Best western movie questions of all time

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Rango picture

Question: What was that thing with the big eye Rango and his posse were walking by?

Answer: TV Tropes mentions that the big eye might be an enormous alligator, because alligators are known to live in sewers.

Alligator eyes are different from what was shown in the movie.

Answer: I think the big eye might be an allusion to Wyrm, the villain from a popular novel.

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The Hateful Eight picture

Question: The road leading up to Minnie's has been freshly plowed when the stage arrives. It is obvious because there are sharp borders at the edge of the road and no tracks. Did the bushwhackers plow the road to eliminate evidence of their nefarious deeds?

Answer: Good catch! This should be a revealing mistake entry. The plowing was part of the set preparation. I saw several scenes in the film where the roads had obviously been plowed. It's not hard to see if you look for the small ridges left by the plow on either side of the road.

Answer: Yep, gotta be a mistake. If they even had snow plows back then, the plow would have had to been between the bad guys and the stage and would have arrived, or passed by, at a very inopportune time. I think the director just missed this, or didn't think anyone would notice.

Answer: Think you mean the plow would have arrived before the stage. But yes, a mistake for sure.

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Answer: This movie predates the more advanced CGI that would be used these days. In older films, actors portraying an amputee would have their leg (or arm) bent back and strapped to their body. A prosthetic peg leg would be attacked to the lower appendage. The actors were also filmed from strategic vantage points so the bent part of the limb didn't show. When Douglas is seen driving a wagon, the seat was probably constructed so that his lower leg fit into a hidden compartment and the peg leg was attached on top to be visible. Douglas also wore rather baggy pants, and that would help conceal his bent leg.

raywest

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The Book of Eli picture

Question: In the scene where Solara hijacks the car, why does the man who had Eli's sword in him stop her from starting the car, take out the blade, and get out from the car and kneel on the ground? Was he trying to say something to Solara or the leader?

Answer: Most likely, Redridge is giving Solara a chance to escape Carnegie's regime. At this point, he knows he's dying, but perhaps still wants the best for her. Remember, he had a crush on her the whole movie (blocking her while she was getting Eli's canteen filled, bargaining with Carnegie for her before chasing after them, even asking Eli nicely to give up the book after the gunfight in the house). I think it may also have been used as a self-redemption moment for one of the bad guys.

Jason Sieberg

Answer: Due to Eli's previous protections from harm, Redridge is already wondering if there isn't a higher power protecting Eli. When Redridge is impaled and realises he's in his last moments of life, he kneels, looks to heaven, and gives himself over to that higher power, hoping for redemption.

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Dances with Wolves picture

Question: Why did Dunbar's superior kill himself as Dunbar was being taken to his new post?

Answer: He was mentally disturbed and was depressed about being assigned to a "dead end" post with no chance at advancement. Dunbar, the hero, choosing to be assigned to the frontier, just pushed the poor soul over the edge.

Mark English

In a word, the disease syphilis. The urinary tract problems and the Insanity are possible side effects.

What are you basing this on? What in the movie indicates that he has syphilis?

Answer: Dunbar's superior supported the British ("The King is dead... Long live the King" said with a heavy British accent) and was likely a closet-case Redcoat his entire US military career. It was not rare and many suicides were a result of that.

This claim is not supported by the movie. "The King is dead. Long live the King" is a common idiom referring to the passing of power to someone new. It most definitely does not literally refer to the English King. The movie is set in the middle of Queen Victoria's reign. As for your assertion that there were a large number of English loyalists in the Union Army three generations after the Revolutionary War seems highly unlikely. Can you cite evidence of this?

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Chosen answer: Yes. A "googol" is the number 10 raised to the 100th power, or a 1 followed by 100 zeroes. A "googolplex" is an even larger number - 10 raised to the power of a "googol", or represented as 1 followed by a "googol" zeroes.

BGraz

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Blazing Saddles picture

Question: Is Gabby Johnson saying "Reverend" or "Rerand" during the church scene?

Seth Cain

Chosen answer: Reverend.

MasterOfAll

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Young Guns picture

Question: Chavez calls Billy "Chivato". What does this mean?

Answer: Chivato in northern Mexico chihuahua area a Chivato is a male kid goat but also can be used as a young person full of energy, also an endearing term for a young boy. Lincoln Country is 2.5 hours from El paso TX and Chihuahua Juarez to be exact where many a cowboy spent their pay so the term would have the same meaning in Lincoln Ruidoso, Capitán where I grew up.

Answer: According to Lou Dimond Phillips himself in a tweet in response to the word, he said "'Chivato.' I'm told it means little kid, as in goats and as in Billy the Kid."

Bishop73

Answer: Chavez means Chivato as a young man not a traitor as some speculate.

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Chosen answer: A reckoning is like a judgment day, exacting retribution for one's actions. Doc was very well educated and had a very large vocabulary. He was correctly pointing out the subtle difference between revenge (to make Wyatt feel better about losing Morgan and about Virgil's crippling injury) and the fact that Wyatt was bringing about a judgment day (or reckoning) for each of the men who hurt his family.

MovieFan612

Answer: I've spent a lot of time thinking about this very question, and here's what I've come up with. I think there are at least two differences between revenge and a reckoning. First, I think it has to do with the scale of the response to an offending action. Revenge, in my mind, is an eye for an eye, i.e, "You killed my brother and wounded another, so I will inflict the same action on your family (or group, gang, whatever). " A reckoning is less a measured response to an offending action and more of a full-scale punishment, i.e, "You killed my brother and wounded another, so I will now slaughter your entire family-including those who were not directly responsible for the offending action." Second, I think there is also a difference in motivation. Revenge tends to be a very personal response to something, whereas a reckoning tends to be more of a response fueled by a need for justice. In Wyatt's case, it was both. He was enraged by what happened to his family, but was also a lawman.

Franklin Vaughn

Thank you for this response! I've only seen Tombstone a million times and asked the same question every time. It's hard to separate the difference between the two but I believe you nailed it. Well done.

I'm thinking the opposite in terms. Revenge is "Reflexive" and is generally any means necessary (out of an abundance of pain or rage) to hurt the other party. "Revenge is a dish best served cold." If one is exacting justice there's no need to be cold hearted. Therefore, Reckoning is (to me) a fair balancing of the "scales" hence "an eye for an eye." Not only consequences of actions as it were but a corrective action to an incorrect circumstance. Just my understanding.

The problem with that theory is there is no difference in the end because the end result was the same...the killing. True reckoning could have only been achieved though the apprehension and punishment by trial and jury, anything other than that is simply revenge.

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Once Upon a Time in the West picture

Question: In the scene where Cheyenne visits Jill at the McBain's residence for the first time, he asks her whether she knows something about a man with a harmonica, although the three of them (Cheyenne, Harmonica and Jill) met earlier in the movie when Cheyenne tells Harmonica to "watch those false notes." Why doesn't Cheyenne just ask her for the man whom she probably still remembers from this event?

Answer: The movie was filmed at multiple locations in Spain and Italy, and also in Utah. Chances are they filmed out of sequence and made minor changes to the script later in the movie. There are many things left unclear in the movie, for example the same scene at the cantina/store, just after Cheyenne's crew shows up, he refers to Harmonica by his name when no-one said his name up until that point.

Answer: Cheyenne is obviously highly preoccupied with Harmonica in the saloon where they first meet (very tense situation). Perhaps Cheyenne didn't actually notice Jill's presence, or forgot she was there?

Answer: He meant what does she know about him personally. What's his real name, where does he come from and why is he so interested in everything.

Then he should have asked "do you know something about THE man with THE harmonica?" instead of "do you know something about A man going around playing A harmonica?" (time stamp 01:05:25 for the restored version) or am I missing something? He already knows that she has seen him because he was there so he could just ask "do you know something about the guy with the harmonica we met at the bar earlier?" I just don't understand why Cheyenne is using an indefinite article because he and Jill both know who he is referring to.

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Django Unchained picture

Question: At the end when Steven is the only one left alive alone with Django, he drops his cane and seems to walk fine. Would that indicate that he was faking the whole time, just pretending he needed it?

Answer: Not necessarily; Stephen's condition may be ameliorated by using a cane to walk, but he doesn't always need the cane. I myself have an ankle condition which is sometimes helped by the use of a cane, but I don't always need the cane.

zendaddy621

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McLintock! picture

Question: After Wayne represents the Chiefs at their trial, his last words to them were in their language, and they responded in kind. What was said in their language, and the translation?

Answer: A ha alonney cha means live in harmony with the sun.

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Quigley Down Under picture

Question: Why did the Aboriginal manservant hit Matthew Quigley on the head when he threw Marston out of his own house, after telling Quigley he wanted him to kill aborigines?

Answer: He felt that if Quigley fought Marston he might have been killed. He hit him to save his life.

SantaJim

Answer: In fact, it was more likely that in the beginning of the film he was in more of an "Uncle Tom" (for lack of a better term) and hits him because he feels he should help his "master." He later feels bad and by the end he has come to his senses which is why he doesn't make the same mistake twice.

More like he was emboldened because his master is dead. If not Quigley would have got a second thrashing from the aborigines.

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Around the World in 80 Days picture

Question: How is it possible for everybody from other countries to know about the wager that Phileas made when the only ones who knew about were the members of the Academy of Science?

Answer: In order to stop Fogg from completing the journey, his rivals at the Academy wired (telegraphed) details to confederates in the countries he visited with instructions to waylay him.

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The Mask of Zorro picture

Question: Who sang the closing song and what are the lyrics?

Answer: Marc Antony and Tina Arena sang it. Lyrics at http://www.lyrics.net/lyric/5746519.

Hobbes

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Answer: The prime ingredient was Ipecac, a nausea-inducing compound (still used today) which so inflames the stomach lining that it's impossible for the patient to hold anything down. Hot mustard in large doses has a similar effect. The other ingredients (croton oil, cayenne pepper, etc) acted as powerful laxatives, so the entire gastrointestinal tract is evacuated in short order. The gunpowder was a fantasy ingredient, no doubt, as gunpowder is known to cause gangrene of internal tissues.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: It was an old folk remedy for a hangover. It was supposed to make someone unable to drink liquor for a short period of time. The fictional potion's ingredients were not specified.

raywest

The ingredients of Mississippi's hangover concoction are very surely in the scripted dialogue. Mississippi: "Johnny Diamond had a recipe. Let's see. Cayenne pepper, mustard-the hot kind, ipecac, asafetida, and oil of cloves or was it? No, it was croton oil." Bull: "Croton oil?! I'll be a suck-egg mule. You know what that mixture'll do to a fella?" Mississippi: "Guaranteed kill or cure." The final ingredient is gunpowder.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Croaking oil, gunpowder, hot mustard, ipecac, asafetida.

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The Revenant picture

Question: At the end of the film the chief spares Glass in return for helping his daughter. How has the chief got to know that the unknown man in front of him is that very man who helped Powaqa?

EvgK

Chosen answer: She had plenty of time to tell him whilst watching the fight.

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Legends of the Fall picture

Question: Before committing suicide, why did Susannah cut her hair? I've seen this behaviour in other films but have never known the psychology behind it.

Hobbes

Answer: Cutting locks of hair is often done in memory of the deceased. Knowing of her impending death, she cut two locks so as not to have them tainted by blood, but dropped one on the floor. I imagine it was the one for Alfred, but it is just my opinion.

I have goosebumps with this interpretation. I always thought that it was related someone with "scalping." She kills herself. She is her own victim. I don't know.

Answer: I think Susannah cut two locks of hair, one for her husband Alfred and the other for her true love Tristan. They were mementos in some respect, but also a clue for her suicide - being married to one brother while loving the other who no longer wanted to be with her. Susannah was torn apart, in pain over losing Tristan and probably felt she could not be true or faithful to Alfred if/when Tristan came around again. She would also have guilt over violating her marriage vows if she were to be with Tristan again while married to Alfred.

KeyZOid

Chosen answer: To give a definitive answer would be misleading because there's no one specific reason why someone does this type of thing. People considering suicide often start exhibiting odd and/or uncharacteristic behavior such as suddenly cutting one's hair. In Susannah's case, it could be a form of self-mutilation, an attempt to change who she is by altering her appearance, or it is a way of controlling something in her life while other events spiral out-of-control, and so on.

raywest

Answer: I always thought it was she wanted people to know. She didn't want the wound to be covered.

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Seven Brides for Seven Brothers picture

Question: When they are singing under a tree full of doves, it looks like they were tied to the tree branches. Is this true?

Answer: Yes it is true. They did this to prevent the birds from flying into the backdrops and becoming injured or killed.

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Answer: Assuming it's the same technique used for Gary Sinse in Forrest Gump, Mr. Branagh was probably wearing blue leggings which was used to digitize out his legs.

Lisa T Ellis

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