Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Blackthorne--Review: Part III




Blackthorne

Cimemagenics 21-25

Review--Part III

“My gratitude swells as I read your positive responses to this
review of all that came before--so it continues. As a sidebar,
I am quite busy writing an actual Western screenplay, requested
by a successful actor friend as a future role for him.”--Glenn

Twenty-One: Warning--Buck returns to Millie’s room upstairs, &
begins to get dressed, asking: Who was that tinhorn? Millie is
silent for a moment, then says: Just ride on, back to nowhere, or
wherever the hell you came from. Buck explains that: This town
is my last stop; life has run out of rails. I’m done with running.”
Millie responds: Then you are probably a dead man; can’t you
hear the guns cocking all over town? That was Cash Bronson’s
little brother that you just tossed out of the window like a sack
of sour goat shit. Buck is told that Bronson is the main king pin,
the hairy bear in that town, & he will retaliate for this insult. Lulu,
the blond prostitute he had cold-cocked was Paully’s “girlfriend”.
Paully mostly stayed at the saloon, pretending to be the manager,
whoring, drinking, & gambling. Cash had a huge ranch, the Triple
B, a few miles out of town. No one stands up to Paully, for fear
of his two brothers. Buck shrugged. She asked: Haven’t you
heard about Thor?

Twenty-Two: Dead Time--Millie warns Buck about Thor Bronson,
the eldest son; slippery fast, & rattlesnake mean: He’s killed over
20 men in gunfights, & he’s never had a scratch on him. Buck
seems unimpressed. As he is leaving, he turns & asks: Sweet
Millie, will you remember me?  “Hell no,” she replied,”I like you,
& you’ll probably be dead inside of a week.” He walks out, leaving
5 silver dollars on the dresser. She watches him from her other
window, standing there naked & weeping. 

Twenty-Three: Errands--Buck stopped at Wallace’s General Store;
they were still busy, so there was no sack of provisions hanging
from his saddle. He could see a barber shop two blocks down. He
notices a lot of crowd buzz at the front of the CHINA DOLL. He slips
his .50 caliber Sharps out of its scabbard, cradles it over on arm &
heads off for a shave & possibly a bath. Most people didn’t really
pay much attention to him; this made him uneasy. At the end of the
first block, in an alley, two Mexican whores had set up shop in front
of a red tent. They waved at him. Buck enters Barnes’ Barber Shop,
& as the barber stood up, he asked: Whooa--what is that lethal
smell? Buck replied: Buffalo blood, beer & pussy. The barber
frowned: Thanks for sharing.

Twenty-Four: Shave & a Haircut--Barnes introduced himself, &
had Buck sit in a swivel chair. He opened his front door a bit,
staring back at the pungent stranger. Cheewa came padding in.
Barnes said, “I don’t hold much with dogs in my shop, but Buck
insisted that his dog stay by his side. Barnes agreed. As he steamed
Buck’s face, & began to clip off the salt & pepper beard, he asked
if Buck knew anything about the gun shots that had happened earlier? 
Buck replied, “ A couple of men got to scuffling over one of the whores”,
in the saloon. Barnes complained that a couple of men a week were
killed or injured in the CHINA DOLL, Buck asked: Does this chicken-
shit town have a sheriff? The barber replied: Yup, his name is  Joe 
Hop, & he’s got a badge & everything; but it seems that he & Bronson
have some kind of arrangement--with the sheriff mostly staying out
of the saloon. “So does Bronson write law & dictate policy?”  Barnes
replied thatIt has nothing to do with laws, & everything to do with
power.  Buck shrugged: What the fuck--there’s a Bronson in every
town.

Twenty-Five: Advice--Buck asks why the town hasn’t just hired some
“regulators” to run Bronson off. It seems Bronson is now too entrenched,
has too much money & land, & a private militia of gunsels to enforce
his will. “Is the sheriff a bought bully for Bronson?” But there is no simple
answer--Hopp is a tough law man; he’s tamed several other towns in the
past. He has been in Blackthorne for about a year. The previous two
sheriffs did not fare well--one was back shot, the other just went fishing
& never came back. Buck inquired about the Bronson brothers. “Why
do you want to know?” Barnes inquired. “I think I just tossed Paully
out of a two-story window, & I’m expecting trouble.” Barnes said:
Be smart, ride on. Buck was silent. Barnes then explained that Bronson
had shown up in town a decade earlier, with a satchel full of cash, &
six men as companions. “My son tells me I talk too much; did Bronson
send you to shut me up? Buck smiled: Well shit-fire, it will be a hot old
time in the town when this wicked-ass Jefe & I finally meet. 

Glenn Buttkus

Posted over on dVerse Poets Pub OLN

20 comments:

Marina Sofia said...

Congratulations on writing a screenplay and let us know when it hits the screens (although I know that these things tend to move at glacial speed).
I like these summaries - what they have lost in atmosphere, they have gained in swagger and flippant cowboy humour. You should do a combination of both - perhaps an experiment of left-hand, right-hand page?
I wanted to know your opinion. I recently read a novel called Youth by Paolo Sorrentino - at least, it was called a novel, but it was in actual fact the screenplay for his film also called Youth. And, while it was enjoyable, I didn't see why it was called a novel - there was nothing he added to the screenplay. Now, maybe if he had done a sort of summary or 'making of' or 'thoughts beyond' on the other side of the page, that would have been more interesting. It was a pretty detailed screenplay, but of course it's all external - there's no 'he thought', 'she wondered' etc.

Sanaa Rizvi said...

This is brilliant :D congratulations on writing a screenplay! So cool :D

Jennifer Wagner said...

Congrats to you! This is riveting. You are indeed quite talented!

brudberg said...

I love the recaps, and though I have not missed many of yours these bring back the memory of the adventures and challenges... hope your screenplay will be successful

Magaly Guerrero said...

This is the first time I read one of your recaps, and find the reading interesting... snapshots that allow me to fill in the missing bits... and imagine what the final story might look like.

Misky said...

Hearty congratulations to you! Always love the recaps, and these are no exception.

Anonymous said...

Hey Glenn, a big congratulations to you my friend for your screenplay. :)

I'm proud of you and I can't wait to see it on the screen.

Your stories always captivate me and I got into your world of the cowboy days and its humor that goes along with it. Excellent post my friend. :)

Grace said...

Appreciate the recap Glenn & our congrats to you for writing a screenplay ~ Let us know the outcome of your project ~ It would be lovely to see it unfold in the big screen and hear all the musical and background sounds to the story ~

Edward said...

As the others have said congratulations ... the renditions of review give the reader tools to dive in with... e.g. the first part with the "sour goat shit" is rife with hard syllables eaten by soft ones ... which to me juxtapose the action or dramatic arcs in the story line ... poems between the lines these reviews are and lovely at that ... I put myself eye level to the goat a nubian with eyes a-twist naying and saying things when I turn around like if men had horns they wouldn't wear those damn silly hats...

said...

"Lulu, the blond prostitute he had cold-cocked was Paully’s 'girlfriend'." ... Ha. What a great sentence.

These are more of my favorites:

"Millie warns Buck about Thor Bronson,
the eldest son; slippery fast, & rattlesnake mean"

"he turns & asks: Sweet
Millie, will you remember me?"

"She watches him from her other
window, standing there naked & weeping."

"Buck replied: Buffalo blood, beer & pussy." (Ha.)

Pleasant Street said...

What can I say that I haven't said before? I love following this, and I thank you for the reprise of earlier segments.

This resonates with me~
“Hell no,” she replied,”I like you,
& you’ll probably be dead inside of a week.” He walks out, leaving
5 silver dollars on the dresser. She watches him from her other
window, standing there naked & weeping."

ZQ said...

Cool!
ZQ

Victoria said...

Great work, Glenn. I hope that screen play takes your work to the top, where it deserves to be. My husbands latest addiction is old TV Westerns--there is a channel down here that plays them all day and the theme song of Cheyenne plays continuously in my mind. As an aside, as a teen, I had a huge crush on Clint Walker.

Anonymous said...

Love this stuff!! And many congratulations on the screenplay!

Truedessa said...

Hi Glenn,

I just had to stop over as I knew you would have something to entertain. As you know I enjoy these scenes and re-caps. Twenty-Two was a great scene - slippery fast, & rattlesnake mean now that is quite the image there. I also like the vulnerability between the characters. Will you remember me? She denies it yet she stands naked and weeping...

Congrats - What this series isn't an actual western screenplay? You sure had me fooled as it has all the makings of a western. I am sure you will come out guns blazing in your new writing project :)

Glenn Buttkus said...

My actor pal, Adrian Sparks (go out & see PAPA this month) wanted a specific kind of plot written for himself, & 3 other actor pals. He already had his own ideas about the characters, & an overview of the plot (which has changed up a few times already). I would have loved to use my own novel, & budding screenplay, but it didn't fit his criteria. Like anything/everything in the Arts, this could fall on its face, but that does not dampen my enthusiasm for the project. Working title is RIDE VALIANT.

Glenn Buttkus said...

MARINA, am actual screenplay is not much more than an outline with dialogue; like a theatrical play fleshed out to film parameters. Pretty gutsy to pass this off as a "novel"; the screenplay should have been based on a story or actual novel, so the back story & explications from them fill in the missing blanks.

Kim M. Russell said...

I love this, if only for the unfamiliar language - being British I just grinned at the description: Bronson is the main king pin, the hairy bear in that town ... the blond prostitute he had cold-cocked was Paully’s “girlfriend”.

Hairy bear! And I've never heard the expression 'cold-cocked'! I am on a steep learning curve and enjoying the ride.

lillianthehomepoet.wordpress.com said...

Okay -- when the screenplay is done, filmed, and at the Cannes Festival, I want an invite! :)
I do love your writing, Glenn. And having just joined Dverse in December, these recaps are amazing.
"This town is my last stop; life has run out of rails. I’m done with running.” Somehow I think there's a poem just in this one line.

Your characters are alive and your era is so well described. Keep writing! And remember my ticket!

kaykuala said...

The recaps help to keep one abreast of the progress. It certainly is a good strategy, Glenn! But to come up with this take is really a great effort!

Hank