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Why do the people in the (old) westerns, 50s-60's

GrasshopperGrasshopper Member Posts: 16,704 ✭✭✭✭
when walking in the desert, mountains ect. throw away their canteens when they are empty? Been watching the 50s westerns and not one time do they keep them. Plus they never pick up someone's gun when they shoot them , just ride off? Strange it is.

Comments

  • Sam06Sam06 Member Posts: 21,254 ✭✭✭✭
    I agree.  I never understood it either.  What if you come upon water now you have nothing to put it in.

    I think it is just drama...............................Like saying I am about done and now I am going on guts alone, but its dumb.
    RLTW

  • GeriGeri Member Posts: 2,089 ✭✭✭
    It's in the script.
  • ltcdotyltcdoty Member Posts: 4,163 ✭✭✭
    or they go into a saloon after a long ride in the sun and ask for whiskey....and how come the star of the western TV shows only owns one shirt and vest, including Ben Cartwright who has tons of money..
  • mrmike08075mrmike08075 Member Posts: 10,998 ✭✭✭

    What percentage of throw away extras get gut shot and are able to commit suicide rather then suffer the Dante's inferno meets book of job meets revelations ground hot day horror that in connected with being gut shot - and every one of them wants a drink of water...

    Bad memes and bad movies.

    Mike

  • Sam06Sam06 Member Posts: 21,254 ✭✭✭✭
    How many times has Matt Dillon been shot in the left shoulder?
    RLTW

  • Toolman286Toolman286 Member Posts: 2,964 ✭✭✭✭
    And they hardly ever reload.
  • pulsarncpulsarnc Member Posts: 6,215 ✭✭✭✭

    Best I can find , Matt got shot a total of 56 times of which I think the left shoulder was a favorite target . He also shot /wounded/killed around 407 folks over the years . Winningest gunfighter in history !

    cry Havoc and let slip  the dogs of war..... 
  • KenK/84BravoKenK/84Bravo Member Posts: 12,055 ✭✭✭✭

    Deep breaths. They are just movies.

    Deep breaths.

    In, out. In, out.

  • hillbillehillbille Member Posts: 14,119 ✭✭✭✭
    don't know why but I never saw one ask the bartender for a lite beer either...................
  • mrmike08075mrmike08075 Member Posts: 10,998 ✭✭✭

    Well maybe one time a glass of milk or a sasparilla or a grape knee high - with of course poor responses from such tap pullers and shot pourers - you owe me $5 for the who're and $5 for the whiskey...

    Riders of the purple sage and wearers of the purple weal (who was that masked man???)

    Mike

  • dreherdreher Member Posts: 8,777 ✭✭✭✭
    When I take a look at those old westerns today what I notice most is how BAD the acting was!!
  • ltcdotyltcdoty Member Posts: 4,163 ✭✭✭
    I still can't get enough of them...

  • RidefarRidefar Member Posts: 259 ✭✭✭
    Many times the revolver used has no front sight and it drives my wife nuts......because I am pointing it out.
    What caliber are those dinky little cartridges in the loops on Matt Dillon's gun belt in the later shows ?
    No way they are .45 Colt.
    Why does Steve McQueen (Wanted:Dead Or Alive) lug around that heavy belt full of .45-70 rounds when he has no use for them ?
  • GrasshopperGrasshopper Member Posts: 16,704 ✭✭✭✭

    Deep breaths. They are just movies.

    Deep breaths.

    In, out. In, out.

    Yes, yes, but it makes me wonder why it is in the scripts. Hell I would be a * picking up all those Colts and Winnys that were left laying. Plus, you can't have to many canteens. :)
  • KenK/84BravoKenK/84Bravo Member Posts: 12,055 ✭✭✭✭

    My latest, was watching "Where Eagles Dare."

    Clint Eastwood was dispatching German Soldiers left and right with his Supressed firearm.

    Later in the movie, when it became critical, he was sneaking up on a German Radio Operator with a Knife. (WTH?) After the German heard him and sounded the alarm, Richard Burton shot him from across the room with the same suppressed firearm.

    Okay...............................yeah, that makes sense.

  • OkieOkie Member Posts: 991 ✭✭✭
    edited July 2020
    I've got some of them canteens and guns that they left in the desert.
    Some of them old Winchesters and Henrys would still shoot straight for 300 yards after being thrown into rocks and dirt. Some of them lead bullets really make a loud ricochet sound after hitting wood and them 1 inch thick rotten boards will stop a bullet fast. Lots of Indains (redskins) got shot from their horses but no horses ever got hit with a bullet.
    Looks kinda like Biden will be asking for my old rusty guns and canteens soon if things don't change.  (the guns and canteens were empty when I found them, did not find any saddles)they always carried their saddles with them until death.
    If he wants my other guns I'll give them my bullets first. (Matt had the right idea)
    They hung horse stealers in them days. (method of transportation to get to work) Why don't they hang car thieves now days?

  • kannoneerkannoneer Member Posts: 3,350 ✭✭✭✭
    I always enjoyed watching The Rifleman just to see Chuck Connors rapid fire his Winchester from the hip. He admitted that it had been modified so as to pull the trigger every time the lever came back.  That's OK; 'Make it talk while the bad guys drop!'

  • chmechme Member Posts: 1,459 ✭✭✭✭
    On  "The Rifleman"- little time travel paradox.  Show was set in the 1880s.  Rifle used was a Winchester Mdl 1892.  Whoops!
  • He DogHe Dog Member Posts: 50,947 ✭✭✭✭
    Aw come on, throwing away the canteen underscores that they are out of water.  They do it for the slower members of the audience who probably won't understand why they threw away the canteen.  Back then, Colt SAA's only cost about $30, why carry all that extra weight around when the movie armorer will come pick it up anyway.
  • Ditch-RunnerDitch-Runner Member Posts: 24,450 ✭✭✭✭
     most of the "bad guys" died no matter where they were shot and some movies no blood was even lost after being hit several times a  bit of a  twist or make some last statement the  fall over with a little drama dead .  now if its a good guy being shot even multiple times  there 99%  likely to live and have a nice looking gal nurse them back to fight another day . 
         a pistol can shoot some one a 100 yards off while both are on horseback on a full run but a rifle 20 feet away and they miss 
    and some how the other fellow always knows when his foe is out of bullets by hearing  the gun hammer fall no matter the distance . then the gun is  always throw at them in  a last ditch effort .
    and like early versions of the a team and sheet metal LOL  any piece of wood was bullet proof unless it was more dramatic to see holes punching thru the wall but never hit any one . 
     I truly like the westerns and even but I also know just enjoy the show don't try and make any of the gun battles  fit into real life
      no matter how good some one is with so many shooting at them seems like dozens in some shows  a stray or lucky shot is going to get them  

  • yoshmysteryoshmyster Member Posts: 20,979 ✭✭✭✭

    Those empty canteens are heavy out in the desert. Also the empty canteens are mockery of what used to contain only to remind and play head games.
    "Good Guys" don't pick from the dead. Like Samurai movies (A.K.A. Japanese Westerns) only low life scums go through the dead.

    Only thing holding Matt Dillon's shoulder (I reckon it's burger) is the shirt or all the remnants of shirts in the wound.

    As for Steve McQueen's "Wanted: Dead Or Alive" lugging around that heavy belt full of .45-70. He's looking for the day he gets back the rifle for those cartridges some low life took from him.

    I thought The Rifleman's rifle had that screw that touched off the trigger as the loop slammed home.

  • gesshotsgesshots Member Posts: 15,679 ✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2020
    Listen Up Pilgrim !
    “What’s the secret of success? Right decisions. How do you make right decisions? Experience. How do you get experience? Wrong decisions.”...“Courage is being scared to death… and saddling up anyway.” ...“Tomorrow hopes we have learned something from yesterday.”  – John Wayne
    :)B)



    It's being willing. I found out early that most men, regardless of cause or need, aren't willing. They blink an eye or draw a breath before they pull the trigger. I won't. ~ J.B. Books
  • bullshotbullshot Member Posts: 14,292 ✭✭✭✭
    Never understood why they threw away their guns when they ran out of ammo either.
    "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you"
  • truthfultruthful Member Posts: 1,974 ✭✭✭✭
    Why was every barn or stable building constructed of vertical boards spaced at least a half inch apart?
  • mogley98mogley98 Member Posts: 18,297 ✭✭✭✭
    Movies need real people as editors/advisors why do they make the music so loud you can't hear the people talking? Why do they bother to film sections you can't see it's so dark? A zillion stupid things in movies. Why do the victims always go in the haunted house?
    Why don't we go to school and work on the weekends and take the week off!
  • GrasshopperGrasshopper Member Posts: 16,704 ✭✭✭✭
    truthful said:
    Why was every barn or stable building constructed of vertical boards spaced at least a half inch apart?
    Lumber shortage, plus it lets the wind blow through, green font.
    Still love all those westerns, really do. Todays "movies" have all special effects, LOUD noise and just to me not worth the time and money, plus I am still boycotting Hooly-weird people.
  • ChrisStreettChrisStreett Member Posts: 3,856 ✭✭✭
    Sam, I dunno how many times old Dillon got shot in the left shoulder. What I do know, is that I was shot in my right one, and it sure wasn't like on TV! (Ya don't fix those with a bandanna.)
    "...dying ain't much of a living boy"-Josey Wales
  • Butchdog2Butchdog2 Member Posts: 3,834 ✭✭✭✭
    Half inch gaps in wood siding, most likely put up green then dried out, shrunk.
  • gesshotsgesshots Member Posts: 15,679 ✭✭✭✭
    Sam, I dunno how many times old Dillon got shot in the left shoulder. What I do know, is that I was shot in my right one, and it sure wasn't like on TV! (Ya don't fix those with a bandanna.)

    Miss Kitty didn't tend your needs !  :o 

    It's being willing. I found out early that most men, regardless of cause or need, aren't willing. They blink an eye or draw a breath before they pull the trigger. I won't. ~ J.B. Books
  • chmechme Member Posts: 1,459 ✭✭✭✭
    On the TV show Superman, when the bad guy empties his 38 into Superman with no effect, and THROWS the empty gun at him..... why does he duck???
  • OkieOkie Member Posts: 991 ✭✭✭
    edited July 2020
    And bales of straw  ,canvas rag tops on covered wagons could not be penetrated by a bullet, even from a gatling gun when they took cover behind and they were always safe when inside a stage coach and the bullets hitting the rear. Next thing to bullets proof vest material.
    Matt Dillion usually suggested to wrap the body in a blanket before burying.
    Matt sure dug a lot of graves even while horseback. Never did see him carrying his portable shovel on horseback, although some were just covered with rocks and no dirt.
    Them old westerns are a lot more interesting than the movies today.

  • ChrisStreettChrisStreett Member Posts: 3,856 ✭✭✭
    You're right gess, I bet I'd have healed right up if she was tending to things.
    "...dying ain't much of a living boy"-Josey Wales
  • spasmcreeksrunspasmcreeksrun Member Posts: 1,755 ✭✭✭
    and in most all the old westerns the people were squeaky clean...like a chinee laundry followed them around
  • gesshotsgesshots Member Posts: 15,679 ✭✭✭✭
    and in most all the old westerns the people were squeaky clean...like a chinee laundry followed them around

    and rarely sweat.
    It's being willing. I found out early that most men, regardless of cause or need, aren't willing. They blink an eye or draw a breath before they pull the trigger. I won't. ~ J.B. Books
  • chollagardenschollagardens Member Posts: 4,614 ✭✭✭
    Some westerns are better than others. Errors do take away from the movie/program but does not ruin it for me. What does ruin it for me is the casting. I have enjoyed seeing Doc McCoy , Spock and Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies in western roles but when Jane Fonda plays a western role the movie is ruined.
  • armilitearmilite Member Posts: 35,478 ✭✭✭
    Because the movie will end before they get thirsty again.
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