Question: What is the translation of the Chinese drinking game Roy and Chon play?
Question: At the beginning of the move it is established that Big Jake has not seen his sons for 10 years, but it appears he is close enough geographically to be found, summoned and arrive before the bad guys can get more than a days' ride away from the ranch. Was he really that bad of a dad or is his arrival at the ranch a bit too magical?
Answer: He has been gone for 10 years but knows "Juan and the little boy", not 10 years old I assume.
Answer: It doesn't help explain locating Big Jake or time involved, but as to helping some with the quickness of him coming to help, remember he came in on a train, he didn't ride back home.
Question: At the end of season six, Grace told Robert E she was pregnant. Throughout this series finale, which is fast-forwarded three years, there is no such child. Do we assume she miscarried?
Question: I am sure that when I watched Silverado many years ago that Cobb's men, after capturing Emmett, used a rock or stone to break the bones in his gun hand to render him harmless. The DVD I have does not have this scene - if it ever existed.
Answer: You may be thinking of The Quick and The Dead. That happens to Russell Crowe before the final gunfight.
Question: Why did Fletcher stop up the water pump at Faraway Downs?
Answer: So they'd be unable to water their cattle. Which has two benefits for Fletcher. The first being that they'd have to take their cattle to the watering hole on the border of their property, making it easier for Fletcher to steal the cows. Second, and more long term, their cattle would be of poorer quality due to lack of proper care. The ranch would lose money as a result, and they'd be more amenable to selling the ranch to their competition, whom Fletcher works for.
Question: At the end of the film Blondie, sitting on the horse, turns around, aims his rifle, fires, and severs the rope with a single shot. Lets face it, that rope would be a very small target, and difficult to hit with precision, even from ten or twenty feet, and Blondie is now so far from Tuco that he would no longer even be able to see the rope. Could anyone hit such a small target from such a distance with such incredible accuracy?
Answer: There's a show called "Hollywood Weapons: Fact or Fiction" which dealt with this exact question (s01e03). Blondie is roughly 200 yds away. In the show the host didn't hit the rope, but only missed by an inch on his first attempt. I definitely think an expert Sharps Rifle shooter could make the shot. The issue however, is the bullet would most likely not actually slice the rope apart as seen in the film (they fired the Sharps at point blank and the rope remained partially intact still). They also tested shooting a hat off someone and (as expected) the bullet just goes right through the hat without lifting the hat at all.
That was another thing that puzzled me. On several occasions in this film, Tuco is suspended from a rope, and Blondie cuts the rope by firing a bullet at it, (I think Clint Eastwood repeated the trick in "The Outlaw Josey Wales"). But if you fired a bullet at a rope holding a (rather large) person like Tuco (or a similarly heavy weight), even at close range, would it really sever the rope? I will have to look out for "Hollywood Weapons Fact Or Fiction." I hope they only used a dummy or a model to re-create the shooting feats. I don't think I would have liked to have been hanging on a rope while somebody fired bullets at me to see if this would sever the rope, or to stand there while they fired bullets into my hat to see if they could lift it off my head.
Answer: Probably not, but remember...this is a movie, a western at that and they typically have over the top action to excite audiences. Kinda like how it's impossible to shoot someone's hat off without harming them. It's all for show.
Question: Who dragged Richard Boone into the cabin after Paul Newman shot him? Mrs. Favor? Was she in on it?
Answer: Mrs Favor.
Question: At the end, who was part of the travelling circus that Mattie didn't like?
Answer: It was Frank James, brother of Jesse. He didn't stand up as she approached. She was offended by his lack of manners.
Answer: Rooster Cogburn. She considered him a legendary lawman, like Wyatt Earp. She felt bad that he was reduced to being a sideshow attraction in a circus.
Question: In all honesty I have little (if any) anthropological knowledge of what life was like for Native Americans in the USA in the nineteenth century. But it seemed to me that, for much of the time, the Native Americans in the movie did not resemble the members of a 'hunter gatherer' society whose way of life was under threat from the onset of the modern industrial world. Instead the Native Americans seemed to live, act and behave much more like the members of a 1960's hippie commune. How accurate is that?
Answer: Some members of tribes like the Cheyenne joined in the 'modern' world to some extent, using guns and even putting on Western clothes and eating Western food. While nowhere near the technological nous of the white settlers, the natives were far from being hunter gatherers at this point.
Answer: Well observed sir! What you say is correct. I admit I probably was wrong in calling Native North Americans 'hunter gatherers' as I think some tribes had agriculture and permanent settlements well before Columbus ever reached the American Continent. I also think that the Cherokee consciously tried to adapt to modern life by building houses and becoming farmers. My point was more that it seemed to me that the portrayal of many Native Americans in Little Big Man did not seem historically accurate, but showed them as being more like 1960's hippies. But I am fully aware that this may have been intentional, since the film was giving a 1960's 'spin' on the legends of the 'Wild West'. But please, do not take my posts on this website too seriously. I am fully aware that this was a film made to entertain people, it was not meant to be a historical documentary. And it was the fictional recollections of a 121 year old man. And the film poster said 'Little Big Man was either the most neglected hero in history OR A liar of insane proportion', so you are invited to have your doubts about anything that happens in the film.
Rob, you may want to look into reading the novel the film was based on written by Thomas Berger. He wrote some pretty twisted stuff.
Question: When the jug was hit, how did the bullet not hit the horse behind it?
Answer: In reality, the bullet probably would have hit the horse, injuring it. Movies tend to gloss over details like that to serve and simplify the plot. Older movies particularly fudged reality, assuming audiences would not notice or care. It is also possible that the bullet was somehow deflected or broke up upon impact.
Question: Does anyone know if there is a soundtrack (CD) for this movie available anywhere?
Answer: I doubt it as, the film was made during Parker's college years, but every song asis available as an mp3 at www.cannibalthemusical.net.
Question: When Avram is departing on his horse after meeting Tommy, Tommy asks him if he speaks any Mexican. Abram, who doesn't, is puzzled by the question and asks why...to which Tommy responds "Just curious." I've always assumed that Tommy was mocking him cause he was unknowingly riding south and headed for Mexico instead of West towards San Francisco. Am I right?
Answer: Right on the nose.
Question: What does "Spider" pull out of the stream bed? I really don't think it's gold. Gold isn't porous, and I don't think he'd be able to hold it with one hand.
Question: Francisco 'Pancho' Villa was photographed on many occasions, and always had a full head of hair (as well as a moustache). Yet the film cast Telly Savalas as Pancho Villa, who shaved his head, and was always very proud of and conscious of being a Greek-American. The year after Pancho Villa was released Telly Savalas began to play the titular character of the police drama series, 'Kojak', which transformed him into the world's most recognisable Greek. So, my question is, given a film about Pancho Villa was made in Spain, where the producer and director had an unlimited number of actors of Hispanic ancestry to call on, why cast one of the world's most famous bald, Greek actors (sporting an unconvincing moustache) to play the hirsute Mexican Pancho Villa?
Answer: Hollywood, especially in that era, frequently would cast white actors to play people of color The studio knew Savalas would bring in a lot of viewers, while an unknown from Spain might not.
Answer: One crab with eight feet, painted horns - what a big crab./ Blinking eyes, shrinking head,/ crawling, crawling everywhere./ Two and Two, who should drink?/ Three and three, who drink first?/ Five and Five, who should drink?/ Two and two, you drink first.
Macalou