Thursday, 7 July 2011

the plainsman (1936)

The film poster

Wild Bill and Buffalo Bill as depicted in the film

This is who played Calamity Jane

The real Buffalo Bill in 1875

The real Wild Bill in 1869

The real Calamity Jane in 1895

Directed by Cecil B. DeMille, this film has everything you want from a western, including Wild Bill Hickok (played by Gary Cooper), Buffalo Bill Cody, Calamity Jane (Jean Arthur), General George Custer, and Abraham Lincoln. It also name checks the 'Go West' newspaper headline, Lincoln's assassination and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Wild Bill is shot while playing cards, plus there is a love story between Wild Bill and Calamity (and a bromance between the two Bills). It has lots of overacting and an astonishing presentation of the western timeline, as Old Cecil (as l call him) just chucks in all the historical events so that they occur at about the same time. Plus most of the story is unbelievable and never happened. Brilliant and crap at the same time, what more could you ask for?

toodle pip

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