Martin Scorsese once said, “More than 90 percent of directing is the right casting.” Lonesome Dove is the greatest Western miniseries—no, to hell...
The Best of the Texas Rangers in Fiction
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Allen Barra
In Wine There Is Truth
The most celebrated duel in recent Western films wasn’t fought with guns or bowie knives, but words: in 1993’s Tombstone, Val Kilmer’s “Doc”...
The Reel Walk Downs
The walk down to the lot behind the O.K. Corral has become a ritual in Tombstone productions—re-created, imitated and parodied in perhaps two dozen...
Getting to Know Doc and Wyatt
Allen Barra: You have now written two superb, hefty novels involving Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. When did the idea first come to you to write...
Wyatt Earp Myth Busters
Did Wyatt Arrest Ben Thompson? This alleged arrest has driven researchers batty for decades. The most famous account appears in Stuart Lake’s Wyatt...
An Epic Life of a Lawman
The opening two sentences of John Boessenecker’s Texas Ranger: The Epic Life of Frank Hamer, The Man Who Killed Bonnie and Clyde (Thomas Dunne...
The Brotherhood of Empirical Failure
In 1876, Custer’s Seventh Calvary was defeated by the Lakota and Cheyenne tribes at the Little Big Horn; three years later, two British columns were...
The True History of Lonesome Dove
Martin Scorsese once said, “More than 90 percent of directing is the right casting.” Lonesome Dove is the greatest Western miniseries—no, to hell...
Billy Vs. Ned
Allen Barra: In Wanted, you cite a friend of Billy the Kid declaring, “He was a good kid, but he got in the wrong company.” Does that accurately...
Legends, Outlaws, Brothers
On vacation in Australia, Robert Utley had a great idea. Looking at a statue of the infamous bandit Ned Kelly in his bulletproof armor, it came to...
Pancho’s Lost Film
Raoul Walsh’s movie career began in 1912 and lasted more than half a century. A protégé of D.W. Griffith—he played John Wilkes Booth in Griffith’s...
The Human Custer
Allen Barra: You wrote in your preface, “Custer battled American Indians ruthlessly, yet wrote that he would resist too were he one of them.” His...