Video: Movie heroes and their prototypes: the Hollywood myth about cowboys turned out to be far from reality
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Dashing heroes from American Westerns, firing from Colts from two hands, are nothing more than fiction, another Hollywood mythwhich distorts reality to a great extent. Actually in everyday life cowboys there was much less heroism, romance and revolver firing. What were the dashing guys of the Wild West, who became the symbols of American culture, really?
The screen image of the cowboy is a handsome macho man of European appearance, hung with weapons. In fact, a third of the cowboys were blacks, freed and looking for work, and a quarter were Indians! Weapons were not affordable for all of them: a cowboy (that is, a "shepherd") earned an average of $ 25 a month, and weapons were more expensive at that time.
Revolvers were then too heavy to be constantly worn on the hips. In addition, the Colts were not self-cocking, and each shot required the participation of both hands. Therefore, firing two revolvers at the same time was simply impossible. The same as the mass shooting in saloons: the cartridges were filled with black powder, and after the very first shots a thick smoke screen was formed. Well, there could not be a mountain of corpses after the shootout, for the reason that this weapon was not suitable for aimed shooting at moving targets and at long distances - it was possible to hit only from a few steps. The weapon was needed rather for shooting in the air, controlling the herd.
The era of cowboys began in the second half of the 19th century, when it became necessary to drive herds of feral bulls in Texas. Until the end of the century, this short era ended. And already in the 1930s, a tradition of glorification and romanticization of cowboys appeared in America. In country music, cinema, comics, courageous heroes were glorified, whose invariable attributes were lassos, colts, boots and wide-brimmed hats. Jeans and plaid shirts are just an element of the cowboy advertising image. This is how the mythologization of the image began.
The total number of representatives of this profession was very small - about 20 thousand. America has never been a country of cowboys. And they themselves were not free and independent, as in the movies. They were horse herders who were hired to work for wealthy farmers. Their task was to move cattle from Texas to the northwestern states. And hired workers can hardly be considered absolutely free.
Life for cowboys was not easy and carefree. Driving cattle lasted from several months to a year, all this time the shepherds led a half-starved nomadic life. And then there was no time for songs and drunken shootings. As a rule, they did not have enough money or time for alcohol. Moreover, the cowboys did not make sense to fight the Indians - many of them were Indians themselves, the rest preferred to negotiate with them: they bought things and food from them.
Another misconception was the statement that cowboys appeared in America and existed only in these territories. Long before this, equestrian shepherds appeared in Spain, Portugal and the south of France.
Among the cowboys there were also many unemployed white Americans, criminals who did not disdain robbery, robbery, rape and murder. They terrified good Americans, and they breathed a sigh of relief when the herds grazing on the prairie began to decline and the need for the services of cowboys disappeared.
And today the company operates in America Montana Horses - the last cowboys from Montana
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