Modern Westerns

[ppine]

The remake of "True Grit" is a good example of a new movie that actually is a more believable story than the original.  I thought the dialogue was much closer to the way people spoke in the late 1800s, and the landscapes looked very autstere and closer to the area around Ft Smith, Arkansas than the Utah high country where the original was filmed.  The character development was good too, but many people are offended that the work of John Wayne was messed with.
 
The old westerns had plenty of punchy cow people that could ride.  Now most actors struggle although Robert Duvall, Matt Damon, Tom Selleck a few others are pretty good.  It is distracting to see people tight rein their horses all the time with all that head throwing.
 
Anyone that has been around cow camps, pack strings and horses in general can always find a lot of things in movies that aren't believable.  Even the old ones.  One of my pet peeves is the way donkeys and especially mules are protrayed.  They are only ridden by an old sidekick in a funny hat.  In actuality they were highly valued on the Frontier where a mule was worth two horses.
 
The  Coen brothers made an unusual western that was more authentic than most of what has come out of Hollywood.  I still like to watch Gunsmoke because of the adult themes that were ahead of their time.  It deals with moral issues and allows for grey areas.  Festus was one of the great all-time characters.  Lately I have found old Rawhide reruns.  It was the only western on TV that was about cows.  There is some great riding in that show by Favor, Yates and especially Quince.  What do you think?

[SHOOTALL]

Some of the new westerns are more on the money as to facts but the old one were made to entertain not educate , maybe they came out before movies were used to brain wash people. I like westerns and often pick at the misuse of guns etc. but still enjoy them. Alot of folks don't realize that some of the tales of the west were not so far back in time when we were young . Its hard to think there were baseball games , cars etc while the west was still wild .

[ppine]

Shootall,
Most people mourned the passing of the Frontier (wild west) about1900.  The Indian Wars were over, the buffalo were gone, etc.  Cars started after that time.  Baseball was incredibly popular by the late 1800s and everyone had a team.  Hollywood has been stuck on the period after the Civil War 1865 until 1890.  It is interesting to see westerns that took place after 1900 like Joe Kidd, the Silver Fox, etc.

I like the old radio shows like the "Texas Rangers" that were modern westerns in the 1930s and 1940s.  They rode horseback a lot, but used trailers to get near the people they were chasing and had walkie-talkies.  In the later episodes they had helicopters which must have really amazed people then.  Here in Nevada we like to say that there are plenty of cowboys, you just can't see them from the road.  Cowboy is used around here mostly as a verb. ie I cowboyed on the Spanish Ranch for 5 years.

[SHOOTALL]

went cowboy on him 

[mannyrock]

 
   A realistic Western would show the rampant venerial disease, tuberculosis and rotted out teeth endemic to the times.  It would also reflect the unbelievable stench of folks who ownly bathed once a month, if that.  Let us not forget the ringworms, tape worms, hairy warts, and other common features of those folks.
 
 
  So, if they made a realistic Western, we probably wouldn't want to watch it.  And, fantasy aside, we surely wouldn't want to have lived there. (Each and every one of us would be "back on the bus" inside of 15 minutes!)
 
 
   Cowboys were simply the ditch diggers of the day. Nothing special.  And probably, nothing lower on the work or wage scale.
 
 
Mannyrock

[Duke0313]

mannyrock,
Have you ever been a cowboy? A real cowboy, not the drugstore kind, if not, you don't have any idea how "special" they are. They are a breed apart and there is no comparison to ditch diggers. I've done both and I can say that.

[shaner]

mannyrock,
Have you ever been a cowboy? A real cowboy, not the drugstore kind, if not, you don't have any idea how "special" they are. They are a breed apart and there is no comparison to ditch diggers. I've done both and I can say that.

thank you!!

[Ranger99]

you mean you don't wear your
spurs in wal-mart like a "real" cowboy?