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Post by Yan Taylor on Jul 7, 2011 9:26:39 GMT -6
Hi, Quincannon. I watch the end of Little Big Man, and I wonder if they based him on any real people, I have heard the rumors over Boyer leading Custer to his death, and at the end of the film Hoffman goads Custer into going down into the village (I am sure he says go down there General if you have the nerve) knowing he will be killed, I know its only a movie, but you never know. Regards Ian.
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Post by quincannon on Jul 7, 2011 10:08:39 GMT -6
Ian: I have never seen Little Big Man, so I just can't say.
What is interesting to me though is how the character Custer has changed over the years, from hero to fool, and with Son of the Morning Star back to somewhere in the middle. You see some of the same thing with the Alamo movies. Not the fool part of course, but what the Alamo has come to mean in terms of current political climate. In the Wayne movie for instance, you could substitute Santa Anna and the Mexican Army for hordes of godless communists ready to storm the beleagured garrison in the Fulda Gap. The movies are such powerful image makers. There is no escaping the impact they have for good or ill. I think LBM was one, based on what I have heard that did more damage to the truth than most others.
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Post by Dark Cloud on Jul 7, 2011 12:10:15 GMT -6
Okay. What happens in LBM is that a young kid with a tape recorder finds 120 year old Jack Crabbe in a Rest Home, and Crabbe tells this incredible story. What people miss is that the guy is 120 years old or whatever, and how much confusion and exaggeration could be expected? And second, how credulous are the young - even the fictional young - especially when hearing their meal ticket for life narrated to them? It's a novel, but did the author think Crabbe's word was to be received as gold or that the readers would? Or some gold, some malarkey? I don't know, he may have offered it as straight allegory, but somehow I doubt it. It worked in the movie as allegory for Vietnam for some. But this is like people, after seeing Diary of a Mad Housewife, failing to recall that the teller of the tale is, well, crazy, and her husband and others are unlikely to have been as repulsive as presented. Yet the movie is discussed almost as a documentary. LBM was never presented as history, I don't think, but as a great story by an old man. Truth optional. Custer in the movie is no more likely to have lived to adulthood than Kramer or George on Seinfeld: so obnoxious they'd have been waxed early on. Also: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFjdz2bRHRg&feature=relatedThis shows what a bunch of horses and men AT the battlefield but to the east can kick up in the way of dust. But, this is with smokeless powder, horses under control, fewer numbers, no campfires and pony herds in the thousands sending dust west over the fight, and years of the land not being nubbed down to nothing by bison and game and ponies. Yet there are shots here that show visibility way down. Add in those other factors and just imagine in the heat how horrendous it would have been. Then, review all the tales of what someone could see that day.
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Post by Yan Taylor on Jul 8, 2011 4:48:50 GMT -6
yes I see your point DC, the scene was filmed near the LBH battle field, and you are right over the dust etc, I know it gets a bit silly with Custer going of his rocker, but at least they made the effort to get the location right, Custer of the west was filmed in Spain I believe. Regards Ian.
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Post by quincannon on Jul 8, 2011 15:41:23 GMT -6
Ian: And what was filmed in Spain should have stayed in Spain.
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Post by Yan Taylor on Jul 9, 2011 10:26:27 GMT -6
Yeah Chuck, I first seen the film in 1970 when I was a kid, it didn't seem that bad back then, but I got it from Amazon for about two pounds a couple of years ago, and I thought it was dreadful, but I can still remember the night I first saw it (there was a man from uncle film on before it) and eating fish and chips walking home, ah fond memories. Regards Ian.
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Post by quincannon on Jul 11, 2011 8:05:48 GMT -6
Ian: Times change and our enemies change with them, so I am not so sure that the lack of "realism" is a bad thing. The world is filled with enough horror as it is. On the flip side of this maybe our leaders should get a good dose of this before they rush to use war as the first tool in the box rather than the last. I just don't know.
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Post by Yan Taylor on Jul 12, 2011 4:06:30 GMT -6
Sorry Chuck I have deleted my last few posts, I was out of order, my virus has turned into a chest infection I think and was not thinking straight. I enjoyed the film a distant trumpet, but people say I watch the most daft movies around, that's why I usually end up watching them on my own. Regards Ian.
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