I watched the ‘intro’ for the new 7th series of American TV perennial ‘24′ last night - the 2 hour one-off show titled 24: Redemption - and was struck by how much Jack Bauer has morphed into the cowboy icon from movie classics such as Shane.
A few years ago the show was ground breaking and original and fun to watch. Now I find I’m a little cynical about Jack and his magic bullet-dodging powers and the whole ’saviour of the poor African children’ routine in Redemption did grate a little.
The funniest part had to be the cartoon-like one dimensional portrayl of the UN peacekeeper - not only did the man with the funny accent and wimpy blue helmet hide with the kids in the cellar when the bad guys rode into town, he also tried to barter the children and their protectors for his own safety!
I realise this is shown on Fox in America and the centre ground is never going to be the political place to be but I thought the American Might vs European Flight routine was a little overdone.
Anyway I’m getting into politics when what I really want to say is Jack/Kiefer does indeed make a very good ‘man in white’ cowboy hero, ready to sacrifice himself for the sake of the downtrodden vilagers (whether they be African orphans or the poor people of Los Angeles under siege by Middle Eastern militants).
I know Sutherland once played a cowboy in New York in the early 90’s film The Cowboy Way. What I’d like to see now is a movie studio ready to put CGI to good use and cast Kiefer / Jack in all 7 roles for The 21st Century Return of the Magnificent Seven…
My visit to Wyoming began in pursuit of a cattle rustler named Robert LeRoy Parker and his sidekick, Harry Longabaugh. A little more than a century ago, the pair achieved fame for carrying out a string of robberies of banks, trains and mine payrolls… Men such as these are not well-suited to prosaic names like Robert and Harry, so it was as Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid that the pair rode across the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming for a decade, beginning in 1889
The story ends with Wilson ruminating on the possibility that “our roguish heroes may not have died in Bolivia at all”, with Butch dying as an old man in the 1940s! A great read for a quiet Sunday.
Remember Ronald Reagan in Cattle Queen of Montana? No me neither:
Well that western movie icon must have been pretty pleased with his ‘Rawhide’ codeword, whispered down many a sleeve by a buzz cut wearing bodyguard or 6.
Al Gore though as Sundance? I don’t see the likeness with the Sundance Kid. And as for poor Al’s daughter Karenna Gore - AKA Smurfette - well what can you say.
Today marks the 121st anniversary of the legendary John Henry “Doc” Holliday’s death at the age of 36 in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.
The title of this post is his supposed last words, now disputed, given his battle with consumption.
Virgil Earp, interviewed 30 May 1882, in The Arizona Daily Star (two months after Virgil had fled Tombstone after Morgan Earp’s death), summed up Holliday:
There was something very peculiar about Doc. He was gentlemanly, a good dentist, a friendly man and yet, outside of us boys, I don’t think he had a friend in the Territory. Tales were told that he had murdered men in different parts of the country; that he had robbed and committed all manner of crimes, and yet, when persons were asked how they knew it, they could only admit it was hearsay, and that nothing of the kind could really be traced to Doc’s account. He was a slender, sickly fellow, but whenever a stage was robbed or a row started, and help was needed, Doc was one of the first to saddle his horse and report for duty.
Val Kilmer played the gambler and gunfighter alongside Kurt Russell’s Wyatt Earp in the 1993 movie Tombstone and you can watch some of the best scenes in the video below:
As the company themselves say: “As symbol of our image, heritage, and values, the legendary stagecoach is priceless”.
Oddly enough, to bring the company bang up to date in the wonderful Web 2.0, social-media-powered 21st century they’ve gone and created ‘the Wells Fargo Stagecoach Island Community‘.
If you get a chance to ride one of the remaining stages one day be sure not to hog the buffalo robes and if you must drink, share the bottle. We don’t want other passengers thinking you’re “selfish and unneighborly”.
For fans of the Old West though, there’s a more significant anniversary:127 years ago today Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Virgil and Morgan Earp fought the Clantons and McLaurys in a vacant lot behind the corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory. Read the rest of this entry »
I watched the ‘intro’ for the new 7th series of American TV perennial ‘24′ last night - the 2 hour one-off show titled 24: Redemption - and was struck by how much Jack Bauer has morphed into the cowboy icon from movie classics such as Shane.
