Deadwood-A-10

Part 10 of Gale Harold's appearance on Deadwood, 7/30/06

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Gale
• Harold
• Wyatt
• Earp

[yerk3]

mickdukes: David Milch said that he and his team researched 19th century profanity from a wide array of sources, and that the profanity on Deadwood is almost 100% era-accurate. I believe he said there was only one instance of anachronistic swearing, and that's when E.B. Farnham is scrubbing a blood stain off his floor and mutters "motherfucker!" to himself. Apparently, "motherfucker" was a rarer insult back then, and was seldom muttered to oneself.

[yerk3]

mickdukes: Yeah, that's because he was a cop in the 50s and 60s, in a fully settled, modern America, not a lawless mining camp run by a pimp and populated by hoople-heads and bushwhackers, "uneducated, rough men" all. I believe a contemporary source referred to "a liberal sprinkling of assassins from hell."

[mickdukes]

Ok, granted there were uneducated, rough men using rough language in the western camps and cowtowns, but I dunno, I'm still having trouble buying this. My granddad was a cop during the 50s and 60s and he never remembers people swearing like this. I dunno. Not doubting your word per se, just would like to read some of the things you've read, yerk3.

[yerk3]

mickdukes: There are some 19th century sources with swear words. Really there was no particular Western way of speaking back then, other than there being more profanity. With the exception of the Indians, most people in the West back then were from somewhere else, usually from back East. I have read 19th century swear words, and they did say "fuck" in the context they use in this show. Gangs of New York also has some accurate 19th century profanity.

[mickdukes]

His commentary, as in on the DVDs? I don't have the funds for that, but what does he have to go by? What documented uses of these words from the period does he swear by? No pun intended.

I understand men cursed back then, am not saying they spoke like Maj. Cobb in 1934's Jesse James (goldang, dagblasted), but the worst curse words back then were, I believe, s**t, piss, b**t**d and b**ch. Things like that. The first time I heard f**k and c***s**k*r used in westerns was on this show.

[yerk3]

mickdukes: Look for David Milch's commentary on it. People swore in order to confirm their reputations as hard men, and because people have always used curse words. Add to this that Deadwood was one of the roughest places in America at the time, inhabited predominantly by men who were away from social structures back home that would keep them in line, along with some who were there because they couldn't "move in polite society."

[mickdukes]

But how do we know they used f**k in this capacity, this often?

[yerk3]

Johnnynoir333: They don't swear in old Westerns because it was Bowdlerized. This may surprise you, but the way people talked in old Westerns from the mid 20th century, that's not how people actually talked in the Old West. This show is more accurate than any Western I've seen so far, because they pay more attention to the real history than stupid cowboy archetypes.

[cholulasaucehot]

your a fuckin idiot let alone naive

[Johnnynoir333]

Did they say Fuckin in the Old West?

I dont know, but, the script on this

show sounds very stupid, they should

rent a few HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL and

see how it's done by cracky.

But, they wont and would you like to know

why? Because the writing on that show would

put them to shame. That is if they have any

shame. What a shame no more shame.