I worked as a background actor in 'Comanche Moon' in mid 2006 on the 'Austin' set of Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe in New Mexico. I wrote my day to day observations on my blogspot. The Blackfoot Indian horseback riders were described very favorably. The day by day experiences were told in the best of my recollections, after arriving home hours after dark, from long days on set in filming conditions that were less than favorable.
I give the entire production company credit for even moving forward in the conditions described. The PC crowd will most assuredly view this film as a negative portrayal of the violent Comanches. I have no idea how, in the current PC obsessed USA, this story will be told on prime time without censorship. McMurtry's book tells it exactly as it was.
Now after watching the TV series; I find the really great depictions of violence have been cut. Most of the great horseback riding scenes are cut. The 'burning Austin' scene is extremely brief. we did some great work and no sign of it is on the screen. The ratings were not good. Val Kilmer was overweight. Too bad the editing was so PC.
I have since been fortunate enough to acquire a book written by a family ancestor from San Saba Texas, in the middle 1800's. She tells in detail the horrors of the Comanche raids. It parallels exactly, the book written by McMurtry. She wrote the first person accounts in her diary, as a young girl. After the loss of her parents and the ranch, she raised her siblings. She was 9 when her gripping story begins. Surviving on the Texas Frontier, by Sarah Harkey Hall, copyright 1996.
Filming experience on set, first Posted Jun 2006 on DaFlikkers
I give the entire production company credit for even moving forward in the conditions described. The PC crowd will most assuredly view this film as a negative portrayal of the violent Comanches. I have no idea how, in the current PC obsessed USA, this story will be told on prime time without censorship. McMurtry's book tells it exactly as it was.
Now after watching the TV series; I find the really great depictions of violence have been cut. Most of the great horseback riding scenes are cut. The 'burning Austin' scene is extremely brief. we did some great work and no sign of it is on the screen. The ratings were not good. Val Kilmer was overweight. Too bad the editing was so PC.
I have since been fortunate enough to acquire a book written by a family ancestor from San Saba Texas, in the middle 1800's. She tells in detail the horrors of the Comanche raids. It parallels exactly, the book written by McMurtry. She wrote the first person accounts in her diary, as a young girl. After the loss of her parents and the ranch, she raised her siblings. She was 9 when her gripping story begins. Surviving on the Texas Frontier, by Sarah Harkey Hall, copyright 1996.
Filming experience on set, first Posted Jun 2006 on DaFlikkers