RawhideThis is a great example of how just when you thought you knew someone, they give you something new. :) Well, this year I give you my Wild West side. c):)
When I was little - you'll find that most things began this way - there were 3 things I enjoyed sharing with my dad.
1> Watching the original black and white King Kong movie with him when I was a toddler. I now barely remember anything other than my father having to grab a wailing me and take me out the house to cheer me up.
2> Spending a very sleepy Sunday watching some random Western with my dad still in his own very western style 'long jons' farting his brains out and making me cringe. Lol those were the days... c):S
3> Watching wildlife programmes with my father and my dad relentlessly asking me questions about EVERY FUCKING thing said by the presenter.
Basically my dad introduced an interest in Westerns for me. The first few times I was forced to watch it with him I found it really boring, I was annoyed that he wouldn't just leave and let me switch the channel over to see a Fred Astaire movie or a Marilyn Manroe movie or a cartoon or the Munsters! Once he had a go at me after I relentlessly whined at him. He said "I love westerns because they teach me about how to cope with real life...". After he said that it made me think for a while, and I kind of felt sorry for him and decided to look at the western in a different light.
Now my father is an old fashioned guy with a loopy sense of humour and a huge curiosity about things he doesn't know about... he accepts that there's alot he doesn't know about and he isn't scared to say "I don't know but can you teach me." He was born into a rich family on the verge of crumbling. His mum and dad divorced. His mum wasn't mentally right to cope with my dad after my granddad left her so soon. She was very unaware of other's around her and their feelings, and she was snobbish without really understanding why. She came from a sheltered background her father was also a high up military man. His dad was just as bad, a man commited to the army, to gambling, drinking, and women. He didn't really seem to be there for my dad and I guess my dad really wished he had been. I can sort of understand and in some way my dad's longing for his father reminds me of the western classic called Shane.
When I first saw Shane I couldn't help but laugh. It is so obviously about man o man love. We've all had some experience of the Shane syndrome where we've all wanted to remain close to someone wheather it be to learn things or to ride alongside them forever.Of course there are down sides to the western. The fact that the newly imigrated white men in this so called 'new land' weren't going to admite that this 'new land' was infact already the home of Native American's. And the bad bit doesn't stop with the way they mistreated, and nearly drove these people to extinction. The way they rode their cattle all over the land, stripping the already dry land of what grass was there, shoulder bashing their highly competitive cattle market all over the states and fighting the Mexican's for more territory and errecting a cruel border blocking the Mexican's out of what used to be their land. The American meat industry is a shambles, they shut British beef out of their country after the BSE crisis. But it is now clear that the tables are turning on American beef. Japan had blocked all American beef imports for the last 2 years and has recently re-confirmed this ban due to BSE fears.
But this doesn't mean that I can't enjoy the land? Or the horses, the clothes, the free land living lifestyle. The only responsibility being that of getting up, checking your cattle heard, having a cuppa coffee, riding your heard to fresh pastur, keeping em safe, having the odd dip in a river somewhere, sleeping under the stars...
Well I hadn't seen a Western since my college days, but when I eventually got round to seeing Firely and Serenity the whole western side of that programme re-awoke my feelings. And who can blame me when I am graced with a butt naked Nathan Fillion or
Mal as he's known in the show.Right now I really fancy seeing something western on telly... but I dunno what. :) A few nights ago I got to see Blazing Saddles for the first time and it was really funny. I wouldn't mind seeing that from scratch again.
Here's the trailer clip:
Blazing Saddles By singingfish.com
posted by Burcu Urundul @ 7:53 pm
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