Paul Colt's Blog, page 27
July 11, 2020
Destry Rides Again
The only thing the film Destry Rides Again has in common with Max Brand’s popular novel by the same name is just that, the name. It is a familiar story of a town, Bottleneck (?), caught under the thumb of corruption by an outlaw saloon owner Kent (Brian Donlevy) and a crooked mayor. The situation goes from bad to worse when the sheriff is murdered. The mayor appoints the town drunk sheriff, figuring he will be easy to control.
The new sheriff sobers up to take the job seriously. He deputizes the son of a legendary lawman, Tom Destry Jr. (Jimmy Stewart) to assist in cleaning up the town. An accomplished shootist, young Destry tries the non-violent approach. He catches the eye of dance hall girl Frenchie (Marlene Dietrich), who happens to be romantically involved with the outlaw saloon owner, setting up what becomes a lethal love triangle.
Destry unravels the sheriff’s murder arresting one of the gang members as the killer. The rest of the gang storms the jail to free the prisoner, killing the new sheriff in the process. Destry straps on his guns and leads the town folk in an assault on the saloon where the gang is holed up. While the gun battle rages, Destry sneaks into the saloon looking for Kent. Kent gets the advantage and takes aim at Destry. Frenchie makes her choice and steps between them taking the fatal shot meant for Destry. Destry avenges her, killing Kent.
Destry was the first of Jimmy Stewart’s western. His laid back, mild mannered character created a role he would play many times. The film rescued Dietrich’s career from a moribund period of mediocrity, though her sophisticate persona didn’t wear convincingly on dance hall girl Frenchie.
Destry Rides Again is enshrined in the Library of Congress Film Registry for its historic and cultural significance.
Next Week: Stage Coach ‘39
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Paul
The new sheriff sobers up to take the job seriously. He deputizes the son of a legendary lawman, Tom Destry Jr. (Jimmy Stewart) to assist in cleaning up the town. An accomplished shootist, young Destry tries the non-violent approach. He catches the eye of dance hall girl Frenchie (Marlene Dietrich), who happens to be romantically involved with the outlaw saloon owner, setting up what becomes a lethal love triangle.
Destry unravels the sheriff’s murder arresting one of the gang members as the killer. The rest of the gang storms the jail to free the prisoner, killing the new sheriff in the process. Destry straps on his guns and leads the town folk in an assault on the saloon where the gang is holed up. While the gun battle rages, Destry sneaks into the saloon looking for Kent. Kent gets the advantage and takes aim at Destry. Frenchie makes her choice and steps between them taking the fatal shot meant for Destry. Destry avenges her, killing Kent.
Destry was the first of Jimmy Stewart’s western. His laid back, mild mannered character created a role he would play many times. The film rescued Dietrich’s career from a moribund period of mediocrity, though her sophisticate persona didn’t wear convincingly on dance hall girl Frenchie.
Destry Rides Again is enshrined in the Library of Congress Film Registry for its historic and cultural significance.
Next Week: Stage Coach ‘39
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Ride easy,
Paul
July 4, 2020
Classic Western Movies
Finding - i n t e r e s t i n g – and original subject matter for these weekly excursions into the west is no small undertaking. We hit on the idea for this series while doing our recently concluded take on western stars of the big screen. Did the stars make the films classic; or did classic films make the stars? It’s an interesting question. After doing the research and writing the series, I have to say, you decide. I can’t. It is likely a combination of both, depending on the film and the star. What I do know is we have been treated to some great western entertainment for neigh on eighty years.
This series kicks off next week with 1939’s Destry Rides Again and rolls around to an end next year with 2017’s Hostiles – unless we get a feature-worthy western release before we’re through or I’ve overlooked a noteworthy film we tack on at the end. Pretty generally we’ll take them chronologically with a couple of small exceptions. When we hit a film like 3:10 to Yuma (’57) with a remake (2007), we’ll do them together, including Red River which has been made three times. The other exception are films that have some relationship to one another. John Ford’s cavalry trilogy comes in for that treatment along with the Dollar trilogy and a few others.
Along the way we’ll cover your all-time favorites and some favorites you may have forgotten. On this trip we’ll not only meet the stars, we’ll meet the casts whose chemistry made these films so good. Good guys who are only as good as the bad guys are bad. We’ll meet the directors and maybe a writer or two who’ve turned out legendary filmographies.
Remember the double-feature? Well kick-back and grab a tub of popcorn or a box of Junior Mints ‘cause we’ve got fifty-four features in this can.
Next Week: Destry Rides Again
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Ride easy,
Paul
This series kicks off next week with 1939’s Destry Rides Again and rolls around to an end next year with 2017’s Hostiles – unless we get a feature-worthy western release before we’re through or I’ve overlooked a noteworthy film we tack on at the end. Pretty generally we’ll take them chronologically with a couple of small exceptions. When we hit a film like 3:10 to Yuma (’57) with a remake (2007), we’ll do them together, including Red River which has been made three times. The other exception are films that have some relationship to one another. John Ford’s cavalry trilogy comes in for that treatment along with the Dollar trilogy and a few others.
Along the way we’ll cover your all-time favorites and some favorites you may have forgotten. On this trip we’ll not only meet the stars, we’ll meet the casts whose chemistry made these films so good. Good guys who are only as good as the bad guys are bad. We’ll meet the directors and maybe a writer or two who’ve turned out legendary filmographies.
Remember the double-feature? Well kick-back and grab a tub of popcorn or a box of Junior Mints ‘cause we’ve got fifty-four features in this can.
Next Week: Destry Rides Again
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Ride easy,
Paul
June 27, 2020
Medicine Cabinet Legacy
At the dawn of the twentieth century progressive reformers pressed the federal government into regulating matters of public health and safety. Powerful political forces united with the American Medical Association, scientific community and investigative journalists (remember them?). Fraudulent claims were exposed. ‘Secret’ formulas were analyzed and publicized. Patent Medicine attracted its fiercest opposition from the temperance movement owing to the systemic use and abuse of alcohol.
The battle joined around the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. The legislative battle was hard fought. Patent medicine was big business by the turn of the century with sales valued at $80 million. The industry would not go quietly, though the act eventually passed. Interestingly it did not prohibit the use of alcohol or narcotics in patent medicines; but rather required labeling the products with their ingredients, thereby exposing health risks and the actual sources of claimed relief. Patent medicine gradually fell into disfavor with an informed public who could still read- at least those who hadn’t been blinded by their meds.
While the wild-west days of the patent medicine show would come to an end, some of the products with genuine therapeutic value survived. Check you medicine cabinet. Chances are you’ll find some of these familiar names. Anacin, Bayer Asprin, Geritol, Bromo-Seltzer, Doan’s Pills, Fletcher’s Castoria, Dr. Carter’s Little Liver Pills. They’re all survivors of the patent medicine legacy handed down to us today; because they delivered as promised. We managed to make good choices even before we had the Food & Drug Administration to protect us from ourselves. Imagine that.
Next Week: Classic Western Films
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Ride easy,
Paul
The battle joined around the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. The legislative battle was hard fought. Patent medicine was big business by the turn of the century with sales valued at $80 million. The industry would not go quietly, though the act eventually passed. Interestingly it did not prohibit the use of alcohol or narcotics in patent medicines; but rather required labeling the products with their ingredients, thereby exposing health risks and the actual sources of claimed relief. Patent medicine gradually fell into disfavor with an informed public who could still read- at least those who hadn’t been blinded by their meds.
While the wild-west days of the patent medicine show would come to an end, some of the products with genuine therapeutic value survived. Check you medicine cabinet. Chances are you’ll find some of these familiar names. Anacin, Bayer Asprin, Geritol, Bromo-Seltzer, Doan’s Pills, Fletcher’s Castoria, Dr. Carter’s Little Liver Pills. They’re all survivors of the patent medicine legacy handed down to us today; because they delivered as promised. We managed to make good choices even before we had the Food & Drug Administration to protect us from ourselves. Imagine that.
Next Week: Classic Western Films
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Ride easy,
Paul
June 20, 2020
What's in this Stuff?
The patent medicine story is the story of an industry. A big industry that made a lot of hucksters a lot of money on pure flimflam, much of it highly flammable. Take Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup for example. Got a fussy teething baby? A little Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup taken as directed is your answer. That ‘directed’ part is important, at the rate of 65grams of morphine to the ounce. More than a few babies got so soothed, they never fussed again.
How about Dr. Collis Browne’s Chlorodyne? Good for all manner of complaints from coughs and colds to asthma and probably Covid-19 if Dr. Fauci approved. What is Chlorodyne? Laudanum (alcohol infused opium), cannabis tincture and chloroform. Imitators substituted morphine for the laudanum. Feeling run down? Parker’s Tonic should pick you up at 41.6% 83 proof alcohol.
The money was good though. Lydia Pinkham had a brew for female complaints of the cycle. She raked in $300,000 a month in the 1880’s on a mixture of sugar water laced with 18% alcohol. Dr. Kilmer and his brother amassed an estate valued at $10 -15 million on miracle cures for imagined conditions. Dudley J. LeBlanc, State Senator (D) Louisiana, made his fortune curing cancer, epilepsy and serious diseases with Hadacol, a mixture of multivitamins, 12% alcohol and diluted hydrochloric acid. The latter opened the arteries, allowing the booze to work faster.
Patent medicines provided passports to all manner of intoxication in pursuit of curative promises. Take Tilden’s Extract for gout or rheumatism and buzz off on a potent cannabis extract. Join Queen Victoria and Thomas Edison, not to mention a couple of popes in a glass of Vin Mariani as a before bedtime nightcap. Bordeaux wine infused with cocaine should do the trick. Palmerton’s version, French Wine Coca, would one day morph into Coca Cola.
For those poor unfortunates who found themselves addicted to one medicinal narcotic or another, you could kick your habit with Habitina. Addicts were told to replace their addictive drug with sufficient doses of Habitina to “Support the system”. The remedy cost $2.00 a bottle and best of all, it worked. With 16 grains of morphine and 8 grains of heroin per ounce, it should. The only side effect, Habitina addiction.
Next Week: Medicine Cabinet Legacy
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Ride easy,
Paul
How about Dr. Collis Browne’s Chlorodyne? Good for all manner of complaints from coughs and colds to asthma and probably Covid-19 if Dr. Fauci approved. What is Chlorodyne? Laudanum (alcohol infused opium), cannabis tincture and chloroform. Imitators substituted morphine for the laudanum. Feeling run down? Parker’s Tonic should pick you up at 41.6% 83 proof alcohol.
The money was good though. Lydia Pinkham had a brew for female complaints of the cycle. She raked in $300,000 a month in the 1880’s on a mixture of sugar water laced with 18% alcohol. Dr. Kilmer and his brother amassed an estate valued at $10 -15 million on miracle cures for imagined conditions. Dudley J. LeBlanc, State Senator (D) Louisiana, made his fortune curing cancer, epilepsy and serious diseases with Hadacol, a mixture of multivitamins, 12% alcohol and diluted hydrochloric acid. The latter opened the arteries, allowing the booze to work faster.
Patent medicines provided passports to all manner of intoxication in pursuit of curative promises. Take Tilden’s Extract for gout or rheumatism and buzz off on a potent cannabis extract. Join Queen Victoria and Thomas Edison, not to mention a couple of popes in a glass of Vin Mariani as a before bedtime nightcap. Bordeaux wine infused with cocaine should do the trick. Palmerton’s version, French Wine Coca, would one day morph into Coca Cola.
For those poor unfortunates who found themselves addicted to one medicinal narcotic or another, you could kick your habit with Habitina. Addicts were told to replace their addictive drug with sufficient doses of Habitina to “Support the system”. The remedy cost $2.00 a bottle and best of all, it worked. With 16 grains of morphine and 8 grains of heroin per ounce, it should. The only side effect, Habitina addiction.
Next Week: Medicine Cabinet Legacy
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Ride easy,
Paul
June 13, 2020
Medicine Shows
Medicine shows were like vaudeville troops traveling in brightly colored wagons. A show would hit town and set up shop, sometimes in a theater or a hall, but most often right there on the street. Each show was emceed by a ‘Doctor’ or ‘Professor’ who doubled as pitchman for tonics, elixirs and remedies for just about whatever ails a body. The doctor or professor persona brought an aura of medical or scientific credibility to the medicinal products offered. Remember the kindly professor with the colorful painted wagon that landed in OZ with Dorothy? He became a wizard in her delirium. Was it type-casting or medicinally induced?
The shows presented acts, often with circus quality entertainment to draw crowds. Muscleman acts were common, demonstrating fetes of strength that could be used to hawk some tonic to vitality. Native American acts or performances by mystic practitioners of some exotic art were also used to give an aura of ancient herbal secrecy to miracle ingredients. Between acts the doctor/professor pitched tonics and elixirs to the gathered crowd. Shills were commonly employed. A shill might step forward to volunteer his or her experience with some amazing medication, responsible for the cure of all manner of ailments and maladies. In other cases, a shill in the crowd might succumb to some obvious distress, such as a convulsion which could be immediately relieved by administration of the offered wonder cure.
The shows ranged in scale from small mom and pop troops bottling tonic in their wagons between shows, to large scale corporate affairs. The Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company of New Haven Connecticut makes a striking example of the latter. Founded by John E. “Doc” Healy and Charles “Texas Charlie” Bigelow the firm manufactured ‘Kickapoo Indian’ remedies in a factory. Kickapoo remedies were sold across the country by as many as twenty-five traveling shows. These shows featured jugglers, acrobats, fire eaters, dancers and more.
Next Week: What’s In This Stuff? You do not want to miss this one.
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Ride easy,
Paul
The shows presented acts, often with circus quality entertainment to draw crowds. Muscleman acts were common, demonstrating fetes of strength that could be used to hawk some tonic to vitality. Native American acts or performances by mystic practitioners of some exotic art were also used to give an aura of ancient herbal secrecy to miracle ingredients. Between acts the doctor/professor pitched tonics and elixirs to the gathered crowd. Shills were commonly employed. A shill might step forward to volunteer his or her experience with some amazing medication, responsible for the cure of all manner of ailments and maladies. In other cases, a shill in the crowd might succumb to some obvious distress, such as a convulsion which could be immediately relieved by administration of the offered wonder cure.
The shows ranged in scale from small mom and pop troops bottling tonic in their wagons between shows, to large scale corporate affairs. The Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company of New Haven Connecticut makes a striking example of the latter. Founded by John E. “Doc” Healy and Charles “Texas Charlie” Bigelow the firm manufactured ‘Kickapoo Indian’ remedies in a factory. Kickapoo remedies were sold across the country by as many as twenty-five traveling shows. These shows featured jugglers, acrobats, fire eaters, dancers and more.
Next Week: What’s In This Stuff? You do not want to miss this one.
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Ride easy,
Paul
June 6, 2020
Patent Medicine
It is little wonder entrepreneurs found opportunity in the nineteenth century medicinal void and stepped in, giving birth to the patent medicine industry. It’s quite a story. We might begin by asking, what is patent medicine? It was not medication for which a patent had been granted in the conventional sense of patents as we know them today. Patent medicines had their roots among the crowned heads of Europe. The original patent medicines were manufactured and marketed under ‘patent’ rights granted as a favor to those who provided medical services to royalty. By the nineteenth century these medicinal tonics and elixirs found their way to markets in the United States. Businessmen and women saw opportunity.
Patents and their recipes could be sold or licensed for manufacture; and thus, our own patent medicine industry was born. In those days, before we had a Food & Drug Administration or a Federal Trade Commission to regulate such things, ‘wonder-cures’ could contain anything people could be persuaded to swallow as treatment for anything the purveyor might claim. Therein lies a recipe for all manner of marketing genius otherwise known as chicanery.
By the nineteenth century, thanks to the establishment and acceptance of public education, most folks could read. Newspapers were popular, giving birth to yet another new industry, advertising. Advertising patent medicine produced stunning claims. If you suffered from dyspepsia, indigestion, constipation, piles or any disorder of the liver, bowels or kidneys- no problem. All you needed was your daily dose of Dr. E. Rowell’s Invigorating Tonic and Family Medicine! As often as not one problem stemmed from the fact ‘Dr.’ E. Rowell wasn’t an MD. Next came the ‘Don’t-take-our-word-for-it’ testimonial. These featured some ordinary, ‘Just-like-you-and-me’ person who’d experienced some miraculous cure attributed to Rowell’s tonic. Why are we still looking for a cancer cure? Hadacol took care of that 130 years ago!
Advertising led to branding. Drug companies glommed onto the notion labels were worth money. People bought brand perception. Formulas and recipes not so much.
Next Week: Medicine Shows
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Ride easy,
Paul
Patents and their recipes could be sold or licensed for manufacture; and thus, our own patent medicine industry was born. In those days, before we had a Food & Drug Administration or a Federal Trade Commission to regulate such things, ‘wonder-cures’ could contain anything people could be persuaded to swallow as treatment for anything the purveyor might claim. Therein lies a recipe for all manner of marketing genius otherwise known as chicanery.
By the nineteenth century, thanks to the establishment and acceptance of public education, most folks could read. Newspapers were popular, giving birth to yet another new industry, advertising. Advertising patent medicine produced stunning claims. If you suffered from dyspepsia, indigestion, constipation, piles or any disorder of the liver, bowels or kidneys- no problem. All you needed was your daily dose of Dr. E. Rowell’s Invigorating Tonic and Family Medicine! As often as not one problem stemmed from the fact ‘Dr.’ E. Rowell wasn’t an MD. Next came the ‘Don’t-take-our-word-for-it’ testimonial. These featured some ordinary, ‘Just-like-you-and-me’ person who’d experienced some miraculous cure attributed to Rowell’s tonic. Why are we still looking for a cancer cure? Hadacol took care of that 130 years ago!
Advertising led to branding. Drug companies glommed onto the notion labels were worth money. People bought brand perception. Formulas and recipes not so much.
Next Week: Medicine Shows
Return to Facebook to comment
Ride easy,
Paul
May 30, 2020
Gene Hackman
Gene Hackman is one of those western stars who had a masterful performance defining role in a film, not necessarily western. Kurt Russell had Herb Brooks in Miracle on Ice. Kevin Costner’s Lieutenant John Dunbar in Dances with Wolves. For Gene Hackman it was Norman Dale in Hoosiers. That said Gene Hackman had a distinguished western filmography, starting with Bite the Bullet in 1975.
Hackman’s career plan included avoiding violent roles. In 1992, Clint Eastwood talked him over that line to play the vicious sheriff “Little Bill” Daggett in Unforgiven. Good he did. Unforgiven won the Oscar for Best Picture, netting Hackman the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Whatever Eastwood said to get him over his violence aversion must have stuck. In 1998 he played outlaw baron and gunslinger John Herod opposite Sharon Stone in The Quick and the Dead. That one stacked up bodies like cord wood. So much for non-violent content.
In addition to his acting career Hackman became a novelist. Hackman’s writing credits include Payback at Morning Peak and Escape from Andersonville along with a couple of thriller titles. I guess if you are a successful actor you can afford to be a writer. I digress.
Hackman’s early career has an interesting facet. After an unsuccessful attempt to break into Hollywood he went to New York for a time. There he encountered two other struggling west coast actors. Dustin Hoffman and Robert Duval became lifelong friends. The trio lived as roommates during their New York years at various times and combinations.
Next Week: Suffering pandemic hangover? Let’s have some fun with a Patent Medicine reprise.
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Ride easy,
Paul
Hackman’s career plan included avoiding violent roles. In 1992, Clint Eastwood talked him over that line to play the vicious sheriff “Little Bill” Daggett in Unforgiven. Good he did. Unforgiven won the Oscar for Best Picture, netting Hackman the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Whatever Eastwood said to get him over his violence aversion must have stuck. In 1998 he played outlaw baron and gunslinger John Herod opposite Sharon Stone in The Quick and the Dead. That one stacked up bodies like cord wood. So much for non-violent content.
In addition to his acting career Hackman became a novelist. Hackman’s writing credits include Payback at Morning Peak and Escape from Andersonville along with a couple of thriller titles. I guess if you are a successful actor you can afford to be a writer. I digress.
Hackman’s early career has an interesting facet. After an unsuccessful attempt to break into Hollywood he went to New York for a time. There he encountered two other struggling west coast actors. Dustin Hoffman and Robert Duval became lifelong friends. The trio lived as roommates during their New York years at various times and combinations.
Next Week: Suffering pandemic hangover? Let’s have some fun with a Patent Medicine reprise.
Return to Facebook to comment
Ride easy,
Paul
May 26, 2020
Kevin Costner
Kevin Costner’s western film credits start with Dances with Wolves (90), a solid entry on anybody’s list of all-time great western films, including mine. Costner starred and directed. The film netted 12 Academy Award nominations, winning seven total with Costner personally picking up Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. It is one of those films you can watch time and again and be enthralled by the elegant simplicity of the story and blown away by the cinematography.
Costner’s next trip west came as Wyatt Earp (94). As I said in our profile of Kurt Russell, Costner’s portrayal of Wyatt had an authenticity to place it squarely in the conversation for Best Wyatt Ever. It comes on the heels of his performance in Dances with Wolves to level his body of work in the discussion with Russell’s Miracle on Ice. As I said a few weeks ago, Best Wyatt Ever for me, too close to call, though based on reader comments to the Russell post, we may have to give him the nod.
Open Range pairs Costner and Robert Duvall in a fine western picture perfectly suited to the theme of keeping the western genre alive in a well-made film. Costner cast Duvall in the title role. He reportedly said that if Duvall had not accepted the part, he probably wouldn’t have made the movie. Fortunately for western film fans, Duvall never hesitated.
Costner’s western outings on the small screen begin with the legendary Hatfield & McCoy feud (2012). Ok so West Virginia and Kentucky are east of the Mississippi. Tune into the action and the show rides and shoots like a western. Forget the zip codes. Enjoy the feud. More recently, his contemporary western, Yellowstone (2018), reflects the fact westerns today are more than stories set in the nineteenth century. Kevin Costner understands the genre. He understands what is happening in western literature and takes advantage of the rich diversity in film.
Next Week: Gene Hackman
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Ride easy,
Paul
Costner’s next trip west came as Wyatt Earp (94). As I said in our profile of Kurt Russell, Costner’s portrayal of Wyatt had an authenticity to place it squarely in the conversation for Best Wyatt Ever. It comes on the heels of his performance in Dances with Wolves to level his body of work in the discussion with Russell’s Miracle on Ice. As I said a few weeks ago, Best Wyatt Ever for me, too close to call, though based on reader comments to the Russell post, we may have to give him the nod.
Open Range pairs Costner and Robert Duvall in a fine western picture perfectly suited to the theme of keeping the western genre alive in a well-made film. Costner cast Duvall in the title role. He reportedly said that if Duvall had not accepted the part, he probably wouldn’t have made the movie. Fortunately for western film fans, Duvall never hesitated.
Costner’s western outings on the small screen begin with the legendary Hatfield & McCoy feud (2012). Ok so West Virginia and Kentucky are east of the Mississippi. Tune into the action and the show rides and shoots like a western. Forget the zip codes. Enjoy the feud. More recently, his contemporary western, Yellowstone (2018), reflects the fact westerns today are more than stories set in the nineteenth century. Kevin Costner understands the genre. He understands what is happening in western literature and takes advantage of the rich diversity in film.
Next Week: Gene Hackman
Return to Facebook to comment
Ride easy,
Paul
May 22, 2020
Memorial
My book, Boots and Saddles: A Call to Glory is dedicated to Dick Jackson’s memory. With the help of readers of these pages, we were able to locate Dick’s sister and mother over the Memorial Day weekend a few years ago and send them a book, dedicated to the hero we lost.
Dedication
For Jack
For duty, honor and sacrifice for another. For the letter in the mailbox the day we laid you to rest. The canceled “stamp,” written in your hand reads, “Free.” I have it. I’ll not forget. For you and all those whose names are etched on that black marble wall; and for all those who have or will defend our freedom; your courage and sacrifice preserve us. We remember. We owe you no less.
In Memory:
Sgt. Richard T. Jackson
And who better to celebrate Memorial Day than the late great Kate Smith. God Bless America.
Kate Smith introduces God Bless America - YouTub
Image attribution: Share Alike 4.0 International
Dedication
For Jack
For duty, honor and sacrifice for another. For the letter in the mailbox the day we laid you to rest. The canceled “stamp,” written in your hand reads, “Free.” I have it. I’ll not forget. For you and all those whose names are etched on that black marble wall; and for all those who have or will defend our freedom; your courage and sacrifice preserve us. We remember. We owe you no less.
In Memory:
Sgt. Richard T. Jackson
And who better to celebrate Memorial Day than the late great Kate Smith. God Bless America.
Kate Smith introduces God Bless America - YouTub
Image attribution: Share Alike 4.0 International
May 9, 2020
Kevin Costner
Kevin Costner’s western film credits start with Dances with Wolves (90), a solid entry on anybody’s list of all-time great western films, including mine. Costner starred and directed. The film netted 12 Academy Award nominations, winning seven total with Costner personally picking up Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. It is one of those films you can watch time and again and be enthralled by the elegant simplicity of the story and blown away by the cinematography.
Costner’s next trip west came as Wyatt Earp (94). As I said in our profile of Kurt Russell, Costner’s portrayal of Wyatt had an authenticity to place it squarely in the conversation for Best Wyatt Ever. It comes on the heels of his performance in Dances with Wolves to level his body of work in the discussion with Russell’s Miracle on Ice. As I said a few weeks ago, Best Wyatt Ever for me, too close to call.
Open Range pairs Costner and Robert Duvall in a fine western picture perfectly suited to the theme of keeping the western genre alive in a well-made film. Costner cast Duvall in the title role. He reportedly said that if Duvall had not accepted the part, he probably wouldn’t have made the movie. Fortunately for western film fans, Duvall never hesitated.
Costner’s western outings on the small screen begin with the legendary Hatfield & McCoy feud (2012). Ok so West Virginia and Kentucky are east of the Mississippi, tune into the action and the show rides and shoots like a western. Forget the zip codes. Enjoy the feud. More recently, his contemporary western, Yellowstone (2018), reflects the fact westerns today are more than stories set in the nineteenth century. Kevin Costner understands the genre. He understands what is happening in western literature and takes advantage of the rich diversity in film.
Next Week: Gene Hackman
Return to Facebook to comment
Ride easy,
Paul
Costner’s next trip west came as Wyatt Earp (94). As I said in our profile of Kurt Russell, Costner’s portrayal of Wyatt had an authenticity to place it squarely in the conversation for Best Wyatt Ever. It comes on the heels of his performance in Dances with Wolves to level his body of work in the discussion with Russell’s Miracle on Ice. As I said a few weeks ago, Best Wyatt Ever for me, too close to call.
Open Range pairs Costner and Robert Duvall in a fine western picture perfectly suited to the theme of keeping the western genre alive in a well-made film. Costner cast Duvall in the title role. He reportedly said that if Duvall had not accepted the part, he probably wouldn’t have made the movie. Fortunately for western film fans, Duvall never hesitated.
Costner’s western outings on the small screen begin with the legendary Hatfield & McCoy feud (2012). Ok so West Virginia and Kentucky are east of the Mississippi, tune into the action and the show rides and shoots like a western. Forget the zip codes. Enjoy the feud. More recently, his contemporary western, Yellowstone (2018), reflects the fact westerns today are more than stories set in the nineteenth century. Kevin Costner understands the genre. He understands what is happening in western literature and takes advantage of the rich diversity in film.
Next Week: Gene Hackman
Return to Facebook to comment
Ride easy,
Paul
