“American Primeval” on Netflix: This is the true story behind the brutal western series in the top 10 – and that’s what makes it so special

“American Primeval” is the historical Netflix western about the founding myth of the USA

“American Primeval” is not for the faint of heart or for people who cannot handle brutality and violence in films and series. Because in the six-part mini-seriesIn the truest sense of the word, no prisoners are taken: everyone hunts everyone, everyone takes everyone prisoner because they take the country of the people in the eyes of the peoplewhiteSettlers want to get hold of the unpopulated “Wild West”.

In “American Primeval,” prisoners – regardless of whether they are Mormons, soldiers or Native Americans, women, children or men – gather in what is now Utah and slaughter each other with knives, arrows, axes and guns. Spoiler alert: The Mormon Jacob is scalped in the first episode - this is the level of violence we are talking about here.

What is special about the Netflix series, however, is that three women are at the center of the blood-soaked prairie soil: women who want a better life, who can and want to distinguish right from wrong and who are moving west because they are looking for freedom and a better life. These three are called Sara, Abish and Two Moons and couldn't be more different.

“American Primeval” dispels any romanticized founding myths of the USA. However, it is also not true that the violence depicted is exaggerated and is simply shown for the sake of brutality. Because: Life in the “Wild West” was constantly life-threatening - if people didn't attack each other because of different values, beliefs or skin colors, then hunger, cold and disease took them away. But from the beginning.

Hell? It's always the others. And the emergence of the USA? In the case of “American Primeval”, the literally translated “American primeval period”, it was the same as in the area in present-day Utah that various parties claim as their own and which they defend with money or blood or both to the death.

On the one hand, there is the single mother Sara, who is traveling with her son Devin to visit her husband who has traveled to the west of the still relatively new USA. She can't travel alone because she doesn't know her way around and is a woman - so she joins a Mormon trek in Fort Bridger in present-day Wyoming.

The Mormon trek around Jacob and Abish Pratt is on the way to a better life, because Mormons are persecuted in the USA - no matter which region they arrive in, they have to fight for their right to stay, their “otherness” , defend their religious values. This applies to the believers in their covered wagons who set off on the “Mormon Trail” towards Utah throughout history, and also to their leader Brigham Young, who is governor of Utah.

Young is supported by Bill Hickman, who is known as “Wild” Bill Hickman to his followers, who are no strangers to weapons, violence, cunning and cunning. And wild he is, because everything he does, of course, he does on behalf of him God, who claims to have appeared to the founding father of Mormons as an angel in Utah.

At the time of “American Primeval”, in the second half of the 19th century, there are already people living in the middle of Utah: Native Americans. Shoshone and Paiute, who didn't always like each other either. They have weapons, trade withwhiteSettlers and last but not leastdiscovered for themselves, which you are actually not allowed to sell to them - but hey, of course the cold dollar and personal enrichment rule the ethos here too. The settlerdom of thewhitesnot only brings with it the loss of land, but also the break in families:, abuse, murder and arguments are very close together here.

And somewhere between all the fronts, not only the US Army, but also Isaac Reed is trying to live a quiet life and not get in anyone's way. However, he saves Sara and Devin, who have involuntarily taken the native girl Two Moons into their covered wagon and are supposedly the only witnesses to a massacre who are able to escape - to the chagrin of the Nauvoo Nation, which has the will of “Wild Bill Hickman ” riddled with guns and also arrows.

In supporting roles, a group of bounty hunters and a French enclave are part of “American Primeval” – they are no strangers to violence either.

The pivotal point is the Mountains Meadows Massacre, which not only Sara, Devin and Two Moons manage to escape, but which Abish and Jacob also survive. However - and this is also a symbol of the absolute chaos of the settlement of the USA - everyone is constantly facing each other as protagonists, even though they are all fighting for the same goal: a better life, somewhere in the West.

“American Primeval” on Netflix: This is the story behind the Netflix series

Okay, did someone make this all up? Not quite. Because some of what is depicted in “American Primeval” really happened in one way or another. And there were people too. But from the beginning.

Jim Bridgerwas a trapper, mountain scout and explorer in the so-called “Wild West” of the USA. In 1841 he built Fort Bridger in what is now Wyoming in order to use this trading post to earn money from transient trekkers and pioneers who were heading west. In 1853, the Mormon militia visited Bridger because he was said to have sold alcohol and weapons to the First Nations, the indigenous population of Canada. Bridger escaped and the Mormons purchased the fort in 1855 for $8,000.

Brigham Youngwas a prophet of the Latter Day Saints Mormon Church and the first governor of Utah. He is the direct successor of church founder Joseph Smith, who founded the Church of Mormon after an angel appeared to him. From 1846 to 1847, Young organized the great Mormon exodus from Nauvoo to Salt Lake City. When the then US President James Buchanan wanted to depose him, the Utah War broke out, which also included the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Young is said to have had between 23 and 46 wives and had 57 children with 16 wives.

“Wild” Bill Hickmanwas a settler and representative from Utah. He was a Mormon, a supporter of militant Mormon militias and a bodyguard for Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. He made shady deals with Jim Bridger.

Mountains-Meadows-Massaker. In 1857, a militia of 50 to 60 Mormon men and allied Native Americans killed the Baker-Fanchy Company's wagon trek. 120 men and women were executed, only 17 children survived. The massacre actually lasted several days, and the emigrants were on their way from the Mormon stronghold of Salt Lake City to California - not to Salt Lake City.

In “American Primeval,” Mormons deliberately murder Mormons. That didn't quite happen.

“American Primeval” on Netflix: Trailer

“American Primeval” on Netflix: Who is playing?

Taylor Kitsch ("Friday Night Lights") plays the taciturn Isaac Reed, Betty Gilpin ("Glow") plays Sara, her son is portrayed by Preston Mota. Shea Whigham ("Boardwalk Empire") takes on the role of Jim Bridger, Dane DeHaan ("Zero Zero Zero") can be seen as the devout Jacob Pratt, who is constantly looking for his wife Abish, Saura Lightfoot-Leon.

Peter Berg and Mark L. Smith are behind “American Primeval”. Smith worked on the script for “The Revenant.”With, Berg has already demystified another American myth, American football, in the series “Friday Night Lights” in the 2000s.

“American Primeval”: Watch or not?

Honestly: “American Primeval” is one of the most brutal things you can currently watch in a series format. Blood sprays here, people die here, it's dirty here, there's cheating, screaming, lighting and beating. But “American Primeval” dispels the American frontier myth – and disenchants any Wild West romance. And that's why you should watch the six episodeswatch: because they show what things might have been like back then.

Last but not least, “American Primeval” is worth it because women who are otherwise in...are just annoying or decorative accessories, become the center of attention. They have to fight their way through and they do it because they use their hearts and minds. And because they are by no means the “weaker sex”, but because they have an unstoppable will to survive. Survival for others, for yourself, for a better life - somewhere in the western part of the US continent.