Weeping steel guitars ...

[saavedra77]

Talking to verbicide about Deadwood and the handful of Westerns I've ever taken a liking to inspired me to watch Walter Hill's The Long Riders, again, the other day. My favorite exchange in the film goes like this: Cole Younger and Sam Starr are about to fight over Belle -

Cole Younger: What does the winner get?
Belle Starr: Nothin' both of you ain't already had.
Cole Younger: Don't hardly seem worth it.
Belle Starr: It ain't. You're both crazy, but you do keep me amused. I am having a real good time.

Comments

[morganminstrel.livejournal.com]

I've still never seen Deadwood, but I love old Jonah Hex comics from the '70s, which I'm told had a serious influence on the show. (Enough that the new revival of Hex has been accused of imitating Deadwood!)

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

I never read Jonah Hex, so I'm not sure. Deadwood (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadwood_%28TV_series%29) takes its starting point from historical events in the real Deadwood in the 1870s, and many of the central characters are historical: Wild Bill Hickock, Calamity Jane, Seth Bullock, Al Swearengen. As in reality, the town isn't much more than a mining camp at this point, and it's completely lawless--in fact, an illegal settlement in "Indian territory." The economy's based on prospecting, gambling, prostitution, and various supporting trades, and (with a few exceptions) the characters are relentlessly crude. The sensibility's kind of reminiscent of The Long Riders and the later Clint Eastwood Westerns--only without the latter's moralizing, so far as I can tell. Also, the characters tend to speak in a rather thick Western patois that has sometimes me wanting to turn on the subtitles. :)