Bad Company

[Wilma]

I have to agree with you all.  There were three bedroom scenes right at the beginning and I said, "this isn't for me" and I went to something else.  I was disappointed, too, that it wasn't like "Lonesome Dove"

[archeobabe]

I agree that there should be westerns made like the old westerns.  But where can we find the stars that can act like the old stars ( John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, and the rest).

[Diane Amberg]

 Comanche Moon was ok, but I enjoyed the origional Lonesome Dove much more.

[Teresa]

Kjell and I taped it and then watched it by fst fwd through all the commercials. We watched it all..  I think that they should have made this one first.. and THEN released Lonesome Dove.. . If you hadn't of seen LD, it might not have been a too bad of a movie.
Did I like it?
Not really.. I  found it slow and bad choreographed.. ( too much back and forth)..and their teeth were too white. I know I know.. but come on.. if you want to get into a movie, it has to be like it really was.. and people back then didn't have that white of teeth. Things like that bother me when they make a modern day movie about the old west. But the actor that they had playing Gus Mcree had all of Robert Duvall's characteristics down good. THAT was a plus..

What you are referring to as the bedroom scenes? You have to have those in there. It wasn't a Pollyanna world. The old west was a hard life for women. If a woman didn't marry or have money, the only thing to do was be a whore. It was all about survival, and women had to be strong enough to do whatever it took. Even if they were married they were at the beck and call of their man.. plus working their fingers to the bone in conditions unlike we have ever even begun to see. Having sex because it was their duty and then having more babies because they had the sex that they were too tired and worn out to have. But didn't dare say or speak out.

If you want unrealistic romantic westerns, that doesn't show all aspects of what it was really like in those days then I doubt you would like few historically correct movies form the old west. This one wasn't based on historically correct and neither was Lonesome Dove.. but both had to be watched with an eye that it WASN'T all clean smelling sheets and happy times. They still depicted the cruel hard facts of western civilization.

We were in Tombstone for 10 days the first of last year and I tell you what.. it was a rough dirty time .. and women had it bad.
They had to be strong and tough or they didn't survive and I doubted after years of working in a one room "crib" ..that  most of them had much "give a damn" left in them. Suicide was heavy amongst whores and even women who were ( lucky? ) enough to have a husband.. that was no guarantee that it was any easier life than not having a husband. . 
Kjell is a very very learned old west history buff..
He has always said that if you were unfortunate to have been born a woman in the days of the old west ( Tombstone, Deadwood)  and after the civil war, it was a mans world. Single women didn't have many options and prostitution was their only security.
So I guess what I am getting to is that the "bedroom scenes" are just as much a part of that era as the gunfights, the Indian upsets,  the cattle rustling, the hangins' and the saloons .

I love westerns.. or any old west movie. .Kjell has seen every Gunsmoke and John Wayne Movie that here is and loves 'em..
I don't like the real old westerns.  Simply because they are not realistic and I hate to see a horse being ridden out of sight with a fake canyon back drop. And their clothes were always clean and pressed and the women were all pretty and never did they get dirty.. and the Indians were always depicted as the enemy...But I will watch them .. 


Hard to beat Tombstone, Lonesome Dove, Dances With Wolves..

[archeobabe]

I disagree about the women who were married was the beck and call of their husbands.  There is a book that was printed over 20 years ago that depicted women who had backbone and ran their household with a iron fist.  There was other jobs that a woman could do such as a school teacher, a seamest, or they stay home to help out.  During the cattle drives, there was women who rode with the cattle because they own them.  I will try to find the title to the book I am talking about.  The title of book is "Gentle Tamers: Women of the Old West" by Dee Brown.  First publish in 1958 but I pick it up in the 1970s as a paperbook.  It is a good book. There is another book that I will try to find, the title is "Texas Women".  These women went on cattle drives from Texas up into Kansas.

[Teresa]

Yep.. you are right and I stand corrected!
There were lots of tough minded  women of those days.
I guess I was thinking more on the lines of the the real old west out in the boonies towns. And single women.

I don't actually think that there were all that many woman who rode in cattle drives in the early 1800's though, but then again.. I haven't read the book. If you have a copy ( or I will find one) it sounds like a great read. I am fascinated with that era and earlier. the good and the bad.
But there weren't lots of school teachers in the way back when..  and in the Tombstone days ,seamstress jobs were not in high demand.. There were LOTS of men and not many woman.. and clothing was a necessity, not a luxury. The finer clothes were not in need in lots of 'non city' areas. Certainly not enough work to make the meager ends meet.

But you are right ..there is lots of history on strong minded woman.. There were more that were, but were afraid to be too.
because of lack of education, lack of family background and age when they had to start their life as "a woman.
 
I was also responding to the topic from "the bedroom scenes" ..and the lives of the soiled doves back then.
http://www.soiled-doves.com/

interesting time. but very harsh.

[giester2]

Did you know that Lonesome Dove was based on the life and stories of Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving?

Did you know that the Goodnight family of Howard are relations to Charles Goodnight?

Charles Goodnight had no surviving children but lots of nieces and nephews, and the late Ed Goodnight of Howard, Kansas, is considered a nephew of his. 

Now I am not that much into geneaology (nor can I spell it) but Ed's great grandpa (i believe it was one great) was the brother of Charles Goodnight.

[Diane Amberg]

Like many of you, my ancestors out there were tough pioneer types. The women were strong and did what ever needed doing.  Having grandmothers and a great grandmother who lived to be very old, I got to hear a lot of stories from the horses mouth, so to speak.  I remember reading The Gentle Tamers when it was first published.  Mom got it and I was very impressed.  Some of the women were very badly mistreated, but most stood up for themselves and did alright. The women who made good pies made out very well in the mostly male sectors.    In my own family there were farmers, ranchers, oil men, bankers, several teachers and store owners, all who either were women or worked along side their husbands. As far as the movies and tv shows, Deadwood was almost almost too real for me. The language was pretty rough.  We too enjoyed visiting Tombstone and learned a lot of it's history. Al loves all kinds of history and would have a great time talking with all you historians.

[Teresa]

  We too enjoyed visiting Tombstone and learned a lot of it's history. Al loves all kinds of history and would have a great time talking with all you historians.

Lord help us if he and Kjell ever get together.. Maybe we can just set them together in the corner and quietly sneak off.
((Talking history ..they wouldn't ever miss us anyway)) LOL

[archeobabe]

Yes, I have a copy and am rereading it.  You will enjoy it especially when you read about the army wives and what they had to go through.