I watched the movie shooter on DVD last night. Two things that jumps out at me. First is the sound track doesn’t match what the actors are saying and second, why should a movie director have a US Marine agreeing to assist in shooting the President of the United States? Here you got a Marine that assists with the reality that he is the bad guy and then becomes the hero?

What is it with the filmmakers of today, 3:10 to Yuma and Shooter?

GIVE ME A BREAK!

Stupidity at it’s finest!

What happened to the quality of the movies like True Grit and Quigley Down Under?

I’m glad I didn’t pay for the DVD

Normally I really enjoy these blogs but for some reason while I was reading this one I couldn't help picturing DEP standing in the office of one of the "Ffloggers" (or whatever they're called) while the guy hands him 20 bucks and says, "That was about the salmon run and still not one comment." DEP, laughing, says, "Double or nothing I can even do a movie review and get over 30."

If Unforgiven was accurate, I'm glad I didn't live there. I mean, all the women in the west where whores and there were no good guys. I'll pass on Unforgiven being "accurate".

Bobby said: “… all the women in the west where whores and there were no good guys.”

Your attempt to overstate actually isn’t too far from the truth.

Young, unmarried women had few employment opportunities in the old west. Prostitution was legal and didn’t require an advanced degree so is often became a gravity issue, especially considering there were 3-4 times as many men as women. But they seldom looked like Miss Kitty and just as often died relatively young and destitute.

As for having no good guys, lawmen became outlaws and outlaws became lawmen on a somewhat revolving-door basis. Lynchings, racism, vigilante groups, pissed of Indians, cattle vs. sheep, rampant corruptions, ineffective government, frontier justice, greed, public executions, poor personal hygiene. And that was on a good day.

If you want a taste of reality read Mark Twain's "Roughing It". It is a wonderful narrative about life in a silver mining town in Nevada in the 1870's. He was there. People were basically shot in the street in broad daylight with no more worries than having to kill the relatives and friends too. Every woman over fifteen that was not married was a prostitute. Well, actually due to the feminine shortage many were both married and prostitutes. It tells of men paying fifty dollars just to touch the blond hair of little girls that were passing through. As far as Hollyweird, the whole movie industry is so far out of touch with reality it is amazing they haven't all become Scientologists, built a spaceship and colonized Mars. My first inkling of this was when I noticed revolvers that could fire thirty rounds without reloading... that and the screeching tire noise on dirt roads. Anyhow, thanks for the heads up on "3:10 to Yuma". If it's anything close to "Unforgiven", "Saving Private Ryan", or "Quigley Down Under" it will be one I buy.
Better yet read everything Mark Twain ever wrote. I have and used to blog under the alias Sammy Langhorne. Dr. Ralph wrote an even more interesting book in the 1700's...

thanks for the heads up on the new 3:10 To Yuma. I'm really not to crazy about today's westerns. Mostly for the reasons you mentioned in your review. However, I"ll I think I'll go see it. Crowe has made mosatly good movies and two or three really good ones. The original 3;10 TO yuma was several cuts above the westerns made back in the 50s I've allways thought Glen Ford was a great actor and Van Heflin under rated as an actor. Even with today's modern day hollywood " realism" and blood and gore it will have to go a long way to top the first one.

Dave:

Thanks for "The War of Northern Aggression."

I'll even overlook your misspelling...

I thought 'Tombstone' was pretty good. I'm not sure about the accuracy, but it was damn entertaining. Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday was priceless!

All of the movies mentioned definately rate a view as do several of those other westerns starring Tom Selleck. My all time favorite was the made for television LONESOME DOVE with Duvall and Jones. Perhaps not totally authenic and maybe a occasional lapse from reality (such as in the scene where Call's Hellbitch is obviously a gelding or when Gus's canteen goes flying from his hand on a bucking horse but is mysteriously there when he immediately remounts) but still very entertaining. That's about as good as its going to get.

wait no its shanghi noon.

Man I forgot about Val as Doc Holliday! Best portrayal of any western character in any movie period... Ishawooa a friend of mine gave me the book "Lonesome Dove" when it first came out and I fell in love with Larry McMurtry. He has a whole lot of novels that should be made into feature films. I get the western channel on cable and watch "The Rifleman" and "Gunsmoke" nearly every day.

Dr. Ralph you are probably aware of the prequels and sequels to Lonesome Dove (Dead Man Walking, Streets of Loredo, etc). In spite of not caring for a lot of McMurtry's other books I found these to be almost as well done as the original. All were made into movies with limited success. Local libraries or eBay usually has copies of both the books and movies. Like everyone else I loved Tomestone and especially Kilmer as Holliday. One question I do ask is did every gunman be he good, bad, or ugly, pack an ivory handled pistol in old Arizona and were all of grips newly installed with little handling wear or yellowing? Guess they didn't prefer the original Colt's, walnut, or stag.

Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday WAS priceless. "I'm your huckleberry" has got to be one of the best lines in movie history. The best part is the shootout at OK corral where he gets off three shots from a double-barrel shotgun without reloading. I watched that part over three times, just to be sure he really did shoot three times!