MovieChat Forums > Unforgiven (1992) Discussion > Logistical issues in the film.

Logistical issues in the film.


1. Leaving tiny children alone. How old are those 2 kids 8 and 5? You just leave them for weeks at a time? I could see leaving them with friends or relatives but leaving them alone? What ae the odds they would be there alive when you get back 6-7 weeks later? That was crazy. Is that worth it? "Kill a few chickens if you have to." WTF?

2. Riding horseback 450 miles. Kansas to Wyoming? As in almost all westerns you are shown the incredibly unrealistic image of one man on one horse. To begin such a trip would require at least 3 animals. 2 horses and a mule. A mule to carry much of your supplies and horses to alternate carrying you. To rely on one horse to carry everything is nuts. If the horse goes lame you are done for.

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There was a huge cattle trail from east to west and north to south in the old west with towns all the way.

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How does that contradict anything I said?

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They can resupply at the towns.

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It was a different time and place. Even when I was a kid, my friends and I would leave our houses on a summer morning and come back at dark when we were 8 years old. No, I'm not saying it's the same as leaving the kids two weeks, but my point is that these days, parents don't let their kids out of their sight. Things change. A hundred years before I was born was even more different.

The kids ages weren't given in this movie, but for reference, the actors were 9 and 12.

In the 19th century in an American territory, a 12 year old boy would be essentially a man.

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Same here. Forty, fifty years ago and more, kids had a lot more autonomy, even at eight or younger. Things are so different, now that children are under continuous surveillance and control, I think it's hard for a lot of people to comprehend or believe how it used to be, if they weren't around then.

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