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Post by sloanrodgers on Sept 3, 2009 13:04:51 GMT -5
Some of you Texas ranger/ history fans might find this small documentary interesting for different reasons. It's being produced by Hays County ( where I was born ) and should come out soon to very select theaters in Texas. It is a low budget affair, but I just think it's cool that Jack Hays is getting some cinematic recognition for his great contributions to Texas history. Jack Hays documentary video video.aol.de/video-detail/documentary-remembers-jack-hays/405012810
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Post by Jim Boylston on Sept 3, 2009 15:44:30 GMT -5
Some of you Texas ranger/ history fans might find this small documentary interesting for different reasons. It's being produced by Hays County ( where I was born ) and should come out soon to very select theaters in Texas. It is a low budget affair, but I just think it's cool that Jack Hays is getting some cinematic recognition for his great contributions to Texas history. I think our very own mustanggray stars in this production! Jim
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Post by mustanggray on Sept 3, 2009 16:03:10 GMT -5
I was involved in various different ways from wardrobe/props to being reenactor coordinator, location scout and I got to portray Captain Jack himself! I was happy with alot of different scenes we did but alas I couldn't control all of it and inevitably we had some stuff slip by but all in all I think it'll be a good piece.
SMc
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Post by sloanrodgers on Sept 3, 2009 17:23:12 GMT -5
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Post by Jim Boylston on Sept 3, 2009 23:02:51 GMT -5
It stinks when the press gets your name wrong.
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Post by sloanrodgers on Sept 4, 2009 12:46:20 GMT -5
Yea, when the Hays documentary story first aired on Fox News, I didn't get a good look at Scott on that beautiful horse and didn't recognize him from our single meeting a couple years ago. When I saw the story in my Austin newspaper, McMahon didn't appear in the main text of the piece, so I missed the connection again. It wasn't until a couple weeks later when I met director Richard Kidd at my home that I put two & two together and figured out that the mysterious Scott McClellan was really our own Mustang Gray. Austin American Statesman www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/2009/07/03/0703jackhays.html?imw=Y
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Post by mustanggray on Sept 7, 2009 15:42:29 GMT -5
I just figured I'd use Scott McClellan as my stage name... or not! regarding the underdressed Comanche, well, when the director says this is how much money you have to work with you do the best you can. Actually some of their weapons were copied from original pieces or at least compilations of period pieces but they didn't really seem to show on screen, from what I saw. We'll see how it turns out... I did what I could from the stitch/history Nazi angle! ;D SMc
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Post by sloanrodgers on Sept 8, 2009 12:14:39 GMT -5
I've only seen the short news video/ pictures and the great photos of reenactor Taylor Tomlin, so I can't really judge the documentary as a whole. I didn't mean to be critical and think the production crew and actors did a fantastic job with the little money that was available to them. I told Richard a few times that it was wonderful, work, but thought there were things he could do to tweak it and make it more historically accurate. The crude weapons of the Comanche are actually really good from what I could see of them. The lances probably should have been longer (12 - 18 ft.) to be correct, but who would notice besides Indian historians. If the Comanche lances, coup sticks, etc had been "completely" accurate, they would have obviously been a big danger to the reenactors on both sides, unless made of rubber. I'm no film expert, but it seems to me that accuracy can be really impractical and taken too far in some cases. I do wish they had chosen a younger and bigger ranger to play Bigfoot Wallace, but that's just me. The short, grizzled guy does make a good frontiersman though.
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Post by mustanggray on Sept 9, 2009 9:12:30 GMT -5
Bigfoot Wallace? WTF!!! There was never any mention of that while we were shooting. Oh well... editing can change everything you thought was going well when it was going. And yeah, I would've loved to have thrown in a few 14'+ lances but we were concerned the kids couldn't handle them on horseback and to their credit they did everything bareback! You can never be too critical when it comes to historical accuracy RR... you know that! Richard got tired of my nagging about details real quick! SMc
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Post by sloanrodgers on Sept 10, 2009 20:54:11 GMT -5
Bigfoot Wallace? WTF!!! There was never any mention of that while we were shooting. Oh well... editing can change everything you thought was going well when it was going. And yeah, I would've loved to have thrown in a few 14'+ lances but we were concerned the kids couldn't handle them on horseback and to their credit they did everything bareback! Yea, the little old fella was supposed to be potraying the big fella, although I'm not sure he knew he was Bigfoot at the time. At least that's what Richard told me. I guess it is hard to find a 6 foot, 2 inch, barrel- chested Anglo reenactor with blue eyes and his own horse. I really do not have a problem with this short, bushy horseshoe-mustachioed guy playing Bigfoot Wallace. I'm just glad that he didn't get kilt off in a row that he didn't attend. I've corrected several folks over the years that swear Bigfoot was executed in the Santa Fe Expedition after drawing a fatal black bean from a Folger's Coffee can. ;D Hey, I agree so far as books and magazine articles, but think there would be a lot of long confusing movies if script writers and directors didn't take some liberties with history. I really like historical movies that get it right and are really entertaining like Glory, but they're very rare. When I was in the US army, I used to have trouble watching war films because they seemed so ridiculous. I knew it was utter stupidity for Rambo to fire a LAW through a chopper window or for George Clooney to blow-up enemy vehicles with plastique/ footballs, but none of my buddies wanted to hear it. They just wanted to be entertained like most Americans. I do like pointing out historical and factual flaws, but I'm not going to get too bent out of shape over them. Of course well budgeted documentaries should be held to a much high standard. Amateurs with long lances would have definitely looked bad and you were right to exclude them. I do believe you could have thrown an Indian horse blanket over a few ponies and saved some Comanche tail bones. It would still be historically correct because George Catlin painted Comanche horses with blankets in the 1840s. I'm sure the Hays Documentary will turn out fine. Good job on all that hard riding, advising, acting and sewing. You're a rough n' ready historian.
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Post by mustanggray on Sept 11, 2009 10:20:23 GMT -5
The sad thing is we DID have a fellow(aside from me) that was 6' 2" with his own horse... at one point he was supposed to be Sam Walker9?why?) and then the special effect @$$ changed things around and we used a 50+ yr old fellow for Sam... REALLY cool huh?! SMc
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Post by sloanrodgers on Sept 11, 2009 13:56:02 GMT -5
That is unfortunate, but I think typical of casting folks. I had forgotten that you were so tall and maybe grandpa wasn't that short. As you know, Hays wasn't tall and slim of build like a few of his best men (Walker, Gillespie, etc.), but tough and wiry. Christopher "Kit or Big Ack" Acklen was one of the biggest and a noted pugilist, who followed Hays to California and became a lawman. I imagine that Simon "Bull" Bateman and Aligator Davis were big guys if they claimed their nom de plumes by wrestling these animals. The most I ever brawled with was a little pitbull-mastiff.
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Post by sloanrodgers on Sept 13, 2009 19:27:48 GMT -5
A little update for those that are interested or maybe I should say, er, not interested. The director of the Hays Documentary needed someone to do the historical voice over for the film, so I put him in touch with genuine Texas rangers Joaquin Jackson and UT Tower hero Ray Martinez. I'm sure either of these great men would have done an excellent job on the project, but the director decided to go with a professional narrator. It will probably sound better, but I thought it was a cool idea. They usually get country musicians like Kenny Rogers, Randy Travis or M-M-Mel Tillis for these ranger things.
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Post by mustanggray on Sept 13, 2009 23:28:46 GMT -5
Speaking of gators... on one of our last official "scouts" as a ranging company we spent a full day on a creek on some of J. Frank's old land looking for a gator for me to wrestle. Stipulation was it couldn't be over 6 feet... that might have been wishful thinking on my part?
SMc
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Post by sloanrodgers on Sept 21, 2010 16:15:17 GMT -5
Here's some news on this docudrama. After doing a little photo work for the Former Texas Rangers Foundation's San Antonio museum renovation ( next to the Buck Horn ) a couple weeks ago, they informed me that the museum has decided to show the film with the Jack Hays display. I think it deserves a bit more exposure.
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