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AMC's 'Hell on Wheels' follows blood and vice on the march west By Kate O'Hare © Zap2it From the Great Pyramids to Hoover Dam, no mas- sive, ambitious enterprise has ever come to fruition without a cost paid as much in blood and pain as in money — and the First Transcontinental Railroad is no exception. On Sunday, Nov. 6, AMC premieres "Hell on Wheels," a period drama set in the traveling den of sin and iniquity — and churches — that accompanied the westward march of the Union Pacific Railroad, starting in Nebraska in the years just after the Civil War (the series actually filmed in Alberta, Canada). Anson Mount stars as former Confederate soldier Cullen Bohannon, who's on a mission to exact revenge on the Union soldiers who murdered his wife. Also starring are Colm Meaney as Thomas "Doc" Durant, inspired by a real character, a businessman and investor who plans to make his fortune from the railroad; rapper Common as recently freed slave Elam Ferguson, seeking to find a place in the world; Dominique McElligott as Lily Bell, the recent widow of a railroad surveyor; Ben Esler and Philip Burke as the young McGinnes broth- ers; and Eddie Spears as Native American Joseph Black Moon. Conceived during the Civil War and financed with 30-year government bonds and extensive grants of government-owned land, the railroad construction be- gan in 1863 in Sacramento with the Central Pacific Railroad of California. In 1865, after the war ended, the Union Pacific Railroad began building west from Omaha, Neb. Series creators and brothers Tony and Joe Gay- ton did consider doing both stories in the series, but, says Joe Gayton, "People asked us if we were insane, if we were trying to ... ser- vice both of the stories in a one-hour pilot." One of the goals of the Transcontinental Railroad was to refocus the atten- tion of a nation divided into North and South by working to unite East and West. "It worked in certain ways," says Mount. "Cer- tainly the men working on it had been trying to kill each other a month or two months or three months be- fore, and suddenly they're hammering railroad ties together. Discover Unique Gifts, Crafts, Antiques, and Home Décor Spend the day in our shopping leisurely for crafts and gifts in our 70,000 square foot climate controlled environment. Then, take a walk down and discover Specialty Gift Shoppes with wonderful treasures such as: P. Graham, Dunn Art, Lambright Windchimes, Lang Calendars, just to name a few. Or Find and collectibles in our indoor Antique & Flea Market - also located in our Mall. B Dutch Village Borkholder Antiques, Crafts, and Gift Mall 700 N Tomahawk Tr., Nappanee, IN 574.773.2828 • www.borkholder.com Common stars in "Hell on Wheels," premiering Sunday on AMC. 2 The Goshen News • Viewer's Choice • Saturday, November 5 - Friday, November 11, 2011 "You've got every color of the rainbow working it, or at least, a lot of nationali- ties plus the freedmen. So in that sense, it's basically ... the 19th-century ver- sion of 'We're going to put a man on the moon,' and everybody said, 'OK, let's go for it.' " At the same time the railroad was being built, telegraph cables were also being strung along the route so that newspapers across the nation could keep the public abreast of the progress. "When the last nail got hammered," Mount says, "there were huge parties. It was like the millennium, all over the country." There was also a stag- gering amount of graft. "As Durant says in the pilot," says Mount, " 'There will be perfidy of epic pro- portions.' " "Some things never change," says Meaney. "Ac- tually, it was not so much the government doing this as the outside business forces using the govern- ment in very clever ways." Along with the granted rights-of-way, Meaney says, "there were guys mak- ing sure that they bought enough land on either side of the tracks as well, be- cause towns would develop there, and the land would become much more valu- able than the land 40 miles from the tracks — so it was all that sort of thing. "Those shenanigans were going on as well." For Common, his role as Elam gave him an opportu- nity to explore a sad chapter in African-American history from a fresh perspective. "I learned that the rela- tionship between blacks and whites," he says, "between every black person and ev- ery white person, isn't just the N-word; there were rela- tionships, too, that existed. "The great thing for me to be playing this character — we've seen certain black characters from this time period — but to have a character with this strength and this intelligence and leadership during this time, even being of mixed race, it's something to play." Clearing Facts about cataracts! Vision blurry or foggy? Colors dull or muted? Glasses no longer working? Decreased night vision? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you may have cataracts. Schedule your FREE cataract consultation today! 800.283.8393 www.bolingvisioncenter.com GOSHEN OFFICE 1615 Winsted Drive | Goshen IN 46526 For Mount, it was a chance to play a Western character who's not wholly good or bad. "He's a righteous man," Mount says. "He's got a sense of right and wrong that's leading him in a cer- tain direction, but he is, by definition, a serial killer. He is systematically hunting down a specific group of people and killing them one after another. That's pretty dark. "It's a complicated case. It's interesting, with AMC, there's always this complex man out at the front of the show. I don't think there is a good guy. Everybody in this show is a hero, for a differ- ent reason." DuMor Water Specialists Inc. ... Delivering Quality Products & Services Since 1952 things up ... www.wedumor.com 522-9500 family deserves! Call today for a FREE In-Home Quote! Providing the water your

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