isn't that the movie where everyone is martin sheen's son, but no one has the same last name?
i watched "young guns" today. don't ask me why. i just like it. all those 80's pseudo brat-packers running around new mexico still captures my imagination. when the movie came out, i had just finished high school, and still thought these guys were good actors. ah, youth.
on the off chance you don't know, "young guns" is the story of billy the kid, john tunstall, the murphy/dolan gang, and the lincoln county war. what i didn't know at first viewing is that the movie is pretty correct, historically. well, history with a healthy side order of cheese.
i love history. i really love to go to the actual places where historical events took place. to walk in the same streets as the people who made our world what it is today is one of my favorite vacation catalysts. my favorite historical era is that of america in the 19th century. most especially the america that was the western frontier. much of what happened in the west appeals to me because of it's freshness. alot of that world had not yet been seen by white men, the rules of society hadn't migrated yet, and there was unlimited opportunity and beauty available to the man willing to pursue it. along with that went unknown violence, corruption and destruction. maybe that destruction is why i hold it in such a romantic view- much of that wildness is forever gone.
a few years ago, i got to go to lincoln, new mexico. the first thing that struck me about this mecca of frontier history is its size. or lack thereof. it is one little street about 1/2/ mile long. not any bigger than it was in the 1870's. in this little place, so much fame was found and made. billy the kid became a house-hold name because of the events that took place here. and i walked those streets, i sat in his former prison cell, i browsed in the tunstall store where he shopped, and saw the site of the mcswain house that billy fled in a haze of gun-fire.
don't get me wrong- billy was no hero. he was a semi-retarded, lawless, illiterate, life-long criminal and a murderer. i don't know what he ever did to make the world a better place. well, he did do alot of crazy stuff that turned this little crap town in new mexico into the destination of pilgrimage. and for that, i thank him.
on the off chance you don't know, "young guns" is the story of billy the kid, john tunstall, the murphy/dolan gang, and the lincoln county war. what i didn't know at first viewing is that the movie is pretty correct, historically. well, history with a healthy side order of cheese.
i love history. i really love to go to the actual places where historical events took place. to walk in the same streets as the people who made our world what it is today is one of my favorite vacation catalysts. my favorite historical era is that of america in the 19th century. most especially the america that was the western frontier. much of what happened in the west appeals to me because of it's freshness. alot of that world had not yet been seen by white men, the rules of society hadn't migrated yet, and there was unlimited opportunity and beauty available to the man willing to pursue it. along with that went unknown violence, corruption and destruction. maybe that destruction is why i hold it in such a romantic view- much of that wildness is forever gone.
a few years ago, i got to go to lincoln, new mexico. the first thing that struck me about this mecca of frontier history is its size. or lack thereof. it is one little street about 1/2/ mile long. not any bigger than it was in the 1870's. in this little place, so much fame was found and made. billy the kid became a house-hold name because of the events that took place here. and i walked those streets, i sat in his former prison cell, i browsed in the tunstall store where he shopped, and saw the site of the mcswain house that billy fled in a haze of gun-fire.
don't get me wrong- billy was no hero. he was a semi-retarded, lawless, illiterate, life-long criminal and a murderer. i don't know what he ever did to make the world a better place. well, he did do alot of crazy stuff that turned this little crap town in new mexico into the destination of pilgrimage. and for that, i thank him.
posted by cm at 10/11/2005
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