Mrs. CW liked the atmospheric cinematography. I was happy to see Woody Harrelson and Kevin Costner working again.
The language used was also correct to the time and place. I gotta find out a bit more about Texas Governor Ma Ferguson. Them Texicans.....
It was a dynasty. Ma & Pa Ferguson. Talk about corrupt but it is interesting history. They wanted nothing to do with the Rangers but had no choice when they needed some killing done. Hamer & Gault were interesting characters for a fact.
ReplyDeleteThere are some good books out there about Frank Hamer - two of them are "I'm Frank Hamer: The Life of a Texas Peace Officer" and "Texas Ranger: The Epic Life of Frank Hamer, the Man Who Killed Bonnie and Clyde"
ReplyDeleteand yep, Texas politics has had its share of corruption over the years - besides the Fergusons, Anne Richards and Jim Wright come to mind ...
We watched it a couple of nights ago. It is quite well done, as historically accurate as one can expect from Hollywood. Frank Hamer’s bio is extremely interesting and worth reading. He is considered the epitome of a Texas Ranger, although he only spent the better part of his career as one, off and on, with stints in between as Marshall or providing corporate security to the oil companies. My favorite Hamer story is when he accompanied Coke Stevenson to Alice, Texas as a Ranger. Stevenson was running against LBJ for State Senate, and Ballot Box 13 in Alice had been stuffed in LBJ’s favor with votes from, essentially, dead Mexican-Americans by the hand of George Parr: El Patron, the Duke of Duval County. One week after the polls, Stevenson and Hamer were there to inspect the vote tally, and an armed mob was waiting at the courthouse to prevent them from doing so. Hamer approached the first mob and said ‘Git’ – and they did, and then he approached the second mob and said ‘Fall Back’ – and they did. Ballot Box 13 disappeared with its ballots, supposedly burned at George Parr’s hand and “Landslide” Lyndon of course went on from State Senate to bigger things…..
ReplyDeleteWhat a coinkidink. My wife and I just finished watching it. We both thought it was pretty good, and from everything I read on the net, the director valued historical accuracy.
ReplyDeleteI recommend it.
One riot, one Ranger.
ReplyDeleteM.A. Ferguson and PA Ferguson were some nasty pieces of work, in a corrupt time in Texas Politics. Course when hasn't it been corrupt around here...
ReplyDelete