@davidlambertart.bsky.social
I post almost exclusively about minutiae related to the Old West and Western films/pop culture. I do drawings too. 🍉 Cheers! 🤠🍻🤠 & God bless 🙏 http://buymeacoffee.com/davidlambertart
I mean...
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And, of course, William S. Hart insisted on accurate costumes, props, sets, etc. in order to portray a more authentic version of the Old West than his contemporaries (& most after him)
Anyway, that's part of why I've stopped using the term Revisionist Western... They've always been that way! 🤠
James Young Deer made Silent Westerns from a Native perspective with all Native casts. The 1st Cowboy novel was written by a woman & is about a woman going undercover in drag as a cowboy in order to get revenge on the cowboys who murdered her pro-suffrage husband
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But even John Ford's Silent Westerns with Harry Carey Sr. could be considered Revisionist. They take the good-badman of William S. Hart films & depict him more realistically (i.e. a saddle tramp). He's often a drunk, a bully & a buffoon, something few Westerns of any era do
In 1929's Hell's Heroes, the "heroes" shoot a bank clerk during a robbery & then argue about which one fired the killing bullet. Peckinpah repeats this gag in The Wild Bunch, but he has the disgusting villains do it.
Was just talking about Revisionist Westerns (in relationship to Peckinpah specifically)
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But I do know what you mean. Peckinpah doesn't immediately strike one as a director who made a bunch of clichéd Westerns. I believe his love of the genre's conventions combined with his knowledge of Old West history & his own insane life experiences are what set his Westerns apart.
And the same could be said of the protagonists in William Wyler's Hell's Heroes. The production code limited how bad you could make your good-badman movie characters, but Peckinpah's Westerns carry on a tradition that has been there since the genre's inception.
The Cisco Kid in O. Henry's 1907 story The Caballero's Way or the heroes of Herman Whitaker's ultraviolent 1917 Mexican Revolution novel Over the Border (the basis for John Ford's 3 Bad Men) are just as violent & ruthless as Peckinpah's protagonists...
I'm a dork & I stopped using the term Revisionist Western a few years ago (I'm of the opinion that they're all revisionist), but I do know what you mean. I think Peckinpah's uncompromising depiction of the West is still rooted in 19th century & early 20th century literature...
Excerpt from W.K. Stratton's book "The Wild Bunch: Sam Peckinpah, a Revolution in Hollywood, and the Making of a Legendary Film"
Anyway, I know I'm overanalyzing an off the cuff remark, but I do believe that the best form of storytelling for a Western is an exploration of what's behind the conventions & clichés, rather than a doomed attempt at avoiding them
Even something like McCabe & Mrs. Miller is not devoid of "tropes". Its central thesis is, "what did all of the 'tropes' we see in Westerns look like in reality?" And most of the "tropes" we see in Westerns are rooted in some kind of reality. Old West history books are lousy with "tropes"
Excited about Spielberg's upcoming Western. He claims it'll be free of tropes & stereotypes. Of course I don't want any stereotypes, but I'm not sure it's possible to make a Western without "tropes". Anyway, here's Sam Peckinpah's view on "tropes" (as told by Alfonso Arau):
*Excerpt from Glenn Frankel's book The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend
Happy 70th Birthday to Dana Delany
Happy 76th Birthday to William Hall Macy Jr.
Happy Birthday to the late, great Paul Fix, born 125 years ago today. A fine actor in his own right, Fix was instrumental in helping John Wayne develop his onscreen persona:
‘Deadwood—Now That’s A Great Show,’ Says Dad After 17-Minute Lapse In Conversation
Happy 58th Birthday to Aaron Eckhart
Happy 64th Birthday to Titus Welliver
Happy Birthday to the late Timothy Carey, born 97 years ago today
Photos of Adela Velarde Pérez, who formed the revolutionary group of Soldaderas in the Mexican Revolution. Soldaderas were women who fed, nursed & often fought alongside the men. Some commanded small groups of men & while none achieved the rank of general, many were called generala by those they led
Ooooh, I've been wanting to read Gone Beaver, which was about the wild parties that mountain men & natives would throw or something. Funny that Glen and Randa collaborator Rudy Wurlitzer had his own unmade mountain man Acid Western script
@clavdivs.bsky.social just made me aware of an entire Rawhide episode centered around St. Elmo's fire titled Incident of the Blue Fire (season 2, episode 11). It was written by John Dunkel & directed by Charles Marquis Warren:
Excellent find!
Here's Borden Chase's take on St. Elmo's fire in his novel Blazing Guns on the Chisholm Trail, which became Red River:
A recurring scene in a handful of Westerns (usually ones about an arduous trek) is the protagonists encountering St. Elmo's fire*
Here's a 🧵 about it
*a phenomenon where plasma makes certain things glow like lightning while inside of an electrical field. Look it up if you're confused
When I wrote this I had trouble finding Charles Goodnight's exact words on encountering St. Elmo's fire online, so I asked @joshfromtexas.bsky.social of Wild West Extravaganza fame & he sent me the quote: