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Western movies


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Posted

Even as a youngster watching westerns, be it outlaws or indians after the stagecoach or chasing down the heroes, why is it that when trying to stop a stagecoach, as in JW Stagecoach. The indians didn't just shoot the horses to stop it? Same for heroe being chased and the outlaws never hit the heroes horse or vice-versa, a lot lead is firing both ways. Seems a horse is a bigger target then shooting the pistol out of their hands.

Also noticed that be it Hoppy, Roy or Gene, not till the end of the picture does their prowness with the firearm improve. Seems their always just missing the bad guy during the flick, but at the end they can shoot a pistol out of the bad guys hand at 500 yds on a running horse. Also how does the heroe stay so clean, and were do they get those wet and dry costumes from. A fight in the river and a minute later they are drip dry completely. Also why don't they ever show the towns sanitation workers, have you ever seen a horses droppings in a picture? :rolleyes: MT

Posted

A. Shooting the horses would considerably shorten the chase scene. Hard to build excitement and use your potentially Oscar winning musical score if all you have is a pile of dead horses and a wrecked stagecoach.

 

B. Bad guys eventually slow down after being chased around for 90 minutes. Thus it's easier to draw a bead on em.

 

C. Most of the dust just stuck to the Cavalry. Note when they ride into town they're usually covered in it.

Clothes dry fast out here. Our humidity is only about 18%.

 

D. The only time you see individual road apples is for comic effect. Given the amount of horse traffic in a town pretty much the whole street was a layer of poo. They didn't really notice it until they started paving the roads. ;)

Posted

What Bob said.

 

Also, think about how the public would have received those movies in the era they were made in. Our public was a lot more innocent than today, and movie scenes of blasting horses would have been scandalous and most likely banned. Oh the humanity!

 

It was a real tactic during the Civil War, so it did happen in real life. In the CW, it took 6 horses to pull one cannon and its associated implements. Horses are expensive and finite in quantity, so the opposing sides would try to shoot the other side's artillery horses with their cannons. If the horses died, the enemy couldn't maneuver their cannons. Photographs and first hand accounts both show fields full of dead men and horses, many of which were these artillery horses.

 

So yes, it really happened, but no it would not have been well-received.

Posted

Many times in the Old West, it was the horses they were after. Therefore, they would try not to shoot them unless by accident.

Posted

Seriously folks, the reason Capt Walker went to see Sam'l colt was to get him to make a pistol that was capable of killing a horse. Thus the Walker.

Posted

I just saw a movie the other night on the Western Channel where one cowboy told the other to shoot the horses in a chase scene.

Can't remember the name.

 

What amuses me is when the cavalry, wagon train or stagecoach is firing on the attacking Indians, the Indian AND the horse goes down, then the horse gets up and trots away. That happens a lot in the older westerns... must be a sympathy reaction on the horse's part.

Posted

Well back when I waz a kid, we wood buy old movie stunt horses

who were trained to fall every 25 feet...we had a small yard. :rolleyes:

Posted

I just saw a movie the other night on the Western Channel where one cowboy told the other to shoot the horses in a chase scene.

Can't remember the name.

 

There's a scene like that in "The Professionals".

Posted

Believe it was in Wyatt Earp where Costner told his partner " Shoot the horse. You can hit a horse, can't you?"

 

Not a western, but in Braveheart Mel Gibson, as William Wallace, directed his men to make spears "twice as long as a man". Spears were specifically designed to kill the horses of the English army's 'heavy horse' charge.

Posted

I just saw a movie the other night on the Western Channel where one cowboy told the other to shoot the horses in a chase scene.

Can't remember the name.

 

There's a scene like that in "The Professionals".

Yep, that's it... thanks Bad Hand

Posted

My question in watching these old movies and TV shows, is how the heck did the town Doc make a living? He never seems to be getting paid but is always patching up some poor fool who got all shot ta heck.

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