Ride with the Devil

Directed by Ang Lee, this 1999 film is set during the Civil War and focuses on the relationships between and experiences of a few young men from Missouri who become bushwhackers. Ride with the Devil shows the ravages of war inflicted on civilians as well as the men who are fighting. It is an epic film, both in the sweep of its story and its duration which, although only about two hours long, feels longer because of all the events that occur in it.

Despite the difficulty I often had in understanding the dialog, due to the actors speaking with strong accents, the vocabulary and rhythm of their speech seemed authentic to the time period (not that I'm an expert!). The interior sets were fascinating in their attention to detail and the outdoor panoramic scenes were beautifully shot. Even though there was a lot of violence in the movie, it was never gratuitous. There are many raids by the bushwhackers and the one on Lawrence, Kansas, is included, and that's the connection to ASJ, since Heyes and Curry talked about the war in The Men That Corrupted Hadleyburg.

It is interesting to compare how that raid was depicted in this movie with how it was shown in Kansas Raiders almost 50 years earlier. Tobey Maguire, Skeet Ulrich and Jeffrey Wright star, along with several other well-known actors whom I had difficulty distinguishing from one another and a huge cast of extras.

Killstraight

I saw this book at the library and the title and cover intrigued me so I took it out and, have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Killstraight is about a man, whose English name is Daniel Killstraight, who has returned to the West after spending several years at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. He witnesses a hanging and then gradually gets more and more involved in trying to figure out what really happened.

There's no connection to ASJ other than the fact that Killstraight is trying to find his way in a changed world, just like Heyes and Curry are trying to adjust to a new way of life. I really liked this novel, for how it described the world Killstraight found himself in and for the mystery at the center of the novel. And also because some years ago, when I visited the Navajo Nation and was at the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site in Ganado, Arizona, a National Park Service volunteer gave a talk about the Carlisle School and as a result, I had an idea of what Killstraight endured when he was there.

Reading this novel introduced me to a genre of literature I had no idea was still vibrant and I am looking forward to reading more books by this author and many others.

Webpage for Killstraight:
http://www.johnnydboggs.com/Killstraight.html

Website about the Carlisle School, by a historian who does research about it:
http://home.epix.net/~landis/histry.html

Rio Bravo

John Wayne and Dean Martin star in this 1959 movie, and Martin gives a bravura performance as an alcoholic deputy to Wayne's no-nonsense sheriff. Rio Bravo also stars Walter Brennan (The Day They Hanged Kid Curry and 21 Days to Tenstrike) as another deputy. He's not wearing dentures, though, so it was often hard for me to understand what he was saying.

All three of them are trying to prevent a gang from breaking their prisoner, an accused murderer played by Claude Akins, out of the local jail. Angie Dickinson (who perhaps can be said to have a connection to ASJ as a result of starring with Earl Holliman in Police Woman), is also in this film, as is Ricky Nelson, of all people.

It's a long movie but doesn't drag. Partway through there is a musical interlude; Martin sings, Nelson sings and plays the guitar, and Brennan sings and plays the harmonica. I quite liked one of the songs, "Get Along Home, Cindy, Cindy." I wanted to download the song, which I later learned is a traditional tune from Appalachia, but it's not part of Ricky Nelson's works available on iTunes; I did, however, find a excerpt of it on YouTube. Rio Bravo is a movie definitely worth watching. 

Related Link:

YouTube clip of "Cindy, Cindy"

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

This 1957 version, starring a wonderful Kirk Douglas as Doc Holliday, is great. What I didn't know beforehand is that Earl Holliman (Wheat) is also in this movie! He was so young, though, that I didn't recognize him and it wasn't until the credits rolled at the end that I learned who his character was (a deputy).

So then I went back and watched his scenes again and I could see a faint resemblance to Wheat; his voice, however, once I was listening carefully, was the same. I don't think I need to recount the plot here; suffice it to say that Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is definitely worth watching.

Gun Fury

This movie, from 1953, stars Rock Hudson and was produced by Columbia. It's about a man who goes after the outlaws who abducted his fiancee during a stagecoach robbery.

What I didn't know when I decided to watch it was that Roy Huggins co-wrote the screenplay! What makes Gun Fury even more interesting is that the heroine, Donna Reed--the woman who was kidnapped--was not a wimpy, insipid character like so many of the guest stars on ASJ. She was fairly strong and kept trying to escape.

It made me think that Huggins regressed with his characterizations of most of the women on ASJ when he developed his treatments for the stories. I mean, ASJ was produced almost twenty years after this movie, so what happened? Was it Huggins or the other writers who decided to make the ASJ women that way after they got the outlines from him? Or was it Universal who wanted them like that? I enjoyed this movie for the way it portrayed the lead female character.