Westerns

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Son of Butch

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One thing that many Western movies often get wrong is casting.
The pioneers were vibrant young men and women in their 20s and a grizzled 'old' veteran would be maybe in their late 30s.
ie General George Armstrong Custer was 36 yrs old when he died.
Davy Crockett veteran frontiersman, soldier, statesman/politician, 49.
Jesse James 34.
Johnny Ringo 32
Jim Bowie 39
Morgan Earp 30
Lt Colonel Wm "Buck" Travis age 26 when he died at the Alamo

Maybe directors/producers think actors in their 20s look too much like kids to be believable, but it would be more accurate than casting middle aged actors.
 
I've always thought characters in westerns were too clean cut. Only the bad guys looked scruffy and dirty, apparently.
 
Either way, can't pass up a western . Don't have a lot of time but when I do......

When my wife asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I replied with "sipping whiskey and the duke"

Was a perfect afternoon.....
 
I always get a kick out of the scenes where they go thundering past a corral and there is a loading chute. That and they are always going every where at a gallop. Horses must not last very long. There are other things but I still watch them when I can. One just has to remember it is Hollywood which is a long ways from reality.
 
One thing I wonder about is where was all the whiskey coming from? Everyone is always drinking whiskey in the bars, seldom is anyone eating. The bad guys get shot and they die instantly, the good guys get shot, they get wounded . I also think about how limited their variety of food must have been Been watching some old Tales of Wells Fargo on the Grit channel. One thing for sure, if you are looking for trouble, you found it with Jim Hardee.;)
 
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Movie magic is making reality disappear and replacing it with what we are convinced is reality.

Got talked into being an extra on a mini series awhile back. It is fascinating to see what is filmed vs. what you see.
 
I Like the repeating lever action that Chuck Conners used in The Rifleman..

He was so quick he never had to touch the trigger. LOL
 
I just read about Yakima Canutt one of the things it talked about how John Wayne and him worked out camera angle for fight scenes that made it look like you were really punching the other guy.
 
Why did all of the Indians when charging or retreating with a lot of whooping and hollering. I watch a lot of Grit old westerns. Audie Murphy raised just a stone throw or so from where my wife grew up.
 
It's pretty amazing watching the stuntmen getting shot and falling off their horses in a run, sometimes falling backwards.
 
I'm amazed at how diverse the climate and terrain is in Gunsmoke. Sometimes farm land, sometimes a desert.
 
Wait are you telling me that you couldn't tell the good guys from the bad by how clean-cut they were and the color of their hat??

I Like the repeating lever action that Chuck Conners used in The Rifleman..

He was so quick he never had to touch the trigger. LOL
I was watching the Rifleman yesterday, storyline about an outlaw hired for security at the bank. Outlaw gets involved in plot to rob bank, kills his partners to make off with the money himself. My brother says "they should've known better than to hire him, he was wearing all black!" The only person he can't hit is Lucas McCain. Ol' Lucas can dodge bullets!
 
I just read about Yakima Canutt one of the things it talked about how John Wayne and him worked out camera angle for fight scenes that made it look like you were really punching the other guy.
In the 40s and early 50s, some of the actors didn't pull any punches. Joan Crawford was (in)famous for her slaps being real, especially noticeable in a movie called Queen Bee and as well in Mildred Pierce. Ann Blythe let Crawford have it near the end of the movie and J. Crawford had told here before the scene to make it real and really 'let her have it".
She did.



 
I was watching the Rifleman yesterday, storyline about an outlaw hired for security at the bank. Outlaw gets involved in plot to rob bank, kills his partners to make off with the money himself. My brother says "they should've known better than to hire him, he was wearing all black!" The only person he can't hit is Lucas McCain. Ol' Lucas can dodge bullets!
Reminds me of when I was starring in "Never Too Late" at U-Mary. I was supposed to be in a drunken hurry to pull on my overcoat and in the process accidentally punch the actor playing my son-in-law (big, strapping ranch kid out of Western South Dakota). On the second night, however, I really connected, raising a serious welt on the kid's left cheekbone. Oh man ... I felt so bad. I should look him up and apologize again!
 

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