I write for a website and have been doing a series where I talk about different Westerns that I love for 12 months. My most recent installment is Jeremiah Johnson. Next one will be High Plains Drifter. Hope you all enjoy this article!

Name: Jack Rabbit

Age: 24

Lives in the year 1868 NM territory in an alternate timeline for eh civil war where it lasted 10 whole years

Movies:

-Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957)

-Hour of the Gun (1967)

-Tombstone (1993)

-Wyatt Earp (1994)

Last week a commenter asked me to compare this 1947 classic with William Wyler's The Westerner (1940), primarily because both films feature Walter Brennan, who I eviscerated in Wyler's film, but for whom I have nothing but praise in this John Ford masterpiece.

I promised that commenter I'd rewatch MDC, but little did I know that I'd do so today, the 145th anniversary of the Gunfight at the OK Corral. MDC has very little to do with the actual events of the gunfight and is a very a-historical film, just like The Westerner is nominally about Judge Roy Bean but has very little to do with the Judge's actual life or character. History is a mere launching point for both movies and neither should be judged on how closely or loosely they stick to the facts. We should judge them as stories that engage, or, dare I say it, as works of art.

My Darling Clementine is, in fact, a work of art. Nearly every frame is a black and white painting, a work of composition so precise that they could all hang in galleries. Upon this rewatch, I was most struck by how beautiful a film this is. The Searchers has color and Vistavision, two unfair handicaps that MDC lacks, but this may be the better shot film. Close-ups, twofers, wide-pans... this is a gorgeous, stunningly photographed movie.

And it's very much a modern Western. Gritty, realistic, naturalistic... terse, moody. It seemed to me to be proto-Leone as much as anything. And this is where it differs so much from the pre-modern The Westerner. MDC knows what evil is, The Westerner does not. That's because in between the two films, WWII has happened and it is Walter Brennan's two characters that embodies that difference more than anything else.

In The Westerner, he plays Judge Roy Bean, a daffy, avaricious bully who kills people, yes, but is not above being a skylarking side-kick to his scampish buddy Gary Cooper. Everything's all in good fun, he's not really bad even when he's bad, and isn't everyone enjoying the romp? He's a mere caricature of villain in a 1930's oater in The Westerner, not a real person.

But seven years later, it's a different world when MDC was made. On screen, the Civil War has happened, Wyatt Earp has already been a marshal in Dodge City, he's been to Deadwood, he knows evil when he sees it and he knows when you encounter it, you don't mess around it. Just like in real life, WW2 had happened, Ford and Fonda had been to war, the world knew Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini. Brennan's Pa Clanton is direct, venal, brutal in this movie... a snake not to be trifled with. It's a much smaller role than that of his Oscar winning Roy Bean, and a superior performance. Brennan is superb here, and nauseating in his typical "Stumpy" mugging in the earlier film.

My Darling Clementine works today, just as well as it worked in 1947. It still brought tears to my eyes and because it tells its own story of love and loss and simple things so well, I did not fault it for straying from history one bit. I'm tempted to re-elevate it back into my personal top ten Westerns of all time if only I can find another one to toss out.

Sing along with "The Arizona Cowboy" Rex Allen to "Don't Go Near The Indians" from a 1963 episode of "The Pet Milk Grand Ole Opry"

Son don't go near the indians please stay away
Son don't go near the indians please do what I say

When I was just a little boy I liked to roam the hills
And to hear wild stories about the indians was my biggest thrill
I'd shout and run and holler like them I wore moccasins on my feet
And I’d make believe I was under a teepee every time I went to sleep

Son don't go near the indians please stay away
Son don't go near the indians please do what I say

My hair was jet black and I was twenty one
There was lots of pretty girls around
But the paleface maidens didn't thrill me none
Around my cochise county home town
One day when I was walking by a shady creek
I saw a beautiful indian fetchin' water and I just had to speak
She smiled at me then quickly ran but the next day she returned
And it wasn't very long until I told this maiden how the love in my heart burned

Son don't go near the indians please stay away
Son don't go near the indians please do what I say

I told my daddy I’d found a girl who meant the world to me
And tomorrow morning I'd ask the chief for the hand of Nova Lee
Dad's trembling lips spoke softly as he told me of my life
It was then he said I could never take this maiden for my wife
Son, when you were born, the white man and indian were fighting
And a brave named yellow sun scalped my little boy
So I took you to make up for what he'd done
Son, you're a full blooded indian 
But I love you just as much as my own little feller that's dead
Son, Nova Lee is your sister and that's why I've always said…

Son don't go near the indians please stay away
Son don't go near the indians please do what I say
Please do what I say

Hollywood has convinced most people that the lever-action Winchester was the undisputed king of the late 19th century. While it certainly won the civilian frontier, the global military reality was entirely different. The true conqueror of the era was the Remington Rolling Block.

When you look at the engineering, it makes perfect sense why over 40 national armies (and countless buffalo hunters) adopted it instead of early repeaters.

The Genius of Simplicity: The action essentially consists of just two massive moving parts—the breechblock and the hammer. There’s no delicate linkage or complex elevator systems to jam in mud, sand, or freezing conditions.

Pressure Handling: While early lever actions were restricted to relatively short, pistol-length cartridges like the .44-40 (due to elevator length and action strength limitations), the rolling block action was practically indestructible. The hammer physically locks the breechblock in place upon firing. This allowed it to easily handle massive military and buffalo cartridges like the .45-70 Govt, 11mm Mauser, and later even early smokeless high-pressure rounds like the 7x57mm.

Global Dominance: By the time Winchester was marketing the 1873, Remington had already armed the military forces of Sweden, Spain, Egypt, Argentina, and Denmark.

I just put together a deep-dive mini-documentary analyzing the history, the mechanical genius of the Geiger-Rider action, and why it became the most widely exported rifle of its time.

If you appreciate the pure mechanics and history of single-shot mastery, check out the full breakdown here:

I just purchased an old magazine and anxious to read it.

Caught this flick the other night. Pretty grim but excellent western from Richard Brooks who would go on to direct the Professionals. Rod Taylor plays a complete sociopath who relishes killing anything or anyone, so he opts to go on a buffalo hunting expedition for pelts (getting paid for his bloodlust), teaming up with a veteran buffalo hunter, Stewart Granger, who has grown weary of killing buffalo after decades of decimating the species. They actually filmed a real annual cull of buffalo herds in the South Dakota badlands to depict it realistically. The film didn't find an audience at the time. A small gem in the vast ocean of 50s westerns.

Hey Pardners! 🤠 Choose one of these photos from classic western films and write some dialog for the scene. Leave your dialog in the comments section below for everyone to see and enjoy like this : Photo #2 "I sure hope the corral isn't full because I'd hate to have to put quarters into seven parking meters all night long!"

Any input on this movie? Thinking of watching.

Picked this up years ago, I grew up in Leclaire, close to where Bill lived for a short while. Led me to Cody Wyoming which I love and visit twice a year.

Number one on the call sheet, as in the story revolves around them, not a supporting character.

I recently read some breckenridge Elkins stories, they were completely hilarious. Does anyone else like​ Breckenridge Elkins?

For those of you who like both "Weird Episodes" & Have Gun - Will Travel I've got a treat for you!

Edit: a few people pointed out that this is not the place they filmed that I visited. Similar vibe but not the place. Feel free to delete the post.

It does not have to be a firearm, everything goes ( as long as it is not to new ).

There will be an exhibit on the life and works of Western author Elmer Kelton until January 9, 2027 in San Angelo, Texas. Highly recommend.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2210459036506725&set=a.1223339861885319&type=3

I grew up around the Steamboat Arabia, which sank in the Missouri River in 1856 carrying more than 200 tons of merchandise bound for frontier communities. My family excavated it in 1988, and the recovered cargo is essentially a huge snapshot of what merchants thought people in those communities would actually buy.

I’m also a Western fan, so I’ve always been interested in how much of our mental picture of the frontier comes from the movies.

Guns. Beans. Dusty work clothes. Isolated towns. People who couldn’t read. None of that was invented by Hollywood.

But when you put those images next to what was actually being shipped west in 1856, you also find 30,000 buttons, colorful fabrics, silk, oysters, decorated dishes, writing tools, books and Shakespeare.

So I made an 11-minute film comparing some of that physical evidence with movies like Shane, Red River, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Unforgiven, and Lonesome Dove.

It’s not really an argument that Westerns “got it wrong.” My takeaway was almost the opposite: the familiar shorthand was often true — it just became so familiar that it can feel like the whole frontier.

Here’s the film if anyone’s interested:
https://youtu.be/dK9m0Fzhgnw

I’d genuinely be curious what Westerns you think do the best job showing the ordinary life of the West — clothing, food, stores, education, family life, etc. — beyond the gunfights and cattle drives.