The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972)

Powerful

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This is an offbeat western ,with a strong documentary side.Gary Grimes is the all-American-boy who wants to experiment the hard cowboys life.And it avoids the usual clichés of the genre;after a bloody odyssey,we are not sure that the boy has grown into a man,like usually in this kind of screenplay.When he rides away,after the massacre,all we can guess is that he has probably lost his faith in God (if he had any) .No love interest, unless the scene with the hooker counts -here again the lad does not behave like he is supposed to .And no sentimental side either ,the Farewell-to-mom scene ,is so short that she has not even the time to ask him whether he will come back. No real friendship with the men,except perhaps from the boss.Bewildering.

This first-rate Western draws its riveting tale and power from the interaction of finely drawn roles as well as adventure and action . Good and enjoyable western with a great casting and a sensational starring , teenager Gary Grimes , in a coming-of-age story . This exciting film packs Western action , go riding , thrills , emotion , shoot-outs and results to be quite entertaining . It contains a magnificent main cast as Gary Grimes , Billy Green Bush facing off bandits and a tough land baron ; in addition , a top-drawer support cast as Luke Askew , Bo Hopkins , Geoffrey Lewis , Royal Dano , Gregory Sierra , Matt Clark , Jerry Gatlin , Anthony James and film debut of Charles Martin Smith . This is a nice flick containing a little bit of charming humor about naively adolescent , friendship , violence in Sam Peckinpah style and sense of comradeship among people . It's a sympathetic western , with a beautiful cinematography , glamorous scenery and great soundtrack . It deals with a young adolescent farmboy named Ben Mockridge (Gary Grimes) who always wanted to be a cowhand talks a two-fisted trail boss (Billy Green Bush)into hiring him on a cattle drive . Soon after, though, the teen finds out existence on the range is neither what he expected nor what he's been wishing . As Ben Mockridge feels life in a Wild West farm town has nothing better to offer , as he only enjoys horse-cart racing with his friends , so he begs cattle company owner Frank Culpepper to engage him as youngest cowboy for a long cattle trail and his mummy barely notices . He then is hired for the dangerous journey that turns out to be worst than expected , suffering hard-working activities , stampede , robbing , gun-play and many other things . Formidable Western full of action , fascinating drama , cattle round-up , crossfire and fabulous performances . It's a wonderful adventure film format "western" itinerant, filled with entertaining events , danger and life lessons . This exciting film packs good feeling as friendship , faithfulness , companionship and violent as well as touching scenes on the final . The screenplay is plain and simple, with a conventional plot , but ultimately gets overcome . Gorgeous outdoors with decent production design by Carl Anderson and Walter Scott who takes a secondary role . Filmmaker gets to remain the Western emotion , moving scenes and suspense until the ending . The young starring player Gary Grimes (Summer of 42, Class of 44)is phenomenal , his role as an ingenuous teenager is top-notch , he performed similar character as a naive cowboy in other films (The Spikes gang and Marshal Cahill) ; however , he virtually disappeared without much trace and nowadays is retreated and working as a teacher . And there shows off Charles Martin Smith at the beginning of the movie , both of whom played together in ¨The Spikes gang ¨as two young gunfighters , Charles will have too much success on the future as a prestigious secondary (Starman, Untouchables) and a good filmmaker . Cool cinematographer Ralph Woolsey prowls his camera splendidly through some wonderfully seedy , deserted and rocky settings . Evocative and atmospheric musical score by the great Jerry Goldsmith. This agreeable Western was well directed by Dick Richards , recreating compellingly this thrilling story ; being debut of Richards and whose best movie resulted to be ¨Farewell my lovely¨ . Furthermore , before entering the film industry , Dick Richards was a contributing photographer for Life magazine , subsequently turning into filmmaking . Dick is a good craftsman who has directed a few films but of great quality , such as this ¨The Culpepper Cattle¨ , ¨Death valley¨ , ¨Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins ¨ and ¨March or die¨ which along with ¨The Culpepper Cattle Co¨ were both financed by the great producer of blockbusters Jerry Bruckheimer . Besides , Dick found the script for 'Tootsie' and co-produced it with Sydney Pollack . Rating : above average , essential and indispensable watching for Western genre fans .

"The Culpepper Cattle Company" really looks and feels authentic, as if you are actually witnessing a cattle drive in the year 1866 being led by trail boss and cattle owner Frank Culpepper (Billy Green Bush). That's because, for one thing, a lot of dust gets kicked up and nobody is clean. And the cowboys talk as though they are real cowboys. They complain about the dust, and the food, and the work, and the low wages, and just about everything else. At night, they tell tall stories around the campfire, mostly about the women they've been with. Pete (Matt Clark), the best storyteller, spins a yarn about all the naked Parisian women you could see on the second floor through the glass ceiling. Hilarious.Two other interesting characters in the drive include the trigger-happy, touchy Russ (Geoffrey Lewis) and Dixie Brick (Bo Hopkins), who gets his kicks from seeing guys get shot. Those two engage in this crazy hysterical laugh before the final shootout.All of this is seen through the eyes of young Ben (Gary Grimes) who hires on as a little Mary (cook's helper). He wants nothing more than to be a cowboy but soon finds out things are not quite as he imagined. When he tells the cook how much he wants to be a cowboy, he gets told that cowboying is something you do when you can't do anything else. After he asks Luke (Luke Askew) what his horse's name is, he gets told that you don't have to name something you might have to eat.Expect a lot of violence. This was made in 1972, a couple of years after "The Wild Bunch" had set the standard for the wholesale slaughter of men.

Surely one of the best westerns of all-time, & has to be THE most authentic western ever made, I cannot think of another to match it. Carefully crafted screenplay, told it how it really was, the characters brilliantly played by everyone involved. But it's authenticity is what makes it so fascinating a film to watch, it literally transports you back in time, a real history lesson. Some great iconic one liners, 'Don't stand behind me, boy!' & 'Why put a name to something you might have to eat!?' Geoffrey Lewis, Billy Green Bush & Gary Grimes were riveting in their portrayals. Lewis's hard-man character, so sinister, you really did think, 'This guy is a psycho!!' Bush played the trail weary boss with such attitude it made you acutely aware the hardships & dangers these men faced for so little reward. Grime's naive young character was played to perfection. A great piece of American history, & I have to say, the violence is not overdone, nor is there too much of it, compared to many other western films. If this film is not stored somewhere in a State Library, well, it should be!