Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

Develiker terrible... so disappointed.

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

classicsoncall One thing is certain - "The Dakotas" had the coolest sounding episode titles of any TV Western series ever. Like 'Red Sky Over Bismarck' and 'Requiem at Dancer's Hill'. Or how about 'Walk Through the Badlands'? They all conjure up these terrific images of heroes and villains in the Western landscape of the late 1800's. The great thing is, the series had some terrific stories to back up the titles. Part of that greatness I think is that they didn't rely on a lot of the standard formula. Sure there were showdowns and gunfights, but a lot of the tension came from how conflicted the principal characters were often portrayed. Take for example 'Crisis at High Banjo' - Marshal Ragan (Larry Ward) struggles to balance the scale of justice versus revenge when he discovers the identity of the man behind the murder of his newlywed wife five years earlier. Then there's the remorseful deputy Del Stark (Chad Everett), questioning his very existence in the stunning episode, 'Sanctuary at Crystal Springs'. Both are among the best stories of the series.Of course, deputy J.D. Smith (Jack Elam) was pretty much conflicted in every episode. It wasn't unusual to see him question Ragan's authority from time to time, and his renegade past often came back to haunt him. As in 'Reformation at Big Nose Butte', when his old gang leader (Telly Savalas) is released from jail and summons his former comrades to join him. That one also featured DeForest Kelley as another gang member, before he joined the crew of Star Trek.Though Larry Ward was top billed, I'd have to agree with most posters on this board who feel that the series got it's energy from Elam. By this time in his career, that lazy eye of his gave him the perfect 'bad guy' look to offset the 'good guy' image he was meant to portray. Oddly, his name was the third one down in the credits, behind Chad Everett, who supplied the beefcake factor in a number of stories, most notably in 'Mutiny at Fort Mercy' where he spends most of his time bare chested and staked to a whipping post. The fourth member of the cast, Michael Greene, had largely a throwaway role as Deputy Vance Porter, but he got to use his size and strength to good advantage a few times. However in those episodes he didn't appear, sad to say, I don't think he was much missed.Though short lived for only a few months during the 1963 NBC season, the series managed to secure a few prominent guest stars. I guess they seem more prominent today at least, since back then, they probably didn't make much of a dent in the recognition department. Savalas and Kelley were two mentioned earlier, but you also had Dennis Hopper (Requiem at Dancer's Hill), Claude Akins (The Chooser of the Slain) and the great Lee Van Cleef (Thunder in Pleasant Valley). Additionally, you had your reliable bunch of character actors as well who saw action, folks like Royal Dano, Richard Jaeckel, Strother Martin and Beverly Garland. Part of the fun for me in these old time series is just waiting to see who shows up.A number of reviewers here make mention of the 'The Dakotas" getting it's start as an episode of "Cheyenne". Specifically, 'A Man Called Ragan' was the season six finale of that series. What's interesting to me is that Clint Walker doesn't appear in that one - how about that!As a huge fan of the Western genre, I find it hard to pick a favorite among all the great Western Series that have come down the pike, but for it's brief run, "The Dakotas" would have to rank highly. Overall, maybe not as strong as the first season of "Rawhide", but better I think than most of the half hour series of the era. That owes to it's heroic but flawed characters, and stories that put you in the middle of the action where you had to pick who's side you were on, as many times, Marshal Ragan and his men found themselves facing tough questions without easy answers.

wildbillharding Well said, patmyhill. I agree with all your points. Jack Elam was simply one of the best western actors of all time. It's so sad that public reaction to the Sanctuary at Crystal Springs episode shot such a fine series dead in the dust. The Dakotas makes other TV oaters like Gunsmoke and Bonanza look like soap operas. The episodes I've seen take me right back to '63. It's the only time I ever remember people on the bus talking in hushed tones about the episode shown the previous evening. As I recall, the blokes were delighted and a little shocked at the shootout, but I can't remember which episode they were discussing.Does anyone know if the twentieth episode, Black Gold, is available on DVD or videotape? What a treat it would be to catch this missing segment. If only it had gone on to become the long-running series it deserved to be. Long live JD Smith!

patmyhill Well what does one say, others have said it all! Like the other contributors I saw The Dakotas in my mid teens, thought it was the best western to date, and, of course it was the great Jack Elam that made the show! J D Smith could have been a good feature film story. Oh if only Peckinpah had used Jack Elam more (in Pat Garrett & ...) and earlier - imagine Jack partnering Warren Oates, especially in The Wild Bunch as the Gorch brothers.But to details. Now, in Oct 2007 I have realised an old ambition and got hold of all 20 episodes that were shown. Look on ebay if you want them.A little research shows there is a fair bit of misinformation around, but Wikipedia is a good start, together with this site and Classic TV Archive.21 episodes were made in all, the last, number 20, Black Gold was not transmitted in the US. The first, number 0, A Man Called Ragan was first shown in the US in 1962 as part of Cheyenne.But what about the UK? I'm sure it was on Sat night, 8 or 9pm and that the series started with number 0, possibly retitled as The Dakotas. So all the web info appears to relate to the US. I recall complaints in the UK about the violence, but was the series terminated early in the UK as well? Or was it all shown. what happened in the UK, was it bought, leased/rented/syndicated or is there a copy, maybe of the full set lying in a vault somewhere? 16mm versions of some episodes are available on US ebay, suggesting that is how Warners distributed it. So is there a Warner Bros archive? So you guys in the UK try and remember when you saw it, it might be traceable. You guys in the US, what about it? These 16mm versions came from somewhere. The thought of a full set of high quality print DVDs is tantalising.This series is probably the greatest memorial and testament to one of the west's finest character actors, so for Jack's sake...........

captaindallas28 As an adolescent when this show debuted, I immediately fell in love with the character J.D. Smith, so adeptly played by Jack Elam. In the pilot ("A Man Called Ragan"), he was a gunfighter called in by Del Stark's stepfather to kill Frank Ragan, the Federal Marshal. Realizing that Ragan might have more to offer him than his boss, he decides to join the marshal's team (including young Del Stark and town constable Vance Porter) and begin bringing justice to the Dakota Territory. J.D. Smith is somewhat uneasy in his new role as a deputy, using wry humor as a means to temper his natural tendency to dispense his own brand of 'justice' to those who cross him or otherwise bully the downtrodden. Having seen some of the episodes recently, the stories are good, albeit some a bit preachy, but Jack Elam is absolutely delightful to watch. This character "made" the show and was clearly the forerunner to The Man With No Name and Dirty Harry, and nobody could have done it better than Jack Elam!