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Funny, because horses is Sheridan's "thing." But the story is driven by its own inner logic, and some realism has to be sacrificed. I think most of us with knowledge of history get that.
Yup, the majority of my life has been on the back of a horse. It does not mean I sneer at "non-reality" in westerns. Heck, for most of us ranchers and former horsemen, that is all we watch! It's a well done TV show that is NOT a reality or doc. One just has to watch it for what it is and put down the ego about what is "real" or not because one has some knowledge. The Last Cowboy is kind of a joke too, but I still enjoy the horses and the overall capture of the lifestyle.
I think some of you will want to pick up the April issue of True West! Cover article: "The True History Behind '1883'"! I just got it in the mail, as a subscriber. I'll be saving it for the weekend.
Yup, the majority of my life has been on the back of a horse. It does not mean I sneer at "non-reality" in westerns. Heck, for most of us ranchers and former horsemen, that is all we watch! It's a well done TV show that is NOT a reality or doc. One just has to watch it for what it is and put down the ego about what is "real" or not because one has some knowledge. The Last Cowboy is kind of a joke too, but I still enjoy the horses and the overall capture of the lifestyle.
Totally agree and nicely put....thank you.....
Taylor's writings and his series are presently unmatched....leaves you craving more! I can't even begin to get into Outlander which used to be my favorite series....but lost interest b/c it takes them so long to film another series...I even enjoyed watching Mayor, and loved his movie....I forget the name of it now...but find it interesting that he seems to use the same actors in his shows.
Taylor's writings and his series are presently unmatched....leaves you craving more! I can't even begin to get into Outlander which used to be my favorite series....but lost interest b/c it takes them so long to film another series...I even enjoyed watching Mayor, and loved his movie....I forget the name of it now...but find it interesting that he seems to use the same actors in his shows.
Thanks! Il have to check out Mayor. I keep hearing good things.
I've watched all seasons of Yellowstone and I'm completely hooked. I just binged on 1883 and was disappointed in many ways but I still enjoyed it.
The immigrants were portrayed as having zero useable skills. That part was hard to believe. Many of them looked like farmers who would have had experience with livestock, possibly horses and cooking. Also, does anyone know what religion prohibits people from swimming like Josef referred to? I also got tired of Shea and Dutton complaining about how soft and slow they were when the experienced men should have been tougher with them and got them moving (instead of complaining about it) since all of their lives depended on it.
I wish there had been less focus on Elsa (and her meandering philosophical musings) and much more focus on other characters. Margaret was a great character with wisdom and experience and a loving marriage despite all the hardships. Margaret's sister Claire lost seven children! That was mentioned just once. Claire's story should have been explored more since it certainly contributed to her rocky relationship with Margaret. Claire had incredible strength and I wish she hadn't been killed off so early.
…Also, does anyone know what religion prohibits people from swimming like Josef referred to?…
I wish there had been less focus on Elsa (and her meandering philosophical musings) and much more focus on other characters. Margaret was a great character with wisdom and experience and a loving marriage despite all the hardships. Margaret's sister Claire lost seven children! That was mentioned just once. Claire's story should have been explored more since it certainly contributed to her rocky relationship with Margaret. Claire had incredible strength and I wish she hadn't been killed off so early.
1–it wasn’t religion that prohibited their knowing how to swim. It was cultural norms…and the idea that taking a bath is a threat to your health…
also not knowing how to swim kept them more tied to the land and helped prevent running away…
using a bridge often required a toll/questions about their travel so if they couldn’t swim they were more likely to stay home…
2–this wasn’t a general story about the history of the era…
It was a specific story to fill a niche created by “Yellowstone”’s fictional history of the Dutton family
Because Claire was not a Dutton, had no role in founding of “Yellowstone” she was just a tool to be used and Sheridan didn’t carry her too far…
Same with the immigrants’ stories… some were used as examples along the way and the rest except for Thomas’s woman and her sons ended up victims of the Plains justice and disinterest in the humans traveling across them at the time…
Personally I found Claire tiresome and sanctimonious and her daughter pretty insipid…
Note that both she and Margaret refused to really leave the side of their dead daughters:
Claire in one way, Margaret in another…
1–it wasn’t religion that prohibited their knowing how to swim. It was cultural norms…and the idea that taking a bath is a threat to your health…
also not knowing how to swim kept them more tied to the land and helped prevent running away…
using a bridge often required a toll/questions about their travel so if they couldn’t swim they were more likely to stay home…
2–this wasn’t a general story about the history of the era…
It was a specific story to fill a niche created by “Yellowstone”’s fictional history of the Dutton family
Because Claire was not a Dutton, had no role in founding of “Yellowstone” she was just a tool to be used and Sheridan didn’t carry her too far…
Same with the immigrants’ stories… some were used as examples along the way and the rest except for Thomas’s woman and her sons ended up victims of the Plains justice and disinterest in the humans traveling across them at the time…
Personally I found Claire tiresome and sanctimonious and her daughter pretty insipid…
Note that both she and Margaret refused to really leave the side of their dead daughters:
Claire in one way, Margaret in another…
No doubt about that and the comparisons between the daughters of both sisters was plain to see. I enjoy character development even if it doesn't directly relate to the overall messaging - in this case how the Dutton ranch came to be.
I did a little googling on the swimming ban and it seems it was in effect in parts of Germany in the 1600s because too many people had been drowning. The remedy at the time was to ban swimming altogether but the ban didn't seem to stay in effect for very long.
The show doesn't pretend to be accurate as most horse people have already pointed out. It's still an enjoyable show and all viewers are critics - I know I am!
Reading the True West commentary to 1883--they point out that it would have been more accurately named 1843, but that would have clashed with the Dutton family timeline! We are so smart, having pointed out all that stuff here in this thread...or perhaps one of us is the True West editor? Hmmmm?
Also, does anyone know what religion prohibits people from swimming like Josef referred to?
not religion - govt order and common sense. Until very recently (like 1990) european rivers were VERY polluted. Not just from industrial things, but human waste...all towns and cities from the birth of civilization in europe plumbed into the rivers untreated. Even to this day, contact is ill advised. Going swimming would be like....well....work up your own mental image and dont eat the clark bar
In the show most if not all the immigrants were said to be russian and prussian (what we call german today) in reality, at the time, neither was very close together and you would expect different peoples of a ethnicity to be intermixed, but since prussia and russia sound alike, sheridan thot they were the same and shared a similar language (they dont)
I agree with whomever said the level at which they had zero skills was overplayed. sure, weapons were limited to hunting and required military service and they knew more about transmutable diseases from animals than 'murricans did. making it look like they were more clueless than Paris Hilton on a farm was inaccurate.
My own prussian ancestors I owe my surname to, crawled out of mines and off of farms, trod to rotterdam and landed in the new world in the mid 1850s and crawled into PA mines and RRs. they did just fine without guidance from people who would barely be teens at that point.
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