In 'Hatfields & McCoys,' Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton bring America's most famous feud to TV

History Channel miniseries looks to tell the true, tragic story behind the post-Civil War family antagonism

“This successful life we’re livin’

Got us feudin’ like the Hatfields and McCoys ... ”

— Waylon Jennings, “Luckenbach, Texas”



Like almost everyone else in America, Kevin Costner grew up hearing stories about the 19th-century feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys, clans along the West Virginia-Kentucky border.

And with about the same degree of accuracy.

“When I was a kid, I envisioned it the way most people probably do,” says Costner. “A bunch of guys with funny hats shooting at each other from point-blank range — and missing.”

So now, a few years later, Costner is taking the opportunity to set the record a little straighter with “Hatfields & McCoys,” a dark new miniseries airing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 9 p.m. on History.

Costner is a co-producer and also stars as “Devil Anse” Hatfield, one of the two patriarchs under whose watch the feud started.

Bill Paxton, most recently known as the star of HBO’s “Big Love,” plays Randall McCoy, Devil Anse’s one-time close friend and later blood enemy.

It’s a scripted drama rather than a documentary, though Costner says, “We tried to be as accurate as we could. You have to fill in some details, because these were not people who were inclined to write a lot of things down.”

The real-life Hatfield-McCoy feud started Jan. 7, 1865, with the murder of Asa Harmon McCoy, a disabled veteran who had fought for the Union in the Civil War.

The Hatfields, who fought for the South, were widely believed responsible, though no one was ever convicted.

Since Devil Anse had an alibi, the consensus held that the killer was Jim Vance (played here by Tom Berenger), Devil Anse’s uncle and a fanatic with a penchant for serious violence.

Thirteen years then passed before Randall McCoy claimed Floyd Hatfield had rustled one of his hogs, which suggested among other things that folks had long memories along the Tug River.

The serious violence began in 1882 and continued for six years, leaving 12 people dead. The legal entanglements reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which issued a ruling on jurisdiction, and the final trial stemming from the case didn’t conclude until 1901, by which time things had cooled down.

In 1979, descendants of the Hatfields and the McCoys met on the game show “Family Feud,” playing for a prize and a pig. It ended in a tie.

But there’s little sense of good, clean fun in “Hatfields & McCoys,” and while Costner notes that there is some humor along the way, the core is brutal. The feud destroys dozens of lives simply as collateral damage.