Where did that quote come from?
Cherokee Bill is known for being asked at his hanging if he had any last words.
“I came here to die, not to make a speech.”
To be fair to you, that calmness is a kind of superpower. Also your willingness to imagine incredible gunmanship on behalf of Munny is exactly how the myths of the west were built and were the raw material that W.W. Beauchamp (the writer of “the duck of death”) was only to happy to embellish in his stories.
So in a way, your initial memory of the movie only goes to strengthen one of its central themes. I kind of like that.
I’m a huge fan of the movie, I think it is a masterpiece. I’ve watched it quite a few times and I still get something new from it each time.
That is not true.
Unforgiven is attempting to keep it realistic. So Munny doesn’t have fancy shooting skills, but the bad guys are numerous and inept, like stormtroopers in Star Wars. Munny, and Han Solo, are thus made relatively superhuman.
Well “bad guys” in Unforgiven is something of a flexible terms of course but the “bad guys” are really just you and me, not cut out for murder, panicky mammals. The kid and Ned aren’t up to it, nor were the deputies, nor would we be.
Little Bill, Munny and English Bob were of a very different nature altogether.
I hate to break it to you, but Munny and Ned were the bad guys.
Not from the viewpoint of the whores. They were avengers.
McCabe and Mrs. Miller gets credit for the same realism that would later be given to Deadwood. One point is the overturning of the face-to-face shootout on Main Street at high noon. Instead they scramble around trying to shoot each other in the back.
Although the revisionist Western was hailed as part of the 1960’s “tell it like it is” aesthetic, back in 1958 The Law and Jake Wade had Robert Taylor and Richard Widmark stepping out into Main Street, then immediately ducking behind buildings to stalk each other. Too many WWII combat vets in the audience to play it otherwise.
It is a quote from The Harder They Fall, a deliberately accurate western in the sense Inglorious Basterds was an accurate war movie.
Another “Cherokee Bill” quote from the same scene:
Not sure what poorly researched article you’re referring to, but bowlers were a very popular hat in the old West, especially in town.
Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch:
ETA: not sure why the photo isn’t showing, but click the little box and you’ll see it
Ironic that bowlers replaced top hats, and were worn by cowboys, since top hats were developed to absorb some of the shock when falling off your horse. Because of their association with the young, affluent and active fox-hunting crowd, top hats supplanted stodgy tricorns around the same time the waltz replaced the minuet.
In one of the very few pictures of Billy the Kid, he appears to be wearing a top hat, so maybe he was wise to the noggin protection factor:
(Again, click little square to view. I swear I’ve successfully linked to Wikipedia pics before; can’t seem to do it on my iPad)
Little Irish slum kid wanting to be a swell.
I had never seen that first pic of Billy the Kid playing cards. Very cool link, thanks!
The second link doesn’t seem to be working.
Also shown: cardigan sweater!
Thanks! I have seen that one. Odd hat there on Billy the Kid- it kind of looks like a cross between a bowler and a top hat.
The hat on the other guy is probably a good example of the shapeless wide-brimmed hat that cowboys and ranch hands would wear before the Stetson became popular.
Just now I’m surfing Westerns on cable (as is one’s weekend wont), and a 1962 episode of Rawhide has Clint and the boys lined up at gun point by the marshal of Abilene… to be vaccinated for smallpox. There’s a meme in there somewhere.
I don’t know if the Long Branch had them, but most saloons had regular full-length doors that could be closed and locked. When the bar was open, they would lay against the front on either side of the doorway, but could be closed against inclement weather and locked if the bar was closed.
Those are very interesting points, and I agree. Funny thing is, I didn’t want to imagine Munny’s incredible gunmanship- in fact it yanked me out of the movie and was the only aspect I didn’t like. So my next viewing will be even better, and I’d already felt that it’s a masterpiece, Eastwood’s best film by far.
I wonder how accurate Cimarron was considering it was made only 24 years after Oklahoma became a state.