"Battle Of Rogue River" by William Castle + Wind

Sorry I missed you last night. I actually did watch a movie yesterday, but I was really tired at blogtime and I was just kind of zoned out from all the non-stop wind that was blowing gale force all day. I really don't like wind, it creates disarray and a bad vibe. It puts a lot of electricity in the air, not good, and it stirs up negative energy. Anyway, I was also a bit worn down from my job and the week of news from the fires, and I wasn't able to go for my walk for three days in a row, and I can't remember the last time that happened. Maybe during the heavy rains of January 2017. I've trained myself for daily exercise for twenty years now, so it's hard when I can't go.

I hate it when it sounds like I am bitching and complaining because my present troubles are miniscule compared with others who have lost their houses, or worse, this past week. I'm not really complaining, just explaining why I didn't write, even though I have no idea if anyone even reads this thing. 

Tonight, Grimsley came over, so tonight would normally be the night when I wouldn't blog, but because I didn't write about last night's movie I can do so now.

I watched another one of my William Castle Westerns, this one called "Battle Of Rogue River" (1954), starring George Montgomery, one of my favorite Western stars, as a Major in the United States Cavalry who is tasked with establishing peace with the Indians in Oregon Territory, so that Oregon can be turned into a State. The year is 1859. Wealthy white landowners in the Territory have conspired with a civilian scout (a man who interacts with the Indians and knows their chief), to keep the conflicts going, to thwart any attempt at peace. The landowners, who also control factory interests back East, stand to lose their positions of power if the Oregon Territory achieves statehood. They do not want Federal oversight into their surreptitious business dealings, and so they conspire to keep the wars going between Chief Mike (yeah, that's his name) and the Oregon Tribes, and the US Cavalry. The Federal Government will not grant Oregon statehood until a peace treaty is signed. So the men of corporate interest are trying to prevent that from happening.

I was surprised to see such a detailed political plot in a smaller Western by Castle. The story was exceptionally well written (the Era Of Great Screenwriting strikes again!), and we see the same devious and downright evil type of men who never went away in America, but passed down their degraded values to their children and compatriots. In the movie, the plot is limited to the peace between the military (representing the United States), and the Indians, who were here on the continent first.

That has always been a noble representation of what is historically true, at least to some extent. For it was not the military, per se, who sought to wipe out the Indian population in America. It was private pre-corporate interests. Wealthy white men who wanted the land for themselves. Railroad builders, somewhat. But really it was men who wanted to own land, supported by virulently racist Scots-Irish settlers.

Imagine the idea of private ownership of vast tracts of land, when the American frontier was still unsettled and add in the fact that the Indians were here first. These Western movies show that the military was sent in to try and keep the peace between greedy corporate interests, who had moved into the areas, and the Indians, who had understandably reacted against such a takeover. The military were not the aggressors, but the mediators. That is what is shown in these films.

The real bad guys were always the greedy capitalists. The men who sought to own land and control manufacturing, and to change the entire way of life of a continent of people.

Here's to the Westerns of William Castle and many other directors of the 1950s, who expose the situation for what it likely was.

It's the same thing that Trump would like to return us to today, ultra-greed, where no amount of money is enough, and it doesn't matter if it's legally earned.

Two Thumbs Up for "Battle Of Rogue River", which follows the William Castle formula of low budget but high quality craftsmanship and storytelling.

Tomorrow night I will be going to see Sparks at the Palace Theater in Downtown Los Angeles. See you after the show.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)