Posted on 06/13/2015 12:28:01 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
ON Saturday mornings, I love to watch reruns of the TV Western “The Rifleman.” Each show is a little moral fable, with Chuck Connors’s widowed rancher and crack shot, Lucas McCain, teaching his son, Mark, about actions and consequences.
If you neglect to do this now, you will pay a penalty later. If a corner is cut here, you will regret it there.
The president might want to catch some shows, as the lame duck’s chickens come home to roost.
At this pivotal moment for his legacy at home and abroad, his future reputation is mortgaged to past neglect.
Like Prufrock, Obama must wonder if the moment of his greatness is flickering.
The president descended from the mountain for half an hour on Thursday evening, materializing at Nationals Park to schmooze with Democrats and Republicans at the annual congressional baseball game.
It was the first time he had deigned to drop by, and the murmur went up, “Jeez. Now? Really?”
Obama has always resented the idea that it mattered for him to charm and knead and whip and hug and horse-trade his way to legislative victories, to lubricate the levers of government with personal loyalty. But, once more, he learned the hard way, it matters.
His last-minute lobbying trips for his trade package to the ballpark — with a cooler of home-brewed beer from the White House — and to Capitol Hill Friday morning to lecture Democrats about values reaped a raspberry from House Democrats.
The Democrats — even most of the Congressional Black Caucus, which Obama courted agressively and which has been protective of him — showed their allegience to themselves, their principles and their labor allies, and not to their aloof president.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Silverado is one of my fave “modern” westerns. Kevin Costner’s character musta had some serious ADHD. Just a wild child.
I didn’t see Lonesome Dove until years after it came out, I had heard about it, but assumed that it was some PC TV thing that would suck, but one day I grabbed the DVDs at the library and gave it a shot.
It is the best Western vdeo anything, ever made.
but now that I am able to watch it on Metv, I am amazed what a good quality show it was...Chuck Connors was great....as the father he showed patience,integrity,love of his son...
the Rifleman never shot just to shoot...shooting was the last option....
I thought Chuck played professional BB?...didn’t he play for the Celtics for a while?
it was never PC....what it did show was that a huge tall man who was an unbelievable shot could use his weapon only for just causes, which was the case...many times he walked away from a fight...
who knows who are the "professionals"?....seriously, this is a forum for opinions although people with some better knowledge about a subject are always welcome to express their "opinions"...
I am a bit of an expert because my cousin worked on Broadway as a young woman and her husband actually was in one whole episode of the tv series "The Hulk"....
if you can find the pics, feel free to post them.....:)
Conners was a professional baseball player -- a 1st baseman. He was a Dodgers farmhand and made it to AAA St. Paul before changing careers.
He was also a professional basketball player along with his professional baseball playing, and his first movie appearance in 1942, and being in tanks in WWII.
If this is accurate, he was also drafted to play pro-football.
From wiki:
“During his Army service, Connors moonlighted as a professional basketball player, joining the Rochester Royals and helping to lead them to the 1946 National Basketball League championship.[3] Following his military discharge in 1946, he joined the newly formed Boston Celtics of the Basketball Association of America.
Connors left the team for spring training with Major League Baseball’s Brooklyn Dodgers. He played for numerous minor league teams before joining the Dodgers in 1949, for whom he played in only one game. He joined the Chicago Cubs in 1951, playing in 66 games as a first baseman and occasional pinch hitter.[4] In 1952, he was sent to the minor leagues again to play for the Cubs’ top farm team, the Los Angeles Angels.
He was drafted by the NFL’s Chicago Bears, but never suited up for the team. He is also credited as the first professional basketball player to break a backboard. During warmups in the first-ever Boston Celtics game on November 5, 1946 at Boston Arena, Connors took a shot that caught the front of the rim and shattered an improperly installed glass backboard.[5]
In 1966, Connors played an off-field role by helping to end the celebrated holdout by Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax when he acted as an intermediary during negotiations between the team and the players.”
Yup, it had everything going for it. Original story; great acting; great direction; great scenery; great production values as in authentic; and especially a mesmerizing gun fight. I even bought into the love story. It was subtle and worked. Wasn't it cool when Costner saved the doggie from drowning? His character was complex with his dark side history, but he tried to be better...and found his goodness with the Doctor's sister.
The characters were fleshed out and that is what I want from a movie no matter the subject, rather than stupid Transformer or The Avengers crap.
The best part was when Costner went around the building while the bad guy was holding the Doctor's sister and just walked up and pushed his gun at him when pulling the trigger. Great scene.
A truly fine movie, and you described it well.
Since your favorites are of the Wayne era, you probably won't like it. Although extremely violent and bloody for it's time, Peckinpah did an amazing job with the story line and characters.
I've been reading your heated discussion with another poster. Seems you have some movie and/or stage background. I've never wanted to be an actor, but I always watch for direction and cinematography, plus production values, etc. I'm one of those who always try to figure out how they do real action stunts. CGI is cheating. One of the reasons I like Tom Cruise and Vin Diesel...they do much of their own stunts.
Are you kidding me? You just went down a notch in my book. That series was as goofy as Gilligan's Island and/or Hogan's Heroes. Inane to the point of another BlueDot of acid. Sheesh, I hated those shows.
One of the most unique things about the series is how carefully he weighs his input, based on moral, and other grounds.
He knows that he is the 800 pound gorilla and a natural born sheep dog, and he tries to let life go on without his settling everything, that is what the sheriff and he are about (partly, they also demonstrate true sacrificial friendship, and tolerance for age differences, personality differences, and just plain being two different people, respect for the law, respect for someone who is doing the best that he can, and many other things).
The sheriff was a great at one time, but is now old and partly crippled, and Lucas has to measure and weigh the effect of his help in the larger picture of the sheriff’s life, self respect, and in keeping the town’s respect, and the sheriff recognizes that Lucas is also looking on him as a father figure/older brother/friend.
Even Lucas needs, and he finds it in his bible, his service to his fellow man, and his comfort in loving and respecting this sheriff, and in his son’s unknown future.
There is so much going on in that series. So much complexity, and so many layers, and all of it is aimed at the good.
Thank you for pointing that out. The same as when you see a car blow up 3 times or more. It's all for affect. However, lately, it seems that the director doesn't even try to make the scene plausible - think Fast&Furious franchise.
What I'm really sick of in action movies is the someone walking towards the camera looking so cool as something blows up in the background. Sheesh, it's in every action movie nowadays. It was cool a couple times, but now it's boring.
Yeah, that one worked, also. I love vendetta movies and that was one of the best.
Didn't know it was a Henry. My mistake.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.