Bat Masterson, Hollywood style
Posted on 03/11/2010 8:50:27 AM PST by PJ-Comix
I have a HUGE pet peeve. It is western movies in which the characters are wearing embarrassingly modern clothing. Most often it is the hats. If you look at photos or illustrations of the Old West at the time, the hats look very different from what we usually see in the movies. For example, yesterday I watched "September Dawn" about the Mountain Meadows Massacre but I couldn't get over the fact of the silly looking hats that folks back then did NOT wear. One IMDB commenter stated that those hats looked like something people wear on their way to a Garth Brooks concert.
One of the few movies that seemed to get authentic Western look was "Tombstone" which helped in appreciating that excellent movie. Unfortunately most of the Western movies are completely off-base in their costuming. Another thing that really bugs me about Western movies is when they have women dressed in jeans. Back then women ALWAYS wore dresses. NEVER pants. Any exposure of female legs or even outlines of their legs was considered as nudity back then. Oh, and when women rode horses...they only rode side-saddle.
Okay, sorry for the rant but way too many Western movies are RUINED by costume designers too lazy to research for authentic clothing.
Completely off topic, but how about watching men in romantic roles w/women (such as Rock Hudson and Doris Day) where we now know the man was a flaming fag?
And the horses never crap all over the street, either.
That’s why it’s the movies and not real life.
Bat Masterson, Hollywood style
Because it is incredibly distracting. I remember watching a movie about WWII which was ruined by showing a band scene with the musicians wearning floppy Beatles type hair.
Those pics you posted appear to be cowboys of the late 1890s.
Or how about donald sutherland in Kellys Heroes as a hippy from the 60s? Like that was believable.
Some threads are just for fun. If you don’t like it, don’t click on it. It’s not rocket science.
The saddles are always wrong and the horses are too large, well fed and groomed. And the dialog is usually way too modern, with some notable exceptions like True Grit and Lonesome Dove.
“You should watch ‘Silverado’ if you haven’t already.”
Exactly! The costumes and bizarre stereotypes were typical Hollywood.
For example, there were Black cowboys in the old west. But none dressed up as Beverly Hills Dudes like Danny Glover. And Jeff Goldblum, in the west, wearing a “Say go to wardrobe and get a gambler’s suit from a Mississippi riverboat.” But this is the wild west!” “Who cares? The rubes will never notice.”
The only plausible scene was Kevin Kline after he was stripped and found a basic wardrobe. Then he suddenly gets some money and “Where do I order dude ranch deluxe clothing? Is there a Sheplers near by?”
And on and on.
Yea, but how much reality do you really want in a Western? Many of the cowboys and inhabitants of western towns were not from America. Deadwood, for example had a huge population of foreigners from all over the world. They also did not did not bathe often, were gristly in appearance, and probably had the clap, crabs, and missing teeth as well.
So if you are really bothered by Westerns that are not accurate to the tee, then just stand buy. Maybe someday the Star of the Western will speak with a Swedish accent, visit the town doctor to give him a bottle of something for his clap, and be able to spit chewing tobacco through his missing front teeth. And he’ll be wearing the right hat.
Or watching the Duke riding near Galveston, TX in a Monument Valley setting.
For a pretty good representation of Western 'dress' of that era, a good, new, Western to rent and watch is "Appaloosa" (Check out the trailer). It stars Ed Harris, Jeremy Irons, Viggo Mortensen & Renée Zellweger. The period costumes are quite authentic as well as the equipment used (saddles, weapons, etc). Viggo as the deputy looks as though he came through a time machine what with his hairstyle, clothing, and weaponry.
As for Tombstone, it was a somewhat accurate portrayal of the Earps while in Tombstone. And it was a fair adaption of the dress and manners of the time. Kurt Russell LOOKED like Wyatt Earp. Sam Elliott did NOT look like Virgil (Wyatt and Virgil were often mistaken for one another). One thing that gave it some reality is the presence of the Earp's families in Tombstone, especially Mattie Blaylock Earp, Wyatt's live-in, who was a hooker Wyatt began living with, probably during his Peoria, IL days. And Josephine Sarah Marcus, his love interest, was the woman he spent the rest of his life with. They did indeed meet in Tombstone, her coming there with a theater group. She actually was the paramour of sheriff John Behan before taking up with Earp.
BTW, Wyatt never was a US Deputy Marshal until Virgil was ambushed after the OK Corral fight. Wyatt solicited and was given Virgil's position after his injury in December 1881, and the killing of brother Morgan in March, 1882. Wyatt wanted the Sheriff's position, but was beaten by Behan in the election.
And there WAS a vendetta ride as displayed.
I thought I heard somewhere that, for whatever reason, military uniforms in movies or TV have to be wrong even if it’s some little detail.
I don’t remember why, and I could be completely wrong, but I heard that somewhere.
“One of the few movies that seemed to get authentic Western look was “Tombstone”
My favorite!
I do understand what you are saying about the clothing in most movies and agree.
Yeah, pretty unbelievable.
mounting the horse on the fly from the rear
I've actually seen that. Maybe not so unbelievable in an era where people practically lived on horses?
and surviving the barrage of withering fire from the bad guys without any of the bullets even coming close.
Also not so unbelievable when you consider in a gun fight people are primarily trying to avoid getting shot. That somewhat precludes taking careful aim at the target.
But I get your point.
"Always with the negative waves..."
Westerns from the 1950s almost always had the women characters wearing 1950s-type blouses with long skirts attached, and 1950s type bouffants with long falls at the back, either hanging loose in a shoulder length pageboy bob or rolled up in a bun. And invariably with 1950s type lipstick, mascara, eyebrow pencilings...
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