Hell on Wheels

Lithose

Lithose

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BrutulTM_sl said:
I don't get this distinction.
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Mainly just settings. Typical westerns portrayed "The West" as hard desert country, with little oasis/mining towns where gun fighters fought. The ultimate examples of that were the Spaghetti Westerns which were made in the hot, sparse hills of Italy. The reality is, most of "The West" was actually forested or plains, and was wet and grimey.

Also, from a character standpoint, in a frontier story there is usually less emphasis on the "man with no name" (The Gunfighter) and more on the town itself, because the story isn't "his" story, but a story about how the town deals with the existing outside the law and safety of society (There is usually a "Gunfighter" IN a frontier story though). While in a classic/spaghetti, it's all about "The Gunfighter" and how he deals with the town itself.
 
BrutulTM

BrutulTM

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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If you ask me Bohanan is very much like a Clint Eastwood character.
 
Lithose

Lithose

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BrutulTM_sl said:
If you ask me Bohanan is very much like a Clint Eastwood character.
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Sure, the "gun fighter" is almost always there (And even modern day Westerns, like Justified, use the Eastwood "man with no name" outline). Bullock or Bohanan fit it but the main difference between these two types of westerns (My opinion) just the emphasis on his story, as opposed to an emphasis on the town. In other words, in a "frontier" western you could argue the place,notthe gunfighter, is the most important aspect of the story--and the story becomes about how theplaceaffects (Changes) the gunfighter. But in a typical Western (Especially Spaghetti), it's almost always the gunfighter's actions which are important (The town's problems are a backdrop for his personality)--so he remains the same and has an effect on the place. But it's not an exact science (A lot of the precepts meld), it's just a bit of genre shifting.
 
BrutulTM

BrutulTM

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This week's episode sort of felt like filler to me. The trading with the indians subplot was a rip-off of Jeremiah Johnson right down to the old trapper character. The only difference was that the indians had learned stickball instead of Christianity and the trapper got married instead of Bohanan. Also, it was kind of dumb that their version of stickball was just beating each other to death with sticks. Why not just have them fight to the death if that's what it really was all along?

The newspaper lady sort of feels like they're trying to bring back Lily with a new character, which I guess I'm okay with because I liked Lily.

I liked the first couple episodes but I hope this isn't going to go off the rails (Get it? Off the rails?).
 
Hoss

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Don't watch this show, so I don't know if they portrayed it accurately, but that "stickball" sounds like baggataway, which meant little brother of war (in some indian language, I'm not sure which). Children grew up playing the game to prepare for war. In the Iroquois nation, and possibly in other areas, they actually used it as a substitute for going to war with neighboring tribes. It was common for people to die in the real matches where the tribes would place large wagers. Some europeans (french monks I think) saw the game and named it lacrosse, and that's what it's called today.

Now I might need to start watching this show.
 
BrutulTM

BrutulTM

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Hoss_sl said:
Don't watch this show, so I don't know if they portrayed it accurately, but that "stickball" sounds like baggataway, which meant little brother of war (in some indian language, I'm not sure which). Children grew up playing the game to prepare for war. In the Iroquois nation, and possibly in other areas, they actually used it as a substitute for going to war with neighboring tribes. It was common for people to die in the real matches where the tribes would place large wagers. Some europeans (french monks I think) saw the game and named it lacrosse, and that's what it's called today.

Now I might need to start watching this show.
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That's very interesting and it does seem similar to the game that they were playing. I thought they said in the show that they learned it from some white people but it could have been from some other indians. This match was 3 on 3 though and the indians made pretty much no attempt to actually play the game, they were just trying to kill the other guys. It was all very contrived though, and I hate it when they put characters that you know are not going to die in situations where you have to think that they could die for there to be tension. When Bohanan and Elam were on the pyre everybody knew that they were not going to kill off the main characters of the show in a one episode subplot and there was going to be some cheesy intervention and of course there was.
 
Breakdown

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Then you missed the point. It wasnt tension to make you think they were going to die. It was to it them on the edge of death so bohannon could reach out to god and be ignored. There's been a theme of redemption with god this season.
 
Hoss

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Im confused, was bohnam ignored by God? I thought brutul said he didn't die.
 
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Gunnar Durden
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Yeah He prayed for help from God and none came, the savior was the old man marrying the indian chick. Then when he went to church he said to the church lady that god ignored him.

I think the theme of the season is going to be him finding redemption and forgiveness from god for all the killing he has done.
 
Convo

Convo

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Wow! What an awesome episode this week. I love this show and it keeps getting better.
 
Bondurant

Bondurant

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The Grant character was kind off nice interacting with Bohannon, and the scene when he just shot that soldier's brother reminds everyone he's a sociopath. But in my opinion the Elam arc is becoming boring quite fast, not caring about him and his family is coming to a trend...
 
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Just totally random. Now hes a mormon living with a pregant teenager....Just came out of left field. Not sure how I feel about it.
 
BoldW

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The Swede was a great character the first season. He was the perfect counter-weight to Bohannon - Bad-ass with the character history to support it. When he did a complete 180 as the crazy weirdo junk-man which totally belied the history we learned of him in Season 1, I was like, meh, ok, whatevs, and was happy when he finally met his end. But they justhadto bring him back, this time as a mormon bishop?

Seriously, he's the worst part of the show.
 
Convo

Convo

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Lol I can't disagree more. I love the swede lol. The part with the knife and dinner was great.

I will say I hope he gets killed mid way thru next season. I don't want them to drag him out a whole season.
 
Bondurant

Bondurant

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It felt like they tried to wrap the show before someone said "wait, let's keep some season 4 door open here !".
 
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