Hollywood geography

JerryBobCo

We watched "The Streets of Laredo" mini-series last night.  It's the third of the "Lonesome Dove" trilogy, and well worth the watch.  It being set in parts of Texas I'm familiar with made it even more interesting for me.  Or perhaps just more maddening.

In one part, a guy leaves Judge Roy Bean's saloon (a historic figure) and travels by horseback to Ojinaga, Mexico.  Bean had his Jersey Lilly Saloon in Langtry, which is just east of Del Rio.  Ojinaga is on the border, just across the Rio Grande from Presidio (they at least got that part right).   That journey would probably be a week or more by horseback, but the character in the series apparently made it in a couple of hours.

That's just an example of some of the oversights regarding Texas geography.  I've seen a number of others in other movies, etc.

Seems like someone could at least check the map before writing this stuff.

zorba

That would be OK if you wanted to watch a horseback ride for over a week - but I hear you. All kinds of location errors, "Justified" wasn't filmed in Harlan, Ky and thus didn't look right, etc, etc. I recollect an episode of "Xena, Warrior Princess" where they went to the Oracle at Delphi - and that was completely wrong (I'm intimately familiar with the real thing). Not to mention single action revolvers with invisible 100+ rd drum magazines, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah.

Spk

Time compression. It has nothing to do with science. It's just a film technique were knowing just how much time has passed becomes unnecessary (according to the editors) to the telling of a story.

Remember Lord of the Rings? The journey to Mordor took months. In the movie we get a sense that it took maybe a week or two. 😁

That's time compression! It's also known as a Montage. An actor might say, "We have a long journey ahead of us." And then it's left to the audience to fill in the blanks. After all, the film makers are also on a schedule so they decide what's important.

The audience won't always agree with them. 😒

JerryBobCo

A lot of movies and shows set in Texas are filmed in Arizona or New Mexico.  The movie "Happy, Texas", which was supposedly set in Happy, Texas, which is a real town in the Texas panhandle was filmed entirely in California.

It doesn't really bother me on the location thing, but having towns or areas located way out of synch with reality does.

Spk

Location, more often than not, comes back to -- budget, laws or permits.

I've seen movies where the actors run around with non-functioning plastic guns because firearms (even blank firing ones) aren't allowed. The movie Hellboy comes to mind. All the muzzle flash you see in the movie is CGI. That's why the actors don't blink when they fire their guns. 😂

Jayhawker

In the .movie, Red River, I just loved the snow capped mountains outside Abilene Kansas...

Jay

 Related to the subject, Comanche Moon and Dead Man's Walk are also part of the Lonesome Dove series.  If you haven't seen them, they're worth the watch, IMO.

Oh, and Langtry is NW of Del Rio.  On the other side of Amistad, south of Pandale...    Still a long ride to Ojinaga...

JerryBobCo

I stand corrected regarding the location of Langtry.  I knew better, but still got it wrong.  Thanks for clearing that up, Jay.

JerryBobCo

One other factual matter.  In the mini-series, Judge Roy Bean was shot and hung by the protagonist.  In real life, he lived to old age and died of natural causes.  I wonder why McMurtry decided to inflict that bit of revisionist history in an otherwise good read.

Jay

 I know you knew better.  We've discussed our familiarity with that area before.  Brain farts happen.   Especially when there's thousands of little Texas towns like that all over the place. 

Well, Judge Roy Bean was hung once, as I understand it.  If I recall correctly, maybe it was in California?  Don't remember the circumstances.  Only recall reading that he survived a hanging earlier in his life.  So maybe that part of McMurtry's fictional portrayal isn't a complete fabrication.. But who knows why he would write that into the story anyway. 

jaywapti

Judge Roy Dean died at his home on Mar 16, 1903, he was 78, buried in Del Rio Texas.

JAY

Spk

Oh come on, everyone knows a good hangin' at the end of the movie is more dramatic than living to old age. That's why you find these movies under Drama, not Documentary!

You gotta look at the code words of the movie.

Such as, "Inspired by true Events", " Based on a true Story" and others along those lines.

Translation -- it'll be accurate up to a point and then artistic license takes over.

They're still fun to watch.