Date: 4 March 2002 Summary: It's probably the most underrated western of all time
I've only seen "Culpepper Cattle Company" once. That was in a
cheap theater in Tokyo in 1973 that showed three different films for
the one admission price of 350 yen, which at that time was the dollar
equivalent of about $1.50. For the past 30 years I have been waiting
for it to come around again, come out on video, or appear on
television. One of the co-features in the theater that day was "Bad
Company" with Jeff Bridges and John Savage. That is another underrated
film which has never returned.
What fascinated me about "Culpepper Cattle Company" was its
escalation in gritty cussedness. We start out with two wild boys
recklessly racing wagons. One of them joins these seemingly foul
mouthed, onery lot of cowboys. On the trail a couple of even morally
worse characters steal the boys horse. But the cowboys are more
intimidating than they are, so they give the horse back. Then, the
cowboys encounter a farmer with his hands as back up who are even more
threatening than the cowboys, especially since the farmers have the
drop on them. These foul mouthed, gritty, onery cowboys are, by
comparison, looking better all the time. They even give up their lives
so that some pilgrims can settle down in peace. And finally, we see
who is absolutely the WORST in depravity. It's the pilgrims who, to
add insult to injury, won't lift a hand to bury the cowboys who have
given their lives for them since they have this sanctimonious thing
against having anything to do with people who engage in
violence.
company.
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