MovieChat Forums > The War Wagon (1967) Discussion > The only things that bother me...

The only things that bother me...

posted 18 years ago by smokey024
18 replies | jump to latest

I really enjoy this movie with John Wayne, Kirk Douglas and the great character actors. There are a few details in the movie that have bothered me since first seeing it in the theater. After getting the gold from the war wagon, why do they pour it from the bags into the flour barrels? I understand wanting to hide it, but why mix loose gold dust with the flour? Why not just bury the bags of gold deep in the barrels where no one would think to look? If the concern is the markings on the bags identifying them from the robbery, why then wouldn't this be a problem giving the Walker character the small amount of gold in the bag so he and the girl can have money to live on until the settling up in six months? After all, he is a drunk and almost blew the plan ahead of time with his big mouth. How would you sift gold dust from flour if this part of the plan had succeeded? With all their elaborate planning, why not bring indescript bags to transfer the gold from the marked bags? As a cook, I would imagine Keenan's character should have had access to flour sacks.

[–] micnelson 18 years ago

I guess the intention was to burn off the flour later, leaving the gold. However, the loss of the flour barrels (wouldn't they have been sacks?) allowed for some poetic justice for the starving tribe, who would know gold when they saw it and, hopefully, sold it. But the fact remains that the plot has to be overlooked for the story to work.

[–] lightcloud 18 years ago

I have alway wonderd what happend the the posse of men after the wagon was highjacked , there are shots of them riding but then they seem to vanish, love the movie though.

[–] marmac2768 18 years ago

Since the flour is much more fine than gold. it would be easy for them to sift it and have gold separated from the flour. I guess the purpose of them mixing it with flour would have been to smuggle it if a posse would have stopped to search them.

One thing that bothered me more than that was Billy toting a bottle of nitroglycerine in his pocket!! That sure would be pretty bad if the horse had thrown him or had stumbled and fallen! BOOM!!! After all, they were going to have to move quickly with a posse looking for the perps!

[–] Selfish-7 17 years ago

There were many irritating plot holes and incidents in this movie. Right now I remember just a few:

2 messengers delivering the message to Kirk Douglas. When they see him with John Wayne, they start moving back to their horses. While walking they suddenly make up their mind of trying to beat in gunfire 2 best shooters in west, while Kirk and John having great advantage due to them still staring at these messenger's who first need to turn and target before actually shooting.

Kickass machine gun... Okey indian tribe following that ownagewagon, boss telling his troops to stay behind and destroy indians. What the hell is point here? like 100 indians (they thought it was a whole tribe) vs ~20 gunmen; why didnt they use the machine gun-wagon. This was like stupidest scene in any western, made me go so duh..

[–] Hammerfanatic46 12 years ago

Agree about the messengers Selfish 7,having to turn round they wouldnt have had a chance.

Gordon P. Clarkson

[–] nammage 9 years ago

What bothered me the most was one of the two guys yelled to turn around and shoot. Yeah, that wouldn't tip them off. They would have had a better shot at getting the two gunmen when they got on their horses and then fired their guns at them. But then the movie would be over. ;)

-Nam

I am on the road less traveled...

[–] brux (14840) 7 years ago

Wow, these bags of flour sure are heavy??????

[–] Bargle77 17 years ago

The only thing that bothered me was Kirk Douglas' bare butt. My first experience with screen nudity.

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It's all like some bad movie.

[–] foster1234 15 years ago

If you watch closely during the transfer of gold to the flour barrels, Keenans
character puts a layer of canvas, then multiple bags of gold, then another layer of canvas, then flour to top off.

They may have to sift some of it but the gold would be mostly in one spot.

To answer another question by someone, mass quantities of flour were shipped by barrel, then sold by the bag.

It behooves the Jews and Arabs to settle their differences in a Christian manner

[–] steveintucson 14 years ago

I didn't understand why the gold in the barrels was gone. Excuse me but couldn't the Duke have just yelled out, "Keep your hands off that flour!" And then gone around and collected what was left?
The way it played out it seemed the indians were going to make golden biscuts and eat the gold with the flour.
I had not particularly noticed that the gold was put in layers below the flour. Seems like that would make it just that much easier to retrieve from the indians.
Anyway, the plot holes were so big it seems they must be ignored.

[–] marmac2768 13 years ago

Actually, the Dukes movies were not so much about the plot, but about action. You sure won't enjoy them if you think too much about plots or holes.

[–] RamblerReb 12 years ago

Having a bit of experience with panning, I can say that I'm pretty sure that the gold would have eventually settled to the bottoms of the barrels, and would have therefore been all in one spot when the buckboard reached its destination. In the meantime, it would have been spread out in the flour and difficult to detect by a search. I could be wrong, but it seems logical to me.

Authority is the aqua regia of golden character.

[–] Slurrysback 10 years ago

Simple reason, so the gold would be lost when the barrels fell off the wagon.

[–] DrakeStraw 10 years ago

What bothered me was the use of Spanish as a lingua franca among cinematic Indian tribes. Todd shows earlier in the movie that he speaks Spanish then pretends that it is a different language when Levi is translating it.

John Wayne spoke Spanish fairly well off screen. Indians spoke Spanish in many westerns of the period in situations where it wouldn't seem natural.

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[–] gary_w_trott 9 years ago

He had to in order to speak with his wives.

[–] MAGolding (1240) 7 years ago

In real history the Spanish government claimed all of the US southwest for centuries. Although their only settlements, forts, and missions were a few in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California.

Thus until the US infiltration of the southwest and then conquest from 1846-1848 the linga franca that Indians needed to learn was Spanish instead of English.

Most Apaches, for example, had only their Apache names, but many also had Spanish names. For example:

Geronimo "Jerome".
Victorio "victory".
Mangus Coloradas "Red Sleeves" and his son Mangus "sleeves".
Loco "crazy".
Diablo "devil".
Miguel "Michael".
Cuchillo Negro "black knife".
Nana "grandmother".

etc.

When the Tonto Apaches and Yavapais surrendered to General Crook at Camp Verde, Arizona in 1873, their spokesman Chalipan is quoted as saying that they made peace not because they loved the general, but because he had "demasiado cartoches de cobre" in Spanish - "too many copper cartridges". Thus Chalipan seems to have been reasonably fluent in Spanish.

Colonel Richard Irving Dodge (1827-1895) told a story about a drummer boy captured and questioned by hostile Indians - possibly Mescalero Apaches but probably Comanches - near Fort Davis, Texas in 1854. Since the drummer boy knew some Spanish he was questioned by a captive Mexican boy who interpreted. Presumably the drummer boy learned Spanish because of being stationed in the southwest where many Mexicans lived.

[–] tbonesays 9 years ago

Was the town street the same from El Dorado? that is bothering me right now.

[–] MAGolding (1240) 7 years ago

There were only a few western town movie sets so if you look closely you will see the same western town set in movie after movie.

The same same thing goes for western movie fort sets. There were only a few that kept showing up in movie and TV show after movie.

For example, the fort set at Corriganville near LA was used for Fort Apache (1948), the Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (1954-59), and many others. The Kanab Movie Fort at Kanab, Utah was used for many movies like Tomahawk Trail (1957), Sergeants 3 (1962), etc. The Last Frontier/Savage Wilderness (1955) and The seventh cavalry (1956) both use a distinctive fort set with a split level parade ground that is also seen in The Guns of Fort Petticoat (1957). I think that fort set was in Mexico.