Book Review: The Raiders: Sons of Texas
March 10, 2010 – 1:10 am
This is the middle volume of trilogy about two brothers that went to Texas and survived during a time of conflict and strife in the Texas owned and controlled by Mexico. The
Main characters are brothers. They are like two peas out of the same pod with very minor differences except for the major one being that Michael is a wander and always is drawn to the western horizon. Andrew is the farmer and wants to stay home and watch the crops grow and tend to the fields. This leads to conflict between them and raises more trouble because one is married and one is not.
When trouble arrives the brother’s act as a single unit. Trouble does arrive with the Blackwood’s from Tennessee and it is compounded on almost every turn. Things continue to happen and events escalate as Andrew leaves in a ploy to keep Michael at home and the sky falls in and Andrew almost loses his life.
This is an excellent book that I actually paid an over due fine on because I wanted to finish the story. This western is a must read. I will now read the other two books in the trilogy.
Movie Review: Civil War II A Bloody Affair 1862
March 6, 2010 – 1:10 am
This second disc in two parts highlights the year 1862. The introduction of the Income Tax and the Inventions for making war show casing the Gatling Gun. This year highlights the fact that the weapons have surged far ahead of military tactics. General McClellan is in charge of the Union army but is unable to move himself to the necessities of war by attacking the enemy.
The Confederate army begins the first military draft of men to fight the war. A key provision is if you own twenty slaves you would be exempt from service. This lead the soldiers to the saying that this was a rich mans war and a poor mans fight. At the beginning of the year over one million men were massed and ready for war. The future of freedom is at stake for all people.
The soldiers were ready to fight and they did and suffered great losses up to and exceeding thirty percent losses in battle. Grant wins several battles and defeats the Confederate army in Tennessee. His success is at Shilo, meaning a Place of Peace in Hebrew. This win lost him his command because he was too successful and his commanding officer wanted that recognition himself. The war continued along the Rivers and raged most noted on the Mississippi with the push from both ends. New Orleans fell to General Butler and Vicksburg held and a siege would begin. The images of war and death were recorded for the first time by the effort of Mathew B. Brady.
New tactics were called for to wage the war in a renewed direction. Without this change the War would be surely lost. This direction was the Emancipation Proclamation, which was to be in affect January 1st 1863 and it would free the slaves. The Union would be as it should be Free to all men.
This documentary continues to move me in strange and significant ways as it high lights to me the making of the western mystique.
Book Review: Trail Hand
March 3, 2010 – 1:10 am
This western is a story about a traveling cowhand, Owen that is instantly enamored by a ranch owner’s daughter, Rosa, as he is attempting to be hired. The ranch is where every thing begins and it is south of the Mexican border. He is hired on as a scout to lead the trail drive of horses to California. There is much hesitation by the ramrod, Chavez, but he is hired anyway. The owner feels confident with him as a guide across the lands the vaqueros do not know. He is doing his job and making good decisions but the ramrod still does not like him or his decisions.
Now the plot thickens and he is ambushed and the horses are driven away along with the don getting shot and the outlaw impersonating Owen. Everything is down hill from here. He has to reestablish his credibility and find the horses. The story twists and turns in this journey to rescue his name and the don’s horses.
This is a well-conceived plot and story line. I enjoy the flow of the story and recommend it to any reader who would like to get an introduction to western stories.
Movie Review: PBS Documentary The Civil War Part 1
February 27, 2010 – 1:10 am
This is a multiple part documentary movie series on the Civil War by Ken Burns. The coverage is from how the Civil War began to the end of the war. Part one is geared around what happened to get this scenario moving in such a direction and to cause so much mayhem. It begs me to question why the feelings were so hot and completely out of control. How could things be so one sided and inflict so much high feelings of emotion. In the House of Representatives one mans emotions caused him to completely loose control and beat an opponent in the same room violently with his cane. In the aftermath members started coming armed to do the business of the country.
The Civil War is a defining point about who we are as Americans. The population was from small towns and farms and 1 in 7 people were slaves. The declaration of Independence was the true beginning of the division that would cause the Civil War. All men are created equal. The cotton gin made the use of slaves an economic reality for the large farm owners of the south.
As we approach the flashpoint of the war where session and an army against the North is formed begins with a simple book written by H. B. Stowe, Uncle Toms Cabin. This book rallied the emotions of abolitionist all over the world against slavery. Then the meteor that lit the fire was Jon Brown who attacked Harpers Ferry in 1859 and was subsequently captured by the Union General Robert E. Lee. The election of Abraham Lincoln with only 40% of the vote put session in full motion. Then in 1861 Fort Sumter was bombarded and the army located in its walls surrendered and the Civil War began.
The first part was very informative and a moving documentary and I would recommend any western reader or western person who wanted to better understand how the problems of the west came about and how the people of the west were truly molded into their unique form came to be how they were.
Book Review: The Smoky Hill
February 24, 2010 – 1:10 am
This is book two written by Don Coldsmith in a series of three books written by different authors. The book is about the western end of Kansas River called the Smoky Hill River. The book is divided into three parts. Part one is about the initial exploration and mapping of the river and a trail was established along the banks of the river to the western boundary of the Kansas Territory. The trail providing a shorter route to the mountains. The initial party had a Booth member who volunteered to participate in the excursion to map the river and the streams that empty into the Smoky Hill.
Part two is an extension of the story with two brothers from the same family as they are on a westward trip to find gold at Cherry Creek now known as Denver in the state of Colorado. They elect to use the trail of the Smoky Hill River that they had heard about from their uncle. He was part of survey party who initially mapped the trail. The brothers have a disagreement as to which direction the trail went and they separated causing a division of the party and the separation of the brothers and a final division of their lives forever.
Part three continues the story with a third generation Booth who is in the military and wants to see and explore the land that took his father and separated his uncle completely from the eastern portion of the family. Many twists and turn happen and love comes to the last family traveler in the Booth family along the Smoky Hill River.
I definitely would recommend this particular book as a western about the far end of the Kansas River. Don Coldsmith is an author with great skills and we all miss him and the stories that he wrote and we can still be read the total body of his work.
Movie Review: The Ox-Bow Incident
February 20, 2010 – 1:10 am
This movie is adapted from the novel of Walter Van Tilburg Clark’s by the same name. This movie is a tense drama highlighting the dangers inherent in the nature of man. The vision is that of a mob mentality that can and will replace reason.
Henry Fonda and Henry Morgan portray cowboys new into town that is plagued by cattle rustling. The news of a local rancher getting murdered raises a storm of fury in the community and a posse of local men most bent on revenge is formed. The leader is an ex-Confederate major who wants to toughen up his son. The two cowboys are sweep up in the posse because not going would make them look guilt being new in town. The vigilante justice delivered by the posse casts a blind eye to the possibility that the three men may be innocent and hangs them all. The meaning is visibly clear that blind prejudice can lead to the death of innocents.
This life lesson was and is always true. This western movie contains an important living truth that things done in the heat of a crisis can often result in the wrong action. I highly recommend this movie as one to see. The movie was nominated for an Oscar in 1943 as Best Picture and lost out to Casablanca.
Book Review: The Trail up Old Arrowhead
February 17, 2010 – 1:10 am
Book Review: The Trail up Old Arrowhead
This story is a conclusion to an installment story of two parts that appeared in Five Stat Westerns. The story is about a gentle giant who sees deeply into the human soul. Bull Hunter is this man and he becomes romantically intertwined with a ranch owner’s daughter who is being courted by the ruthless large ranch owner. She only wants the man who has nothing and runs away to catch up with him so she can spend her life with him.
The story has many twists and turns and an encounter with a bad man who sees into her soul and he cares for her and sends her after her love with the directions to meet him. I enjoyed the story and was taken by the way the author helped magnify the depth of the characters.
Book Review: The Finding of Jeremey
February 10, 2010 – 1:10 am
The book is a short western story written by Frederick Faust under the name of Max Brand. This story is about an eastern young man who is challenged by a woman to grow some backbone. She told him he could get this backbone by going west and being more like the men in the west instead of being browbeaten by the men that he knew and worked for.
This leads to an adventure, which suddenly goes wrong on his train ride to the west. He looses his money and is knocked off the train by an over zealous conductor. He survives the fall and is in a land that he does not know or want to know. He is witness to a double murder and things get really complicated for him from that point on. I will save all of the ins and outs for your reading.
I felt that it was an excellent story and was well worth the time to read and digest the meat of this good western story. I definitely recommend this story to those who enjoy a good western with some uniqueness in the story line.
Movie Review: Conagher
February 6, 2010 – 1:10 am
This is a western movie from a Louis L’Amour story by the same title. The story revolves around the lives of two people of the west. We have a recently widowed Evie Teale, played by Katherine Ross, who is sticking to the land her husband brought her to. He then road off to buy cattle and lost his life but know one knew. Her story is about the loneliness of her life even with two children and also it highlights her pioneer spirit, which kept her trying to live her life on her terms. Conn Conagher, played by Sam Elliot, admires a woman with nerve and Evie has plenty of that.
The story has action with the usual array of western characters showing how the western life looked. Conagher is attracted to Evie and moves in and out of her life as time passes and many events and people trying to make him take a pathway that he would be less comfortable with. The question is can Evie keep him from drifting out of her life again.
I recommend this movie because of the actors and how it is portrayed. The movie is a western in the truest since of the word. It is a must see for all western film buffs.
Book Review: Werewolf
February 3, 2010 – 1:10 am
Yes this is a western story written by Max Brand from the trio collection book Men Beyond the Law. The main character of this story Christopher Royal is not beyond the law but the youngest brother of four. He is afraid that he is a coward because he does not want to fight or kill. All of his brothers have proven their bravery with different act that were publicly exhibited. Chris is pushed into killing the brother of a know murder of men Harry Main.
The story has Chris planning his run away from the potential of being gunned down. He leaves and only telling his mother who is also a brave woman. She knows that death would be better for Chris than the life of a fear consumed man. She sends the murder a note telling him where he will be waiting for him at a cabin in the woods.
The story continues and an old Indian is encountered and he tell him the story of his life. I will stop here with my evaluation of the story so that I don’t give away the ending. This is a western story that I would not have picked to read but it is unusual and has all of the qualities needed to be a western story. You maybe should read this story because it is short and evaluate it on your own.
