter. He aint a good Reb. Heck, poor people were shot on both sides... Industrialists vs. Plantation Slave Owners, that's Civil War in a nutshell. And Hatfields started this mess with the McCoys... McCoys was just doing God's work, and Hatfields were terrorizing the countryside... for whatever reason. Why they have to steal 5,000 acres ? That's not his land. Just cuz they have bigger guns ? Nah... Devil Anse Hatfield never got his in the end, and Randal McCoy should have pee-o'd that he didn't get justice... they executed the one that deserved it the least. A mentally retarded boy is who Commonwealth of Kentucky executed, and that's justice ? Nah... McCoy should have made good on his quest for goodness and justice... he lost too many too close to him for him not to man-up, and go after Devil Anse himself. No jury in the world would have convicted Randall, esp after that blotched and barbaric New Year's Day raid on Randal McCoy's house. Nah... Devil is a Devil... McCoy might not be too much better, but it's clear Devil Anse was the initiator of this fight, and anybody who understands fights, it's the one who starts it, who is most responsible for it.

River Tam wrote:

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Kevin Costner produced the show.
Do they learn y'all to read these here days?

Hey... at least 60% of us know how to read, so there.

Chief Red Bird wrote:

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Hey... at least 60% of us know how to read, so there.

Good nuff.

I liked the show. It had good actors and a good flow. There was nothing true about it but it was entertaining.