Old episodes of the series, The Rifleman, show up on local channels from time to time. One episode, "The Prisoner" (1961), gave us insight into Lucas McCain's history. You know Lucas. He's the good guy, "the rifleman", the guy with the cool gun. Always on the side of the right. This episode has McCain running into a couple of Confederate soldiers (after the war was over) who recognized him. Apparently Lucas was in the Union Army. Well, they caused problems and Lucas had to straighten it out and in the end both soldiers were dead.
There, at the end of the episode, Lucas's son, Mark, asked him about the Confederate flag the men had with them. He asked why they had it. "You always told me a flag was a symbol of courage." They had been cowards. Lucas offered a completely politically incorrect analysis. "This flag stands for the bravery of all the men who fought and died under it. The men who fought against it. Only to prove in the end that victor and loser were one and the same-free men in a free country."
Poor Lucas. Clearly a racist. Oh, wait ... no. He had been on the Union side. Hmmm. But how did he (Hollywood) get away with something like that? Or, rather, how did Hollywood writers get away with putting those words in his mouth? Apparently no one was paying attention? Mind you, I have no great love for the Confederate flag. In fact, couldn't care less. But when America is up in arms about a flag or Hollywood stars are working to change the name of a school because of an ancient connection to something distasteful, it all seems so ludicrous to have something like Lucas McCain's take on it out of Hollywood. And they want to tell me that morals haven't changed.
7 comments:
Still love that show.
Stan- get over yourself and your fellow liberals attitudes about the Confederate battle flag. First, that was taped 56 years ago - eons before political correctness reared its ugly head. Second, Lucas McCain's analysis was spot on for when you fight for what you believe in, you have to be brave in order to do so. If you can separate yourself from the contemporary rhetoric you might be able to view things from a different, more historically accurate perspective. Good luck to your future
My "fellow liberals attitudes"??? I suspect you did not catch the sense in which I wrote that. It was pointing to the error of those who wish to remove all vestiges of the Confederate flag. (Please note that I am in no one's estimation "liberal".) I was commending the speech, not crucifying it.
Hi, I too saw that episode and looked at the credits at the end of the episode. I noticed the writers of the rifleman weren't Jewish script writers who predominately write or edit the dialogue in movies and tv shows today. I think that statement was spot on and glad it hadn't undergone a PC filter based on modern days views of the confederacy.
280,000 died for what they believed under the Confederate flag. Add all that served under the American flag. Don't they all deserve respect regardless of the material they died for.
The confederates were traitors and do not deserve homage or respect for their belief in the right to own slaves. Hope your perspective changed over time.
Clearly people don't have a clue what I was saying. I did not wish to venerate the South in the Civil War. I didn't offer credit for the Confederate Flag. I was simply pointing out that Hollywood changed their tune. My point, I clearly stated at the end, was that morals have changed ... from 1865 to 1961 to today. So Dave Black considered me a liberal even if I wasn't making a liberal statement and you consider me a nutcase ("Hope your perspective changed over time"). I think removing history is a bad idea -- even bad history. I think forgetting the errors of the past is a horrible idea. I also think we lack the ability to see that what the soldiers of the South did in their day was considered brave even when it was wrong. But not us. We'll hate all German soldiers from WWII (for instance) regardless of whether or not they were Nazis and all remnants of those who were in the South even if they were not racists. Too narrow-minded. I hope my perspective doesn't become that narrow-minded.
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