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Thursday, November 29, 2007

 

Movie review: Gunsmoke

I have watched yet another three episodes of Gunsmoke. In the first episode “The Queue” a “Chinamen” moves into town. He is not exactly welcomed there; in fact they throw him back into the wagon. Matt Dillon sees this and is not at all pleased. He tells the two guys to leave him alone. But, they find out he has a treasure box, and realize that though chain migration he would bring more “Chinamen”. The only way to get him to leave is to cut off his braid, or “Queue” as they call it, and take his treasure. Sure this sounds great in theory but when you send in a drunk guy to do your bidding for you, things don’t always go as planned. The bad guys get caught in the act and the “Chinaman” gets his braid back. We find out that the only thing in the treasure box is about nine dollars and a marriage license because that was his treasure. We are morbidly brought into the next episode called “General Parcley Smith” with Matt talking about how the bad people in Dodge end up in a shallow grave. In this episode a new bank opens while Matt is away. When he returns he is introduced to the new bank owner and his hired gunman. Next, Matt meets General Smith who tells him that the new bank owner is just going to rob everyone in Dodge of their money. He checks out the new bank owner with the other bank owner and he says his credentials seemed just fine. Matt tells Smith to stop slandering the new bank owner; but he still persists. Matt Dillon tells the gunman to leave by five because there just isn’t a place for him in Dodge, then he tells Smith to leave by sundown since he refuses to leave the new banker alone. Doc says that he worked with Smith in the Army and that he was a pathological liar. They both say they will be gone by their respective times. Later that night Chester and Matt hear gunshots. They run over and find Smith in a gunfight with the new bank owner and the gunman is already dead. It turns out Smith was right, but he lied about how he knew that they were going to run off with the money. In the end there are still no new characters in Gunsmoke because they keep killing them off. The final episode is called “Magnus” and IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME IN DODGE! And we are introduced to Chester’s brother, Magnus. Chester says he’s too dangerous to be among people because he doesn’t talk to girls, drink or gamble. But Matt encourages Chester to show him around town anyway. Chester gets jealous when Magnus wins all the money while they gamble, out drinks him at every bar in town, and impresses the heck out of Miss Kitty. Magnus saves Miss Kitty from a crazy guy who wants to kill her because she's pretty. Chester then accepts his brother for who he is when he finds out there are many things he didn’t know about his little brother.

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