MovieChat Forums > Badman's Country (1958) Discussion > Questionable strategy! (Spoiler)

Questionable strategy! (Spoiler)

posted 12 years ago by corriganville
2 replies | jump to latest

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this movie. My only question is, wasn't Myron Healy available?

Anyhow, I had to laugh at the mini-gunfight before the big finale. Pat Garret, Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson are having a blazing gun battle with the Sundance Kid, Blackjack Ketchum and Harvey Logan. All combatants are well hidden behind walls, horse troughs and fences so plenty of splinters are flying as bullets meet wood. This should have kept going until someone ran out of bullets.
But first, Blackjack decides the wall he is behind is providing too much cover so he walks into the middle of the alley to continue firing. Whoops, one of the lawman (Wyatt or Bat) picks him off. Then Harve decides to take a powder so moves in slow motion to his horse in the middle of the street. Yep, Bat or Wyatt, whoever didn't take out Blackjack, shots Harve off his horse. Now, this all pisses off Sundance who stands up from behind his horse trough yelling to Pat, "Stand up, stand up!". It has already been established more than once that Pat shoots first and asks questions later, so Pat stands up and before Sundance gets a shot off, blows away Sundance who goes down muttering "Stand up, stand up". And these guys were supposed to be toughest, meanest owlhoots in the territory!

[–] Jason_Radley 10 years ago

The gang's plan of attack on the bank left me confused. The initial foray was charged with throwing the dynamite where it would divert any lawmen to the other end of town, i.e., away from the bank and the main raiding party. But it was used against the marshal's office that was just across from the bank, leaving the gang to be caught in the midst of threeway cross-fire.

[–] ben-thayer 9 years ago

My thought was that the dynamite they used was mighty wimpy. They didn't just throw one stick, it was at least 8 sticks bundled together. But all it did was blow the door of the marshal's office off its hinges. Wouldn't a bundle like that take out a chunk of the city block?

Plus, the big shootout at the end...did ya notice how the good guys lit fire to some hay bales and then just kinda stood behind the flames while firing? They weren't crouching behind any cover or whatever, just standing fully upright behind a couple of burning bales of hay. I don't think I'm going out on a limb here by saying fire doesn't do much in the way of stopping a bullet.

Still...a pretty good cast, and I was entertained despite the utter and complete lack of historical accuracy (didn't Butch and Sundance buy the farm in Bolivia?). And I'm still trying to figure out what Buffalo Bill was doing in this one, he didn't seem to be doing a whole lot.