Post by grant73 on Jun 15, 2020 18:35:52 GMT -8
Various calls these past few weeks (and many contrarian responses) about not showing GWTW any more.
Kareem offers a way to keep works of art uncensored by accompanying them with explanatory statements about the differences in the era the art was created, plus how much can be learned from the wrongness of portrayals compared with today's wisdom and opportunity for redress. I agree with his suggestions.
One thing though, from a film history fan (me): Kareem (probably rightfully, idk) says 25% of cowboys were black, but adds that in the total western portrayals of cowboys they are less than 01%.
Well, KAJ, don't forget that your figure applies to COWBOYS. In fact in all western films and TV shows, I would say that only a very small number of those actors and extras were playing cowboys per se. The era of the cowboy extended only from the 1870s through perhaps the 1900s, because there were few cattle between the Mississippi and the Rockies before the Civil War;
Importantly, the great cattle drives ended when the railroads reached San Antone, Denver and Cheyenne. Sure, there were cowboys after 1910 (still are, scattered on ranches and feed lots and rodeos) but few movies are made about those, and probably aren't called "westerns."
The bulk of westerns were about bad guys, thieves, robbers, killers and sadists, and don't forget good guys, marshalls, gunfighters (noble and not), sodbusters, shysters, gamblers, fools, comics sidekicks, sheep men and elderly ranchers with pretty, single daughters. And singers, ("Hi Roy, Hi, Gene.").
Not that many true cowboys at all.
But read the link because as usual Kareem is eloquent and "right on."
But read the link because as usual Kareem is eloquent and "right on."
