How come nobody's noticed that in the knife fight scene Cole stabs the Indian in the leg, leves his knife there, picks up the Indian's knife, puts it in his sheath and leaves. Why would anyone leave with the other guy's knife? (other than this little detail - I love this film!)
This message has not yet been deleted by an administrator
it's a mojo thing - you defeat the enemy, you're entitled to his weapon. Even Harry Potter did it...
btw - it's "sheath" - not sheet
Makes sense - but why 'give' him your own? I guess Hill did it for cinematic reasons, but it's still a goof to me....
This message has not yet been deleted by an administrator
if you're into goofs, I hope you caught the fact that the Ford brothers were introduced to Jesse 4 years earlier than in real life and they didnt meet at a wedding...I mean, if you're going to be technical, why stop at a knife?
shareThe Ford brother-thing isn't a goof, a goof is something the filmmaker missed or were too incompetent to make right - the Ford-thing is artistic interpretation, Hill must have thought it mattered to introduce them but it didn't matter exactly when, it would obviously mean to change the whole script and sequence of things only to be historically correct with a detail that didn't have any impact on anything.
This message has not yet been deleted by an administrator
... but it's still a goof to me....Not for me. I think he liked Sam's knife and simply felt he had made it his own.🐭 share
I noticed that Cole takes Sam's knife. It raised two questions for me: One, why didn't he take his own knife back as well? And two, have you ever seen such big honking knives before? I burst out laughing every time I watch this scene. Sam pulls out this monstrous machete. Cole shrugs and casually pulls out his own equally monstrous blade. It's wonderful.
~~"Lucas, you and I were just friends."~~
they were in Texas - those were both Bowie knives - very popular then as they are now.
shareNow, since you're into details: Cole wasn't from Texas, he didn't even like Texas, so this Texas-Bowie-knife idea don't make sense. It was a great scene and it would not have played well if one of them (or both) had some silly small stilettos....
(I can also buy that Cole left the knife in the leg for visual reasons, it was a better way to end the fight instead of pulling the thing out - but it's still a goof)
This message has not yet been deleted by an administrator
then I guess you could say the knife scene is also one of "artistic interpretation" added to the movie as little more than a way to introduce action into the film because it didn't do anything for the story.
shareIn that case you didn't get the meaning of the fight at all, regarding the relationship between Cole and Belle Starr, not to mention the development of Cole's character, with impact of his actions and decisions later on. If you remember the plot at all, Hill showed us each character's motivation to return from 'retirement' and do the Nothfield raid.
This message has not yet been deleted by an administrator
No, I got it, I remember the plot well enough to know there were several anachronistic mistakes. I just didn't think it was necessary to go into detail about Younger's relationship with Starr. I think The Great Northfield MN Raid movie - a crap film with Cliff Robertson in the lead as Younger - concentrated more on Cole Younger (of course, Robertson was a producer) and had a lot more gratuitous nudity.
What retirement? Sorry, but I don't consider 20-months without a heist as going into "retirement". Younger's previous job before the Northfield raid was the robbery of the Iron Mountain Railroad in Gad's Hill in 1874. The Northfield Raid occurred just a year and a half later. After that, Cole Younger was caught and went to jail - wasn't paroled until 1901.
Perhaps they weren't retired and simply lived off the money they stashed earlier - but the point is that Hill defintely w a n t e d them to appear retired, or rather trying to live steady family lives, at which they failed in one way or another, Cole by finally realizing that his Belle Starr-obsession was at a dead end. (This idea has of course been explored dozens of times on film, such as in The Wild Bunch, or in Lonely Are the Brave, but it almost always works.) So, Hill had to have some little scene telling us Coles failure, and he chose this one.
By the way, it would have been interesting to read the book he wrote after release, I wonder if it can be ordered somewhere...
This message has not yet been deleted by an administrator
I saw it on offer some while back, but they wanted to much for it -I think it was a period publication, not a recent reprint tho.
I do wish there was a definitive Younger movie, however. Something a bit more documented and true to facts - perhaps the popularity of "Assasination of Jesse James..." will encourage a 'sequel' or maybe even a prequel where the Gang is shown in their beginning stages from Jess' days with Quantrill up to the Northfield raid. Now THAT would be a movie/book worth looking into.
It shouldn't require too large a budget, so perhaps someone could do it without too much regard for bending the truth in order to please box offices... But who?
Pity the book hasn't been reprinted....
Another book worth interest is the one on history and tactics of Cavalry, written by Captain Edward Nolan, some years before he rallied the infamous Balaclava charge in which he died - it's easy available at Amazon, as is of course Tony Richardson's brilliant film! :)
(I'm drifting away from the subject, though...)
This message has not yet been deleted by an administrator
Younger's book is still in print and can be ordered at Amazon.
"So what else is on your mind besides 100 proof women, 90 proof whiskey, and 14 karat gold?"
In his book, does Cole Younger talk about how he really felt about Belle Starr? Personally, I like their scenes best in this movie. So, even though Cole won the fight with Starr, he didn't stay to claim his prize? "Nothing either of you haven't had yet."
"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne
Did Cole participate in Northfield to get $ to join Belle?
"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne
And the ribbon keeps switching from the left side of Carradine's mouth to the right, and then back again?
How would Carradine get his knife back? Someone had to pull it out of Starr's leg. Carradine must have felt he had to leave the bar.
share1. It's possible that Cole considered Starr's knife to be of higher quality than his own.
2. He would've had to pull his knife out of Starr's leg, ruining the fluidity of his dramatic exit and dissing of Belle.