They cite a Western limerick: “Young cowboys had a great fear / That old studs once filled with beer / Completely addle’ / They’d throw on a saddle, / and ride them on the rear.” They also mention an intriguing case at Fort Meade, in the Dakota Territory, where a Mrs. Nash married a soldier, and then after he was transferred married another man. “The lies about the West are more powerful than the truth about the West — so much more powerful that, in a sense, lies about the West are the truths about the West — the West, at least, of the imagination.” This is what would unite the two writers during the long slog of trying to get the movie made: the notion that they were on the same wave-length, that the West was hopelessly romanticized.
Author: David Streitfeld
Published at: 2026-04-01 22:37:44
Still want to read the full version? Full article
