If no one ever stops there...
...Or gets off the train, how do they keep a hotel going?
Seemed like very few people in town actually had a job.
"Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government."
-Dennis
And if none of them worked, who kept any of them in business ? Weird story in that way ... there was mention of a town 30 something miles away I think so maybe they all pile in Ernie and Roberts rigs and car pool to their jobs in that other town ?
Another odd thing was that none of these guys had a problem with bullying a 'cripple' who was many years their senior ... Back in those days if you hit a guy who wore glasses you were considered a low life scumbag coward -
it was considered un American or not the American way to do such a thing.
I've always enjoyed this movie, since I was a kid, but you have to suspend so much (reality) that I don't know if
this same story with lesser talents in the lead rolls would had ever made it into the theaters.
It was said that cowboys have standing reservations to use the hotel (I assume during cattle drives), and some of the rooms are set up as showrooms for salesman.
The salesmen perhaps drive there in cars rather than take the train. The cowboys maybe stay there as they pass through on cattle drives.
This town is so tiny -- what, ten buildings -- that it's hard to see what keeps its economy afloat.
Cowhands might come into the place from nearby ranches on occasion, but if you think about it what was there for them to do in a town that small besides eat the two kinds of chili at Sam's? Salesmen doing business at a ranch might come through once in a while, but there seems little around for salesmen to make Black Rock a worthwhile stop. There is nothing to speak of in Black Rock, and not much in evidence of what anyone there does for a living.
Frankly, I'm surprised they have a jail and a gas station, let alone a railroad stop -- but then these are necessary for the plot. Their presence might otherwise not make much sense. If they have a railroad station they should have a Post Office, especially if Black Rock is some sort of regional center, but there's no sign of one.
Remember also that this is at the end of the war, when gas was rationed and travel restricted. This would have made the train the likeliest mode of getting there (unless you were coming from a ranch), since travel by car would have been difficult. If enough people visit Black Rock to keep the hotel going, at least during the war many should have come by rail. All these factors make the idea that the train hadn't stopped there in four years not very credible.
This issue is just one more in a series of lapses in plot logic in this still enjoyable film. Initially BDABR seems great but when you think about it a great deal of it just doesn't add up or make sense.
It's a very small town and there is little commerce. The economy, such as it is, is driven by the ranches outside of the town. Smith himself is a rancher. Hector was a ranch hand and Colie may have been too, so there were jobs just not necessarily in town. Maybe there was a post office and it just wasn't shown.
Perhaps the filmmakers did go too far in making the town seem so small and decrepit. But then again, if one worked on a remote ranch this town's bar would provide some entertainment, especially if there were women available.
We hear about Smith's ranch but if Hector and Coley work on it they show no signs of doing so -- they're just sitting around on the hotel porch from the first, with no sign that they work anywhere else. And actually, it's never stated that they're ranch hands. They work for Smith -- but on the ranch, or as hired thugs? This is never stated.
It's also unclear how many ranches there may actually be around, and as far as we know we never see anybody other than townspeople in the place. The excuse for initially not giving Macreedy a room in the hotel -- that the rooms are reserved for ranch hands -- sounds at the least exaggerated, and if they come into town as seldom as the evidence suggests that doesn't sound like a feasible way to keep the place going. The same with the other businesses.
As for the post office, there might have been one, but since we don't see it we can't simply assume one exists, and given the place's tiny size I doubt there was one, otherwise we'd almost certainly have seen it. Also, mail would be delivered and picked up by the train, which means it would either stop every day or at least toss out mail in sacks and pick it up using one of those hook-and-ring devices once used by trains to grab outgoing mail -- for neither of which we see any evidence.
The town's bar? You mean Sam's? That's a café, and while they may serve beer it's clearly not a saloon, and there's no sign of one anyplace in town. And when you say, "especially if there were women available", all I can ask is -- what women? Liz seems to be the lot...and she's Smith's property.
No. I like the look of Black Rock but not all the pieces fit together very logically or realistically.
Sam's place is a bar & grill. That's what the sign says. In a very small town it'd be likely there'd be one business serving food and liquor.
I think the filmmakers conception of the town and environs goes beyond what is literally depicted. The entire time frame of the film is what, maybe eight hours. This can't show everything that typically goes on in the town. Yes, the hotel is virtually empty when Macreedy arrives. That doesn't mean that over a period of time it wouldn't have sufficient customers to stay (just barely) in business. The film explains how it does most of its business. Why would a viewer have difficulty accepting this? Perhaps the hotel is on the verge of folding for lack of business, but that's not the issue.
I think more people live in the town, besides the nine that appear on screen (plus a handful of extras). As I pointed out before, I believe the filmmakers purposely overemphasized the smallness and isolation of the town for dramatic effect.
If a bar-restaurant depends on sporadic visits from ranch hands/cowboys for its livelihood I think it's plausible they might "import" women for these occasions. I wasn't referring to Liz. She isn't the only woman in the whole town, and remember San City (an apparently fairly sizable city) is only 32 miles away.
Hector (Lee Marvin) appears to be a cowboy. He mentions this to Macreedy in the hotel room sequence when he says the rooms "are for us cowboys when we're in town". I didn't say he worked for Smith as this isn't indicated.
I believe the overall depiction of the town and its surroundings is believable. If it wasn't the whole film falls apart. Perhaps you believe the latter, which is your prerogative.
No one said there were only "nine people" in the town. At the very end we see lots of people standing around, all suddenly come from out of the woodwork to watch the arrests.
I don't disagree that the "overall" depiction of the town is believable, but I strongly disagree that if it weren't, "the whole thing falls apart". There are legitimate holes that can be poked in the depiction without sacrificing the fundamental believability of the setting.
Hector says he's a ranch hand when Macreedy comes back to his room but that's just in line with Pete's telling Macreedy that all the rooms are reserved for ranch hands. There's nothing to corroborate that statement, or what he or Coley really do. They may very well work on the ranch, but their demeanor, the fact that they're just sitting around town, and never say anything about the ranch or their work, make this something of a gap in the narrative.
Obviously the hotel and bar & grill stay in business. To the first, Pete tells Macreedy it services mostly salesmen and ranch hands. That may be true, but it could also be a dodge, or at least an exaggeration, that Pete uses to try to discourage Macreedy from trying to get a room there. I think it's legitimate to ask just how big a clientele would really be in a place that doesn't seem to be a center of anything, especially when not even the train stops there. Remember there's Sand -- not "San" -- City (which does not at all sound like a major metropolis, only something bigger than Black Rock -- not hard to exceed). That sounds like the place most cowhands and salesmen would more usually stay or party at.
As for Sam's place, even if it is partially a bar, it's not exactly a major night spot and from all appearances is more a diner than any kind of saloon. If they "import" women I don't know where from. Wouldn't the cowhands be more likely to go to a bigger town, the aforementioned Sand City?
Obviously, anything's possible. My sole point is that there are flaws in the conception of Black Rock that don't all add up. Actually, I find its small size and isolation quite believable and fascinating. But there is a devil in some of the details, and it's perfectly fair to question these rather than swallowing the film unreservedly. None of this is a big deal, just something to observe and comment about. Questioning some of the back story or the strict logic of it is perfectly legitimate. It doesn't, and shouldn't, diminish the film or its appeal.
I would suspect Smith and his cowboys may have had a lucrative black market racket during the war, selling rationed meat.
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