From my Facebook archives, June 3, 2015:
The Plainsman is a Paramount western from 1936, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Gary Cooper as Wild Bill Hickok, Jean Arthur as Calamity Jane, and James Ellison as Buffalo Bill Cody.
Alas, I don't think it was a very good film overall. The storyline has only the flimsiest basis in reality despite using the names of real people as characters. But more problematic was the romanticized view of the violence of that time period and the over-the-top mythologizing about the (white) pioneers who "built the country" at the expense of American Indians.
Hickok is portrayed here as a murderous thug, yet is supposed to be the hero. There are some minor pleadings to cease the violence but the characters concerned about that soon vanish from the screen.
Even Jean Arthur can't save this, though the best parts are when she is present.
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In response to a comment at the time, I added:
"I guess I haven't seen too many old westerns yet and the ones I have seen present a more complicated, less mythologizing view: High Noon and Shane, in particular, though it's been a few years since I've seen those.
The movie was a bit odd, as sometimes it seems about to veer away from the myth-making. But those moments are fleeting. And then the final scene of the dead Custer and dead Hickok galloping along at the head of an army, with the "patriotic" caption... Well, that was a bit much for me."
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