Alterations and Political Corrrectness

Rating: Null/10 (9 September 2007)

This will not spoil the ending, but anyone who saw the 1957 version with Glenn Ford and Van Heflin and remembers the stunning drama of that conclusion will probably be disappointed in the remake's alteration. That's a shame. In a way, the entire film sacrificed suspense for melodrama. That, too is a shame.
But the big question is whoever decided that the Old West was a tobacco free zone. I mean, here are the rottenest, meanest, whiskey-swillingest outlaws on the frontier, and there's not a stogie, chaw, or home-rolled smoke anywhere to be seen. I think there was a sniff of snuff, but it happened so quick, no one probably saw it. In this period, tobacco was a part of life. To omit it is to throw any attempt to recreate historical period out the window.