MovieChat Forums > The Magnificent Seven (1960) Discussion > Did gunslingers really exist in the Old ...

Did gunslingers really exist in the Old West?

posted 3 years ago by Otter (24464)
13 replies | jump to latest

I mean gunslingers who were more than hired thugs, who'd work for anyone rich enough to afford to pay, and run people off their land or shoot anyone the employer wanted shot?

[–] Kowalski (75529) 3 years ago

HIS NAME WAS TOM HORN.

[–] Otter (24464) 3 years ago

Isn't that another Steve McQueen movie?

[–] rudeboymurray (3271) 3 years ago

Yes, but he was also a real-life gunslinger-for-hire. I'm not sure how glamorous he was compared to McQueen but according to his Wikipedia entry, he was Believed to have committed 17 killings as a hired gunman throughout the West."

[–] Otter (24464) 3 years ago

Okay, one gunslinger existed. But were there others? Were there genuine gunslingers known for quick draws, rather than hired thugs with guns?

Of course Hollywood would have us believe that every small town in the Old West had several gunfighters looking for work, even though they were always killing each other for no reason so why would they be numerous.

[–] Kowalski (75529) 3 years ago

GUNFIGHTERS?...YES...POLISHED GUN HANDLERS WITH STYLE?...NOT SO MUCH.

[–] rudeboymurray (3271) 3 years ago

It's an interesting question... I'm sure there were some, but they would have been far fewer than movies suggest, and most were probably much less flashy. Perhaps more along the lines of, say, Jack Nicholson in The Shooting than Steve McQueen in TMS.

Of course, those who were a little closer to McQueen etc would, I guess, have been 'celebrities' in their time.

[–] PaladinNJ (21510) 3 years ago

Mercenaries have existed for thousands of years. I'm sure they existed in the old west as well. Would they call you out for a fair fight/duel? Probably not.

[–] Otter (24464) 3 years ago

Yeah, I'm sure men shot each other, mostly because they were paid to.

But I'm also pretty sure that the staredown-and-quick-draw duels were the invention of Hollywood.

[–] huwdj (4566) 2 years ago

I always find it interesting that Wyatt Earp was actually a 'consultant' in early Hollywood westerns and perhaps his version of events gave us the quick-draw gunman stereotype.

[–] Otter (24464) 2 years ago

Come to think of it, a lot of the silliness we see in Western movies might have come from the Dime Novels of the 19th century, cheap books written about people like, well, Wyatt Earp. Those books were written about real people like Earp, but I understand they were highly romanticized (to put it politely), and they were the reason that people like Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid were famous.

So perhaps when Earp went to Hollywood later in life, he wasn't so much concerned with making sure that Western films were accurate, as pleasing the audience who'd grown up on cowboy dime novels. Frankly, Hollywood would have pleased the latter.

[–] R_Kane (15828) 2 years ago

The Cowboy quick draw was stolen directly from the Samurai art of Iado. Iado is devoted to whipping the sword out of its sheath and killing one’s opponent all in the same blindingly-swift move. The art takes years to master, but is very difficult for an opponent to counter.

Hell in the title credits, Seven acknowledges that it’s stolen from Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai.

[–] PaladinNJ (21510) a year ago

The original movie Seven Samurai, they were supposed to be mercenaries as well.

[–] CastroEulis (381) 3 years ago

The whole quick draw gunslinging duel in the street is pretty much all movie shit. You were more likely to get shot in the back for whatever reason than someone telling you go out and handle this in the street in a duel. Lonesome Dove has a pretty realistic feel to how it might have been in confrontations.