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Rawhide: The Complete First Season [1959] (REGION 1) (NTSC)


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Amazing television from a bygone era
Review date: 2007-08-19 Rating: 10 out of 10

I first encountered RAWHIDE sometime during the 1980s, and like many I watched the repeats of the show that Channel 4 screened in the late 1990s. I was very impressed with the show and for a while watching it became a regular fixture of my weekends. Consequently, I'm enormously pleased that Paramount have begun to release the show onto a home video format.

At times, there's an odd, abstract quality about the series, as if the drovers are wandering through purgatory; some of the shows feature plot-points that verge on those you might expect to see in a horror film. For example, in one episode in the middle of nowhere a young drover stumbles across a man who has been hung upside down and disfigured with fire; and in another early episode, the herd is followed by a mysterious gunfighter (played by the great Dan Duryea). This abstract quality is reinforced by the fact that whatever problems the drovers stumble across, at the end of every episode they must continue to push the herd forwards: they are rootless, and unlike the heroes of many Western films and television shows the protagonists of this series are simply working men. They make mistakes; and if they are hit or show, they are clearly wounded.

When I watched the show at a younger age, I saw Eastwood's Rowdy Yates as the star of the show, and it's hard not to let Eastwood's subsequent fame eclipse the other actors' roles in the series. However, revisiting the series, Eric Fleming steals the majority of the episodes: Gil Favor is the pivot around which most of the action revolves, and his background is shrouded in mystery.

I sincerely hope that Paramount decide to continue with the DVD releases of this well-loved series.

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Reviews


head up, move out for one of the all time classics!
Review date: 2007-07-07 Rating: 10 out of 10

Ah, teeny lass time! When I came to visit my cousins they were always on about Mr. Favor. They would drag out the cap-pistols and stick horses and play Rawhide. No one wanted be Rowdy Yates. They always forced my younger brother David to play Rowdy and he'd cry. Everyone wanted to be Mr. Favor. Handsome, sexy voiced Eric Fleming was a star on the rise. We saw him in various Sci-Fi flicks in the 50s like that horrid thing with Zaa-Zaa as Queen of Outer Space, and some nifty who dun its, but it was as Ms. Favor he was rising to the top. Hard to recall gravelly-voiced Eastwood was considered a wimp!

Favor was filming a flick in the Amazon during summer break and drowned. Hollywood lost a rising star and Rawhide lost Mr. Favor, dooming the series. It lumbered on with Rowdy taking over as trail boss for a time, only the series lack the force without the dominating presence of Fleming. It would be curious if we could turn back time and alter events--one wonders if Eastwood would have finally come out of Fleming's shadow and become the superstar he did had Fleming not died.

The series ran for 8 years, and holds up well. There were so many westerns during this period, and when you go back to view them, they are sadly quite dated. NOT Rawhide. The strength of the acting, the vision of the producers and directors, kept Rawhide popular back then, but also gives you stories which stands the test of time. Rawhide dates like a fine wine.

You also have the treat of see fading stars and up and coming stars in the stories.

It just doesn't get any better than this.



Rawhide - Season 1
Review date: 2007-05-28 Rating: 10 out of 10

Some old TV series can be a disappointment when you view them many years later - they somehow don't look so good as your memory suggested! But "Rawhide" is an exception. Channel 4, to their credit, re-ran many of the episodes a while back. "Rawhide" stands apart from so many 1960s Westerns, in which the heroes look so impeccably turned out, with never a speck of dust and dirt on then. Instead "Rawhide" portrays grubby, smelly, tatty drovers, who bleed when they get thumped or shot, and bicker amongst themselves; the series features historically-credible and authentic detail with consistently credible storylines. For instance, our heroes aren't referred to as "cowboys", but "drovers" - a minor point but hey, that's authenticity for you. The black-and-white photography seems to enhance the atmosphere and the acting's pretty top-notch from the ensemble cast too. This is classic quality TV. Roll on the rest of the series please.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Eric Fleming
James Murdock
Clint Eastwood
Paul Brinegar
Sheb Wooley

Creators:
Eric Fleming (Primary Contributor)
Clint Eastwood (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Paramount
Manufacturer: Paramount
EAN: 0097368878044
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 7
Format: Box set, Black & White, NTSC,
Release date: 2006-07-25
Universal product code (UPC): 097368878044
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 1180 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1959-01-09
Language: Spanish (Original Language)
Language: English (Original Language)

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