MovieChat Forums > The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970) Discussion > Flag again.,date movie was set in and Wi...

Flag again.,date movie was set in and Wild Bunch

posted 18 years ago by sirk46
7 replies | jump to latest

OK, NOT a 50 star flag (duh..no Alaska and Hawaii then) What WAS the flag?
Someone said the movie was set in 1908, any hard evidence? If so it should be easy to find the flag.
Any help from Wild Bunch (which I watched tonight for the FIRST time) where Strother Martin makes the same comment about a car he makes in CH 'I seen one of those before..'( do they run on steam?) 'No, gasoline' (without the gas-o-line pronounciation) The car in WB seems a bit more modern than the one Hildy arrives in. Any car mavens out there ? THAT may help to pinpoint the time of the film and settle the flag issue IF someone can be sure how long Hildy was gone. Rambling here..

[–] markr38 17 years ago

In 1908 there were 2 flags.
45 stars up until July 4th, then Oklahoma was admmitted, making it 46.
New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska and Hawaii were still not states.
I don't know or recall how man stars were on Cables flag.

[–] ScopeWatcher 17 years ago

I'M the one who declared in another thread that most of this film takes place in 1908. Since you asked, sirk46, here's my evidence: Apart from the fact that many townspeople (including at least two boys in dress suits) wear fashions which are out of the circa-1870s period of most Westerns, Peckinpah declared in at least one interview -- in the Fall 1969 issue of Film Quarterly -- that "CABLE HOGUE takes place in 1908, 1909." And when Taggart & Bowen return late in the film, Hogue tells them he's had the place for "three years and a half," so let's figure that puts the end of the film between 1911 at the earliest and, possibly, as late as 1913 (only a year before the events of THE WILD BUNCH).

And even though people always discuss THE WILD BUNCH being set in 1913, it's much more likely to be 1914. Anybody need hard evidence about THAT?

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] hendrilh 17 years ago

I think that ScopeWatcher is right. When the Wild Bunch sees Gen. Mapache's car, Sykes says that he has seen one "up north that can fly". Pike responds; "He's right, they're going to use them in the war". So, going by what Pike states, the "War" (WW I) has already started.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] efball 16 years ago

There is a scene (at 1:08 on my DVR clock) where the flag is clearly visible. It has 46 stars, so that puts it between 1908 and 1912.

[–] tylerd1-1 8 years ago

Definitely 48 stars on the flag. Seven rows of 8. 1912 or later at that point I guess