Tall in the Saddle

M. Wayne Cunningham is a past executive director of the Saskatchewan
Arts Board and the former director of Academic and Career Programs at
East Kootenay Community College.

Tall in the Saddle provides “a chance to look back—through images
and dialogue—at the decades of classic westerns celebrating that most
American of all myths, the myth of the frontier.” The book starts with
an excellent overview of the thematic changes the western myth has
undergone, from its earliest incarnations in the 1820s sagas of James
Fenimore Cooper; to the 1870s and 1880s Wild West shows of Buffalo Bill
Cody; to the 1900s movies of William S. Hart, Tom Mix, and Bill Boyd; to
the classics of the 1950s and 1960s; to the modern-day reinventions of
Sergio Leone, Clint Eastwood, and others.

The balance of the book consists of studio photo stills (mostly in
black and white), reproductions of studio posters and advertisements
(mostly in color), and approximately 500 quotations from myriad western
film actors, directors, and writers. Included in the quotations are such
classic lines as: “I’ve been given command of the armies of Texas.
Now the fly in the buttermilk is there ain’t no armies in Texas”
(Richard Boone, The Alamo, 1960); and “There are two kinds of people
in this world—those with pistols and those who dig—you dig” (Clint
Eastwood, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, 1966). The films and their
associated commentaries are arranged in alphabetical rather than
chronological order, which makes it hard to discern the evolution of the
western myth traced in the book’s introduction.

Film historians will find the indexes of screenwriters useful, while
others will value the book as a light-hearted resource guide. For those
seeking more substantial fare, Tall in the Saddle does not live up to
the promise of its introduction.