Westerns. – That Should Be A Movie

That Should Be A Movie: The Leadership of Red Cloud

By C. W. Johnson, Jr. on Tuesday, December 3, 2024

A set piece would be when Red Cloud holds a council fire to discuss the situation with the US Cavalry in Fort Phil Kearny. Crazy Horse speaks up and says that they should attack the whites. Red Cloud agrees with him. He consults the spiritual advice of a Half-Man. The Half-Man takes him to the ridges near the fort and begins running back and forth. In his convulsions, he opens and closes his hands four times. He tells Red Cloud that he is scooping up the lives of the blue soldiers and that in the chief’s next battle, a hundred enemies will fall into his hands. Red Cloud makes his battle plans to lure the cavalry over the ridge that the Half-Man ran up and down. He gives the honor of being the bait to Crazy Horse. When the battle comes, 80 blue soldiers follow Crazy Horse over the ridge.

Texas Westerns.

That Should Be A Movie: The Conner-Smith-Low Feud of Sabine County

By C. W. Johnson, Jr. on Wednesday, May 1, 2024

A set piece would be when Texas Rangers with the help of a local sheriff are making their way through the impregnable thickets that cover the floor of the piney forest. All is quiet. All of a sudden dogs rush out of nowhere and everywhere in the underbrush, barking, snarling, and howling. The Rangers raise their weapons, expecting to see the feudists burst out of the woods. Instead, their ears are met by the sound of cow horns blowing through the tree limbs. One comes from the northeast. Does another blow come from the south? Southeast? As soon as the dogs appeared, they vanished toward the blowing of the horns. “Well, that does it,” says one of the Rangers, lowering his Winchester. “We’ve lost the element of surprise and might as well head back to Hemphill.” The local sheriff smiles with relief.

American Civil War Louisiana Strong Women Westerns.

That Should Be A Western: Whiskey Chitto Woman by Marguerite Hudson

By C. W. Johnson, Jr. on Tuesday, January 23, 2024

It is called Whiskey Chitto Woman

It is a Western road trip drama.

In the vein of Nomadland

It is like Little Women meets Cold Mountain

It follows determined pioneer woman Ellen Johnson

And naïve teenage boy Sammy Jones

As they take a hazardous journey through the outlaw-infested, devastated countryside of post-Civil War Louisiana to retrieve her husband Aaron whose leg has been amputated.

Problems arise when they encounter highwaymen and Ellen wonders how Aaron will adjust as a disabled man in an agrarian society.

Together their determined pioneer spirit and love will overcome the obstacles in their way and finish their journey strong.

The idea came to me when I was doing genealogy research while reading Whiskey Chitto Woman I found out that Aaron and Ellen Johnson were my great-great-great uncle and aunt.

American Civil War Texas Westerns.

That Should Be A Western Miniseries: General Jo Shelby’s Expedition Into Mexico, Part Two

By C. W. Johnson, Jr. on Thursday, December 7, 2023

And if written and directed in the tradition and with the maturity of David Lean, John Milius, and Kevin Reynolds, it could be a classic which blends the action and adventure with thought provoking lessons in the futility of nation building, the arrogance of imperialism, and the empty self-defeatism of refusing to know when to give up, surrender, forgive and bury the past. If told right, Shelby’s Expedition into Mexico could be a healing journey.