A Dime Novel History
Added 10/15/2009
The film begins by showing horse-drawn wagons (they generally used oxen). This story "compresses many years, many lives, and widely separated events into one narrative". This is Hollywood History, drama not education. Lincoln talks of disbanded soldiers who are without work. [A reference to the 1930s.] The solution is to colonize the grasslands of the West using soldiers and rifles. "We can sell rifles to the Indians and they can pay in fur." [Is there a flaw in this plan?] There is shocking news! There is a comic scene in St. Louis. The speeches tell about the customer's expectations. A gift of a big knife to a small boy. Bill Hickok plays cards, and loses until he wins. Mr. Lattimer collects his shipment from the steamboat.
A stagecoach takes Bill Cody and wife from Leavenworth to Hays City. [Are two horses enough for that coach?] A lone rider warns of danger. Hickok offers help to General Custer in the Indian Wars. Bill Cody will guide the relief troop to Fort Piney. Duty calls. "Don't cry, honey." The dreaded redskins arrive for more drama. Bill Hickok deals for Calamity Jane. "Don't give up your guns!" Hickok has a plan. Yellowhand appreciates the latest technology. He has a complaint against broken promises. [So do the paleface voters.] What about bullets? Can they make Hickok squeal? Extreme interrogation techniques are to try to get information on the relief troops. The troops are then caught in the open! Calamity Jane will ride for help.
Hickok rides to the trapped troop. Days pass. Massed fire halts an attack. A trumpet sounds, the reinforcement arrive. Who will rescue Calamity Jane? Who sold rifles to the Indians? Will Hickok get revenge? There is a shoot-out with some soldiers. Calamity Jane brings a warning. Custer wants Bill Cody. Hickok and Cody meet for lunch. A stray Indian brings news of Custer's Last Stand. Hickok leaves for Deadwood, Cody will warn Generals Merritt and Crook. Is Hickok feeling alright? [Maybe he had the blues?] Hickok meets Lattimer. "Can't you see?" Shots are fired. They have a card game to pass the time until the Fifth Cavalry arrives. Hickok sits for his last hand. "We won't forget what Bill Hickok has done."
Those who read history books will laugh at this drama because of its distorted history. Wild Bill Hickok was a Pony Express rider, Jayhawker, Civil War scout and soldier, then a lawman on the Frontier. He once shot some rowdy soldiers but faced no charges. A "calamity" was the term for a personal illness. Bill Cody also has a real history; the most important was his show business "Wild West". Many Americans gained their knowledge from dime novels that used imagination instead of facts. The importance of this film is the propaganda history of that short era from the Civil War to the late 1870s. Easterners wrote about the "Wild West" as if it was propaganda to keep people from migrating to lands where they would have more liberty and less crime than in the settled cities of the East. The important history of the late 19th century was the rise of big corporations that attacked small businesses and farmers who settled and tamed the West.
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Never Sit with Your Back to the Door
Added 1/11/2009
Saw this movie 9 times in one week in 1937 in Columbus, Georgia, and have been a Jean Arthur fan ever since. Unbiassed review not possible
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"Don't Know Much About His-tor-ry. . ."
Added 12/27/2008
. . . But Mr. DeMille knew plenty about biology. Though terribly historically inaccurate, this is a lovable and entertaining movie. It tells the story of Wild Bill Hickok (about fighting Indians with guns--"Keep the barrels hot, this next one's mine!"), Buffalo Bill Cody, Calamity Jane Canary, and the taming of the West. The sparks really fly between Wild Bill (Gary Cooper) and Calamity Jane (Jean Arthur)--such on-screen chemistry. You don't really want to pay much attention to the story line or plot because you are so hypnotized by Jean's wisecracks directed at Bill and her hard to disguise tomboyishy love for him--very funny and you wish you could be there in person so you could see ol' Coop turn red in the face at her attempts to get his attention. Aw shucks, ma'am.
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RUN OF DeMILLE !
Added 3/8/2008
This film is NOT a DeMille great - It becomes quite tedious in fact, after the first 40 min's. - due in no small part to Jean Arthur's atrocious miscasting and annoyingly whiney voice (what on earth was her appeal?). James Ellison (of the very great & crazy THE GANG'S ALL HERE) is totally absurd as Buffalo Bill. And poor Cooper seems ill at ease with the silly script.
One can usually count on DeMille to "deliver the goods", here he delivers the not so goods. And there is'nt even a "bath scene"!
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The Plainsman
Added 1/28/2008
While this film highly historically inacurate, it's still such a classic flim from a magical era of Hollywood.
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A Dime Novel History
Added 10/15/2009
The film begins by showing horse-drawn wagons (they generally used oxen). This story "compresses many years, many lives, and widely separated events into one narrative". This is Hollywood History, drama not education. Lincoln talks of disbanded soldiers who are without work. [A reference to the 1930s.] The solution is to colonize the grasslands of the West using soldiers and rifles. "We can sell rifles to the Indians and they can pay in fur." [Is there a flaw in this plan?] There is shocking news! There is a comic scene in St. Louis. The speeches tell about the customer's expectations. A gift of a big knife to a small boy. Bill Hickok plays cards, and loses until he wins. Mr. Lattimer collects his shipment from the steamboat.
A stagecoach takes Bill Cody and wife from Leavenworth to Hays City. [Are two horses enough for that coach?] A lone rider warns of danger. Hickok offers help to General Custer in the Indian Wars. Bill Cody will guide the relief troop to Fort Piney. Duty calls. "Don't cry, honey." The dreaded redskins arrive for more drama. Bill Hickok deals for Calamity Jane. "Don't give up your guns!" Hickok has a plan. Yellowhand appreciates the latest technology. He has a complaint against broken promises. [So do the paleface voters.] What about bullets? Can they make Hickok squeal? Extreme interrogation techniques are to try to get information on the relief troops. The troops are then caught in the open! Calamity Jane will ride for help.
Hickok rides to the trapped troop. Days pass. Massed fire halts an attack. A trumpet sounds, the reinforcement arrive. Who will rescue Calamity Jane? Who sold rifles to the Indians? Will Hickok get revenge? There is a shoot-out with some soldiers. Calamity Jane brings a warning. Custer wants Bill Cody. Hickok and Cody meet for lunch. A stray Indian brings news of Custer's Last Stand. Hickok leaves for Deadwood, Cody will warn Generals Merritt and Crook. Is Hickok feeling alright? [Maybe he had the blues?] Hickok meets Lattimer. "Can't you see?" Shots are fired. They have a card game to pass the time until the Fifth Cavalry arrives. Hickok sits for his last hand. "We won't forget what Bill Hickok has done."
Those who read history books will laugh at this drama because of its distorted history. Wild Bill Hickok was a Pony Express rider, Jayhawker, Civil War scout and soldier, then a lawman on the Frontier. He once shot some rowdy soldiers but faced no charges. A "calamity" was the term for a personal illness. Bill Cody also has a real history; the most important was his show business "Wild West". Many Americans gained their knowledge from dime novels that used imagination instead of facts. The importance of this film is the propaganda history of that short era from the Civil War to the late 1870s. Easterners wrote about the "Wild West" as if it was propaganda to keep people from migrating to lands where they would have more liberty and less crime than in the settled cities of the East. The important history of the late 19th century was the rise of big corporations that attacked small businesses and farmers who settled and tamed the West.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Never Sit with Your Back to the Door
Added 1/11/2009
Saw this movie 9 times in one week in 1937 in Columbus, Georgia, and have been a Jean Arthur fan ever since. Unbiassed review not possible
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
"Don't Know Much About His-tor-ry. . ."
Added 12/27/2008
. . . But Mr. DeMille knew plenty about biology. Though terribly historically inaccurate, this is a lovable and entertaining movie. It tells the story of Wild Bill Hickok (about fighting Indians with guns--"Keep the barrels hot, this next one's mine!"), Buffalo Bill Cody, Calamity Jane Canary, and the taming of the West. The sparks really fly between Wild Bill (Gary Cooper) and Calamity Jane (Jean Arthur)--such on-screen chemistry. You don't really want to pay much attention to the story line or plot because you are so hypnotized by Jean's wisecracks directed at Bill and her hard to disguise tomboyishy love for him--very funny and you wish you could be there in person so you could see ol' Coop turn red in the face at her attempts to get his attention. Aw shucks, ma'am.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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