I watched it too.
..."Broken Trail" on AMC the other night... ... At various points in the movie, the party is attacked by one nefarious group or another, and each time the Chinese girls sort-of cower in the wagon while the men defend them.
After the 4th or 5th time this happens, my wife asks in exasperation, "Why don't they get these girls some guns and teach them how to shoot?"
I noticed that too. Thing was though, those girls were young, didn't speak English, and didn't know what would happen to them next in any event. They weren't used to the situation they were dealing with. We think "get some grit and stand up for yourself" or something to that effect. They were doing good just to deal with busted nerves. Duvall tried teaching one girl to ride, but it didn't look too hopeful. Seems like they did best on food and Thomas Haden Church teaching the one girl to drive the wagon and mules and that in itself was a big improvement for her (and if you read the ending notes, they got married and their grandchildren are still ranching now).
Uh, because cowboys could hardly afford guns for themselves, much less a bunch of novices. Not to metion that social structure was far different back then.
I don't think the availability of guns was as big an issue as the price of ammo. Plus you don't want a bunch of untrained kids out there throwing lead in all directions because when their nerves are busted, they could just as easily throw it your way in the madness.
Social structure? Western women learned to ride and shoot in many many cases dependant upon whether or not they grew up in a city or out on the ranches.
I was fairly happy with the appropriateness of the arms used. My gripes are: 1) Given the period, the age of the hardware would not have been too old, they should have looked newer; and 2) My black powder cartridge loads produce a lot more smoke than I saw from theirs.
IIRC, Winchester produced the 1873 model well into the 1920's. Colt's produced the 1873 Army Single-action (1st Generation, IIRC) up until 1941.
They may have been using the same old 5-1 blanks Hollywierd's been using for the last 50+ years.
The story took place in 1898. They were driving the horses to a purchasing agent who was buying horses for the British army which was fighting the Boer War in South Africa. IIRC, the carbines used were 1873 Winchesters, and at least one had a brass receiver. The handguns were the ever popular 1873 SAA. So it's likely these weapons would have seen quite a few years of hard use priorto the time of the story.
I thought I recognized at least one 1866 Winchester (brass frame). As I just said, those weapons hadn't nearly completed their production runs in 1898.
If they'd taken the guns from all the bad guys they killed, they'd have had enough for everybody.
Right on. I would have. Might as well get something in return for those ropes Tom lost. Besides, if they're not fighting/surviving equipment, they also make for valuable trading stock. (see also: "Conagher")
of slice ‘em up easterns as opposed to shoot ‘em up westerns. As such, Chinese girls cowering in fear just doesn’t ring a bell. That must be an American stereotype.
Yeah. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" comes to mind.
I enjoyed the characters and scenery in the show. I cheered when Duvall's nephew 'stretched' the horse-thief/rapist. But the shoot-out in the barnyard had me grimacing: Lots of rifle rounds hitting stuff that they should have penetrated, guys who should have been hit, standing in the open, but who kept on fighting, horses standing around that should have panicked and run, and that last pistol shot that took the final outlaw out of his saddle at 80 or 100 yards...as much as I like Duvall, and enjoyed the story, the lack of realism in the gunplay was a detriment. See it for the scenery, not for the gun stuff. Duvall is a fair hand with a croquet mallet, though, isn't he?
Yeah, Billy Fender needed stretching. That other rapist got off kinda easy losing his thumbs if you ask me, but he lost his grasp anyway. That smallpox salesman needed taking out too. I also thought the horses were a bit too calm with guns going off around them, especially them being mustangs.
The 80-100yd pistol shot... it's not impossible, but a guy'd hafta know his gun and load to make it work. Shades of Bob Munden, but from what I've seen of him, he don't usually work with a moving target out that far.
That scene where Tom shot the horse that busted his leg... until then, I'd never thought of a horse reacting that violently to it.
My observation was it'd be poetic justice if Nola shot "Big Ears". (see also: "Crossfire Trail")
