Recently, in the pursuit of tracking something down in my American history studies I ran across a silent (1923) Western film called “The Covered Wagon.” It’s considered by some folks to be the first Western Epic movie, and I decided to watch it. I found a good print on YouTube () which included the soundtrack and was obviously (to me) lovingly restored. It's 138 minutes, so over 2 hours. The only actor I knew was Alan Hale - the villain - best known (again to me) for producing a son, Alan Hale Jr. who played the captain in Gilligan’s Island, and who looks just like his Dad. I hooked my computer up to my t.v. with an HDMI cable (thanks to Larry) and watched and completely enjoyed the film. So if you are a Western movie fan, or just want to try something different, and if you can stand b/w silent films you might want to check this out. Let’s enjoy the fruits of 100 (plus) years of American culture.
I am wondering if I am the last, well second last, I know at least one other and he is, I think, older than me, Western movie fan. I looked at my film database and I have . . . ..... a lot of westerns. One of the interesting ( to me) things about the Covered Wagon (1923) is that most of the male characters don't wear sidearms and dress more like the post spaghetti-westerns than the 50s and 60s westerns show them.
Thanks for sharing this gem of a movie! Especially enjoyed the score by Hugo Riesenfeld, master of silent movie music magic! HERE
You are welcome. After I move on from movies I suspect that my next post will be music from the 1920s. It is often asserted that Americans who criticize some aspects of the way America behaved in the past and present do so because they hate America. In most cases nothing could be further from the truth and I am in the process of exploring what it is that I love about America. Starting with this old movie.
Dang, just clicked on a news feed link this week on the ten best male actors in westerns. Unfortunately I blew through the list, more out of curiosity than paying attention. There was a good mix of relatively current mixed in with some long gone. If memory serves me, number one was Clint Eastwood. Not sure I agreed but he did lead the charge in “spaghetti westerns.”
Peaked my own curiosity and did a quick Google search. They claimed it was easily the Duke, John Wayne. He was in more than 140 western movies, I find that hard to believe. Maybe quantity over quality was the case.
Jo hn Wayne is usually noted beomes a star after doing John Ford's "Stagecoach" in 1939. I just looked his filmography up in wikipedia and he starts acting in movies in 1929, so silents, and between then and Stagecoach he's in 70 films. So 140 westerns is very likely a pretty close number. I found a list of the 20 best western actors and it had Eastwood on top. Above Wayne. If I am looking for a western I will chose a flic with James Stewart or Gary Cooper or Randolph Scott or even Audie Murphy before Duke, or Clint, but there are (opinion) few if any westerns better than "The Searchers" or "Good Bad & the Ugly" so . . . . . ........ So it's a mood thing.
On Halloween, John Wayne passed out silver dollars to the first 50 kids who came to his Encino CA home! My brothers and I were never early enough to see him. His housekeeper passed out full size candy bars to everyone else.
If my college film class serves me correctly, The Searchers was made a few years after John Ford completed his western trilogy, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande. He was famous for what is known as the long shot which encompassed the vastness of the west. I believe that his best movie was his last, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance as it brought out the myths of the west. “When the truth meets the legend, print the legend.” That about sums it up. I first saw the movie when I was 14 and have looked at every western since through that lens. The Clint Eastwood/ Morgan Freeman movie Unforgiven is very similar.
One of the books I am currently reading (the john one) is called something like "The Mythology of the Soviet Space Program" and, as per GdV above, there could be, should be, and probably is a book called the "Myth of the American Cowboy". I love cowboy movies, a quick search in my library data base for the word "western" reveals that I have 589 items. Now this includes books (Charles Russell, Frederick Remington etc.) and music (Roy Rogers, Bob Wills etc.) but a big chunk of that number is films. But I am under no illusion that these films represent reality, and perhaps they should all be moved into the "Fantasy" section with "Lord of the Rings" and "Game of Thrones," etc. But that would be too much work "
CT, I grew up watching cowboy movies and Lone Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy, Cisco Kid, Gene Autry, Roy Roger’s,etc. thinking this how things were. Then at the age of 8, the family drove west to visit Mom’s sister in California via US 30 as there was no interstate. Very informative, but most of all was when we stopped for the night in Oglala, NE . The motel owner said that the local Sioux were having a festival in town and that it was free. We attended and the first thing I experienced was watching a young boy not much older than me doing hoop dancing. To say I was mesmerized is an understatement and had a moment of clarity than all I had seen on TV was not even close to being true. I also wanted to know more about the Indians that wasn’t BS. That night was when the kernel for the love of history was planted in me and I never looked back.
Years ago I was taking a group of homeschoolers on a tour of some of the native mound sites in central & southern Ohio. As fate would have it we started at mounds in Newark at the same time that a college professor was giving a tour of that mound so we got to tag along a get a much better introduction than I was going to be able to provide. Then we moved on to anouther very large mound site that been overlaid by a golf course. It turned out that because this was a sacred site to some native groups those folks were allowed two days a year to hold ceremonies there, or on part of it and again fate (or was it destiny) interviened and my group was aloud to take part in the ceremony. And it was wonderful. I was not sure how some of the more conservative Christian parents - who were along as co-travelers with the kids - were going to feel about this but they all were just fine with it. So lots of drumming and chanting but no peyote. Fortunately.
