The West— is a documentary film about the American Old West. It was directed by Stephen Ives, the executive producer was Ken Burns and the narrator was Peter Coyote. The film originally aired on PBS in September 1996.

Stephen Ives and Ken Burns had worked together on several films, including The Civil War (1990) and Baseball (1994). In 1988, Ives created his own production company, Insignia Films, and began working on The West as director, with Burns signed on to the project as executive producer. In order to create The West, the film crew traveled over 100,000 miles (160,000 km) via airplane, conducted 72 interviews, visited 74 archives and collections, and filmed more than 250 hours of footage. The film's production was funded by General Motors.

DVD Extras

An Interview with Charlie Rose

A prebroadcast interview with the principles in the production of "The West"  This aired on the PBS Charlie Rose program a week before the shows premiere.


The Making Of "The West"

A discussion between Ken Burns (Executive Producer) and Stephen Ives (Producer / Director) on the production of "The West" and their ideals of the presentation.