In the movies, The Sundance Kid couldn’t shoot for beans….unless if he was moving. When he added a little movement – a dip, a spin, a kneel – his shot was dead-on.

The same could be said for marketing your product or service. Perhaps you are well-versed in marketing fundamentals. You’ve been doing it for years, and have even created and executed some very successful marketing campaigns.

If so, congratulations. You should be proud.

However, how much will that actually help your NEXT marketing effort?

Yes, the experience will add some positive impact. It will cause a few lessons-learned to ring in our heads. However, if that previous success is all we rely on to design, manage, and execute our next marketing campaign, we are in trouble.

During the time between campaigns, things change… Our audience changes. The market changes. Our competitors change.

What about us? If we are standing still, chances are, we’ll miss our target.

Here’s a few things we can do to ensure that we keep moving:

• Read and learn from a lot of blogs! Every day, many people that “really get it” are posting advice that we can take and use for free. They are providing stories from their own experience, as well helping people stay up-to-date on new and upcoming technologies.   Are you keeping up?
• Spend face-to-face time with your audience
• Attend marketing related conferences: There is seemingly a new one each week. You can’t attend them all, but you need to participate in some.
• Share what you’ve learned! The more you share, the more willing people will be to help you out when the need arises. That sharing of information may lead to ideas that make your next marketing campaign a success
• Read about our marketing campaigns: Magazines and websites such as DMNews, MarketingSherpa, B2B, MarketingProfs provide new case studies on a daily basis. Read how other companies targeted their prospects , and which channels they used… Then, use that information to help shape your next marketing campaign.

The Sundance Kid may have had his flaws, but he knew that if he moved, he couldn’t miss a shot. There’s plenty of avenues available to help you don’t misfire on your next marketing campaign. Are you moving with them?

Photo Credit: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sundance_Kid.jpg

After several days of eluding the posse hired by E. H. Harramond of the Union Pacific Railroad, the outlaws Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid, freed their hard-driven horse, then stumbled their way up a ridge.   “Ya think they’ll follow the horse? ” Butch said.  Sundance answered as he climbed higher ” I don’t know.”  But, it was clear by the sound of pounding hooves that the posse was closing in on them. “You’re the brains, Butch, you’ll think of something.”

Damn it! they shouted as the camera panned out wide on the outlaws looking frantically around at a boulder strewn river beneath them and the ridge above them.  Sitting hard against a boulder, Sundance started filing bullets into his pistol, “They’re going for position. Better get ready.”

Looking out over the end of his nose at the river below, Butch asserted, ”No, we’ll jump.”

“Like hell, we will.”

“No, it’ll be okay if the water’s deep enough we don’t get squished to death. They’ll never follow.”

“I have to and I’m not gonna!” Sundance defied. “Come on, just one clear shot, that’s all I need.” Urged again by Butch to jump, Sundance squirmed away and told Butch, “Get away from me, I want to fight them.”

“They’ll kill us!”

“Maybe.”

“You want to die?”

“Do you?” Sundance said pointing the tip of his pistol toward the river.

“Alright, I’ll jump first… What’s the matter with you?”

Looking away Sundance said, “I can’t swim!” Then he looked back at Butch and shrugged.

In a fit of wild laughter, Butch said, “Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill you!”

With no further discussion their jaws were squared and off the cliff they jumped, suspended in air screaming “Shhhiiiiiiiiiii” before hitting the river below.

“It was Lord Baltimore and LaForce,” Butch exclaimed as he read Etta’s newspaper.  Stepping forward and reaching for the paper, Sundance shook his head, “Jesus, we were lucky to get away from them.” Butch looked down at the table a moment and then looking up predicted a group like that wouldn’t stay together long.

“They will if E. H. Harramond of the Union Pacific Railroad has anything to do with it.” Etta said as she stepped inside the room. ”He resents the way you’ve been picking on him. He’s outfitted a special train and hired special employees. You spent the last few days running from them.”

Sundance looked up from the newspaper, looked toward Etta and asked, “You say they’re hired permanent?” Pausing slightly before answering, Etta said, “No, just ’til they kill you.”

As it falls bloody to the rocks below, Butch’s eyes cross quickly to Sundance laying on his back, gun drawn. Sundance focuses on the lizard, closes his eyes a second, then looks left to Butch. He shakes his head one time to the right, clicks his cheek. 

They ride again.

At the peaceful Wyoming ranch, Butch faced a challenge by announcing, “Well, I run things here, Harvey.” Just then the camera turned up the hill to the giant, holstered Harvey Logan, walking slowly down to Butch as he calmly announced, “Used to be you did.  Me now.” Faced with a choice of guns or knives, Butch responded, I don’t want to shoot with ya, Harvey.”  Harvey reached behind his back, pulled out a 10 inch shiny blade, tossed it from his right hand to his left hand. “Anything you say, Butch.”

Harvey Logan

The camera then focused on a squint-eyed Sundance Kid as he pulled himself taller in the saddle. Quickly, the camera was back on Harvey pointing his finger and announcing to Sundance that this didn’t involve him and promising him he’d be welcome to stay after Butch was dead.

Standing close and quiet beside Sundance’s horse, Butch looked ahead as he removed his holster and said in a low voice, “Maybe there’s a way to profit in this. Bet on Logan.” Sundance assured him he would, but there was noone to bet on him.

Butch thought for a second and said, “Listen, I don’t mean to be a sore loser, but after this things over, if I’m dead, kill ‘im.”  

“Love to,” Sundance said as he sat back a tad, turned to Harvey, repositioned his chewing tobacco in his lip, grinned, waved and nodded.

Having successfully robbed the money laden Union Pacific train on its way north, the outlaw Hole in the Wall Gang, led by Butch Cassidy, was set to rob the Union Pacific on its trip south.  Little did the gang know, but E. H. Herromand, the Union Pacific owner, had his own plan.  Lagging just the right distance behind the targeted Union Pacific was a lone iron car loaded for one purpose: a hand-picked posse to capture Butch Cassidy and his sharp-shooter sidekick, the Sundance Kid.

With surprise in their favor, the posse picked off most of the gang with shots to the back as they tried to escape. Hoping to divide and conquer, the survivors split up, leaving Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid separated from their gang. Purposefully, all five of the horse-riding posse chased Butch and Sundance up the dusty trail. 

 Butch turned to Sundance and asked, “Who are those guys?”

Mile after mile, with no rest and nothing to eat, the two rode their horses hard over the hot, dry, rocky terrain of Wyoming.  In an attempt to lose the posse, Sundance jumped onto the back of Butch’s horse, spanking his own horse to chase it off.  Overlooking the area from higher ground, the two watched as the posse bit at the bait, but within a short time, regrouped and came closer.  This time, the stunned Sundance looked at his leader, Butch, and asked “Who are those guys?”

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (E.U.A., 1969)

Escolhemos um clássico do cinema para o mês de outubro. No western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (com a bela tradução para o português: Dois homens e um destino), dois grandes amigos lideram um bando de assaltantes nos Estados Unidos. Quando estão sendo cassados por todo o país, decidem ir juntamente com a namorada de um deles para a Bolívia. No elenco o saudoso Paul Newman (Butch Cassidy), Robert Redford (Sundance Kid) e Katharine Ross (Etta Place) são os personagens centrais da história. Newman (que mostra muita habilidade sobre duas rodas) e Etta protagonizam a clássica cena da bicicleta, com a também clássica “Raindrops keep falling on my head”, música de B.J. Thomas. Ficha completa no site adorocinema.

Meet the future!

“Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head”

(Hal David /Burt Bacharach)

B.J. Thomas

Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head
And just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed
Nothin’ seems to fit
Those…
Raindrops are fallin’ on my head, they keep fallin’

So I just did me some talkin’ to the sun
And I said I didn’t like the way he got things done
Sleepin’ on the job
Those…
Raindrops are fallin’ on my head, they keep fallin’

But there’s one thing
I know
The blues they sent to meet me
Won’t defeat me
It won’t be long till happiness steps up to greet me

Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head
But that doesn’t mean my eyes will soon be turnin’ red
Cryin’s not for me
‘Cause…
I’m never gonna stop the rain by complainin’
Because I’m free
Nothin’s worryin’ me

It won’t be long till happiness steps up to greet me

Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head
But that doesn’t mean my eyes will soon be turnin’ red
Cryin’s not for me
‘Cause…
I’m never gonna stop the rain by complainin’
Because I’m free
Nothin’s worryin’ me…

In Memoriam

The other day, while driving to IKEA, I covered some ground on which I intended to run. Because I was going to IKEA, I was thinking about marketing. Because I was driving on my running course, I was also thinking about running. The two topics wove around themselves in my head until I started thinking about how they’re related. Yes, I think a lot.

Content is King

At one of the earliest running events I entered, I saw someone wearing a t-shirt that said, “You can’t fake this.” It’s one of the things that I love about running. It forces you to be honest with yourself. You can’t hide a lack of training, a lack of focus, poor sleep, or inadequate nutrition on the course.What you bring with you, your content, is all that matters.

Meanwhile, marketing gurus are evangelizing the “return” of the importance of content. Well, content was always king. You can BS your way through anything in the short-term, but in the long-term you must provide genuinely useful content.

Make It Yours

I compete with people who swear by a training method they adopted wholesale after reading a magazine article. They miss the point. They are not the person who “discovered” that training method. They don’t have the same needs. They’re not at the same training level. What’s more, a training method won’t adapt itself as their needs change over time. To succeed, you have to know your own body, needs, and commitment. Then you can adapt what you read and experience to suit your own goals.

When I worked for a start-up company, they brought in some process consultants who taught the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) process. The consultants made no attempt to understand our business. They had different teams attend the training everyday, and made no attempt to understand teams’ roles within the company. As a result, most of what they taught was forgotten as soon as they left. I took away the idea that my team could experiment with no projects or processes. We could execute trial runs or small scale versions and learn from the experience before going full speed and full scale. I made it mine.

Simplify, Simplify, Simplify

I see runners who have to have the latest shoes, technical clothing, and MP3 players. I, myself, am sometimes guilty of believing that I need certain things before I can run. When those things become an excuse not to run, I simplify. In Heartbreak Ridge, Clint Eastwood’s Marine gunnery sergeant says, “Let’s keep things simple: If you’ve got your boots on, you can march into combat.” I paraphrase that to motivate myself: If you’ve got your shoes on, you can run.

I’ve been in many meetings where marketing, legal, PR, customer service, and even HR kept adding layers to the discussion, until we lost track of what we were trying to accomplish. Know your team’s role. Know who your team serves. Communicate with those people. Change and improve based on their feedback. Everything else is gravy.

Focus

Something else that I love about running is the focus. I have to focus on my body as I prepare to run. Has my last meal settled? Does this hurt? How about that? My body tells me what I can accomplish, and what I need to protect, if I listen. I have to pay attention to my stride, my pace, my breathing, and my foot placement as I run. When I finish, I focus on stretching again, this time trying to uncover any weakness that I can reduce or eliminate through other training or activity. When I run, it’s about me.

In our daily lives, we spend so much time working with others and caring for others that we can lose track of ourselves. Running brings me back to me. We’ve all heard the old aphorism that “when you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s hard to remember that you came to clear the swamp.” Take some time everyday to focus on your product and your processes. Focus on things under your control. Try to identify one area that can improve, and work on that. You don’t have to fix everything immediately.

“You just keep thinkin’ Butch. That’s what you’re good at.” -Sundance Kid, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969

Dear Robert Redford,

Today is your 73rd birthday. Where did all the years go? I’ve always looked at you as if you were some sort of superior being chiseled out of marble by the gods. Thank you for being so sexy. Thank you for reminding me of an older Brad Pitt… and my god, thank you for rocking the shit out of this mustache.

Today is your day Robert Redford, you deserve it.

May you live 73 more years Sundance Kid!

The realization that the movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” is celebrating its 40^th anniversary this summer is hard on me.  I’ve never seen a movie in a theater more than this classic that I still love today.

I’m fine with growing older, yet, every once in a while, things crop up that make me wonder where all the years have gone.  How can I possibly be that old when I sure don’t feel it and certainly don’t act it?  Then I remember Paul Newman has, sadly, passed on and Robert Redford is about to turn 73.

Just out of Topeka High, I was totally enthralled with my new life at The Topeka Capital-Journal when the movie came out.   There are lines in that movie that I can call up as though I was the one making them.

“Bolivia.”

“You just keep thinking, Butch.  That is what you are good at”

“I have vision while the rest of world wears bifocals.”

“You are riding on my bicycle.  In some Arabian countries that is the same as being married.”

“Why you, crazy. The fall will probably kill you.”

Finally, the one that has summed up my financial life has Butch complaining about being out of money again.  Etta Place replied, “Sundance says it is because you are a soft touch, always taking expensive vacations, buying drinks for everyone and you’re a rotten gambler.”

“Well, that might have something to do with it,” was Butch’s reply, and haven’t I made almost the same reply often in my life?

But my best real-life memory came one night as the photo staff was leaving a gathering held at Director of Photography Rich Clarkson’s duplex on 29^th St. Terrace.  The famed Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Brian Lanker loved the movie nearly as much, and we had been talking about it throughout the evening.

In the days before cell phones, all photographers had two-way radios in our cars.  Clarkson was an absolute stickler for proper FCC protocol in the use of those radios.  As we all drove home, I heard a voice giggling through my car speaker.

“I work for Mr. E.H. Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad.”  I knew it was Lanker and grabbed my mike.

“Hey, Woodcock!  You OK?”   The reply was instantaneous.

“Well Sort of.”

“Let’s open up and take a look at you.”

And, then we all heard another voice barking over the speaker that everyone knew was Clarkson’s.

“There will be two photographers having their radios removed from their cars tomorrow.”

Boom!  We knew what was coming the next day.  Standing in front of his desk, we both knew our radios would be safe.  We wouldn’t.  We also knew every other photographer was standing behind the red one-way mirror in the print lab watching with total glee as we were scorched.

We had been told been told that we’d never have been caught by anyone other than the FCC if Clarkson hadn’t gone out to move his car.  What?  Out of his garage?  We knew what had happened (as you now do), but neither would say another thing about it.  Safely in the back, Lanker just turned to me and said, “You just keep thinking, Butch.  That is what you are good at.”

Everyone in the building had to hear us roaring with laughter.   Here’s to Butch, Sundance and Brian Lanker.  I’m still laughing 40 years later.

I just finished reading Etta, by Gerald Kolpan – a first novel for him and a rip-roaring ride of a read for me. I like strong women and I love western history, and this combines the two in a tale of what the author imagines might have been the life of the woman who loved and was loved by Butch Cassidy’s sidekick, Harry Longbaugh.

The story begins with Etta Place out riding and shooting on her family’s estate on the outskirts of Philadelphia when she hears another shot – not from her firearm. Her father, deep in debt from gambling, has committed suicide, and Etta must leave immediately to escape the pre-mafia “black arm” which would have her maimed or killed to avenge her father’s debt.

After a brief stint as a Harvey Girl, and due to circumstances beyond her control, she winds up on the wrong side of the law, and eventually finds fulfillment of sorts with the imfamous hole-in the-wall gang. And of course she falls in love with the dashingly handsome and aloof Sundance Kid.

There’s more to the story than that, though. She goes in hiding back East and becomes BFF with Eleanor Roosevelt, joins Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show for a while, and saves the President’s life, but must continually stay on the run to avoid capture by the notorious Pinkerton detectives.

Lively prose is interspersed with journal entries, newspaper articles and letters to lend an air of historic authenticity to the story. I wished it hadn’t ended as quickly as it did – but then it isn’t billed as a leisurely ride!

Belfast, verano de 1970. Micky Boyle (John Joe McNeill), inquieto, vitalista e imaginativo, es el más pequeño de una numerosa familia católica. Su mejor amigo, Johnjo (Niall Wright), el único hijo de una protestante que vive al otro lado del puente, cuyos padres se encuentran inmersos en plena desintegración matrimonial. Las bombas detonan a ambos lados de la ciudad y un puente separa los dos bandos del conflicto. La situación política del país es algo más que un mero telón de fondo para narrar lo difícil que es crecer en Irlanda del Norte. Los chicos son amigos, pasan juntos gran parte de su tiempo libre, protegiéndose del acoso de bandas juveniles o simplemente jugando, imaginando aventuras que les lleven a escapar de un medio y un tiempo que no terminan de aceptar. Una noche se cuelan en un cine donde se proyecta “Dos hombres y un destino“. Fascinados por Robert Redford y Paul Newman, pretenden vivirla al máximo, trasladándola a su día a día cual Butch Cassidy y Sundance Kid.

Y deciden iniciar su viaje a tierras australianas, imitando el tipo de vida de rebeldes renegados de sus héroes favoritos del cine, revolucionando Belfast más allá de las fronteras irlandesas. En su fuga, perseguidos por la ley y los medios de comunicación, los críos viven su particular “al margen de la ley“, ignorantes del sentido real de su amistad en una sociedad que les convierte en forajidos que en realidad sólo pretenden escapar de las cadenas que encarcelan su infancia.

Terry Loane explota el potencial cómico de la película, basada en una popular obra de teatro de Owen McCafferty, retratando el dramatismo de la época en Irlanda desde la comedia más desenfadada, por momentos muy divertida (los críos consiguen liarla más allá de los límites de su propia imaginación), basando el relato en las dos encantadoras y convincentes actuaciones de los protagonistas. El resultado es una comedia inteligente, en la que las vivencias de los chavales están siempre integradas en el trasfondo de una época difícil y sombría que se retrata con honestidad y credibilidad suficiente, hasta en los mínimos detalles, entre los que cabe destacar el trabajo de escenografía a cargo de Tom McCullagh en cuanto a ropa, peinados, muebles, decorados… que evocan el período de la década de los 70 de modo muy realista.

Mickybo and me no llegó a estrenarse en España, aunque se puede encontrar en DVD subtitulada. El director irlandés construye un producto generoso y esforzado que, sin ser una gran película, resulta agradable y por momentos, imaginativa y divertida. Su estilo realista y directo, alejado de las sutilezas y complejidades con el que suele etiquetarse el cine europeo, hace del film un producto fresco y muy entretenido que, sin embargo, no permite demasiada profundización en los personajes y sus conflictos más allá de sus resortes melodramáticos. Una película bienintencionada y honesta, buen retrato de una sociedad y una época, recomendable para pasar un rato muy entretenido, aunque con claras limitaciones en cuanto a aprovechamiento de contenido.

William Goldman nació en Illinois en 1931. Empezó su carrera literaria como novelista, y, en los años 50, se lanzó al mundo del guión cinematográfico. Es autor de libretos de éxito indiscutible, como Dos hombres y un destino (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969), La Princesa Prometida (The Princess Bride, 1987), Marathon Man (1976), Misery (1990), Maverick (1994), etc, etc, etc.

Es el célebre autor de la frase: “nadie sabe nada”, con la que explicaba que en la industria de Hollywood es inútil tratar de predecir matemáticamente los éxitos, que los guiones más increíbles pueden terminar en un rotundo fracaso, etc. También se recomienda la lectura de su obra “Aventuras de un guionista en Hollywood” (que no he leído, pero leeré).

Sí que he estado hojeando una tesis doctoral -de Eva Alfonso, antigua alumna de fCom- y he aprendido un par de cosas sobre este caballero. Quienes hayáis visto alguna de sus películas recordaréis su nostalgia por la infancia y el mundo perdido de la juventud, el escapismo (“lúdico”, le llaman) de sus personajes, la comedia de aventuras con un final trágico… Ingredientes que dan un resultado sorprendente: a mi humilde modo de ver, se trata del pesimista más delicioso que he visto nunca. Hablaremos más de él.

Upfront warning regarding this “source” report on a planned remake of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid from Tom Cruise in that it comes from one of those sources and seems like a remake too far for anyone, even in the remake hungry …[More..]


Rumor has it, Tom Cruise is planning a remake to western classic “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”. The Daily Express suggested the matter, writing that the 46-year-old actor/producer intends to produce the remake movie through his …[More..]

Rumor has it that Tom Cruise and John Travolta are going to remake the classic

1) The Gash Monster.  This one is a little messed up.  The opening of the dream started like a pinhole fade-in… except the pinhole was a square.  As the blackness pulled away, it revealed a creature comprised of eyes that looked just like this one below: 

(Kinda) Artistic Representation

It was covered in gashes (take that word choice however you may), and in every slit (same goes for that word choice) rested a beady, blinking eye.  The beast was the size of a couch and shaped like a boar.  Its snorting (and endless staring) woke me up immediately.

2) The Floating Puck.  In this dream, there was a ten foot cushioned, hockey puck-looking thing in a play area.  Some kids were floating above it, but I thought they were flying by jet packs like we’re used to seeing (even though I saw none):

In case you couldn't put "jet" and "pack" together in your mind.

When they started doing flips, it freaked me out.  I was worried they’d crash and smash their heads.  As it turned out, this puck-thing blasted air which made everyone virtually weightless.  At the point I finally stood on it, I had to jump to get started.  I lifted a bit higher with each jump, but I was too heavy for it and slowly descended back to the ground.  For whatever reason, this made me wake up, laughing out loud.

3) The Giveaway.  This is maybe even stranger than the other two dreams.  I was in my basement doing laundry, and Robert Redford was also there, going through all of his old awards.  He was pulling out all kinds of trophies and throwing them in the trash – even his Oscars.  The only one he wanted to keep was from Butch Cassidey and the Sundance Kid (for which he wasn’t even nominated).  He told me he’d give me his Academy Award from The Sting (he didn’t win, but at least he was nominated).  When he reached into the box, he pulled out a toy of the Gash Monster.

Like this Star Wars creature, but not at all.

2. Etta by Gerald Kolpan (will be published on 24 March 2009)

Pre-order Etta on Amazon
Length: 330 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction

Started: 03 January 2009
Finished: 04 January 2009

How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 18 December 2008
Verdict? Keeper

Sundance Kid’s girlfriend
comes to life in a book more
real than history.

Summary: Etta Place, the girlfriend of the Sundance Kid, is one of the most enigmatic figures of the American West. No one is sure who she really was or where she came from prior to 1900, and she disappears from history in 1909. In his debut novel, Kolpan offers up a vivid portrait of this beautiful, well-educated, and mysterious outlaw, as well as a plausible theory as to her origins. In Etta, when 18-year-old Philadelphia socialite Lorinda Jameson’s father kills himself, leaving her heir to his gambling debts and the ruthless criminals who are looking to collect on them, Lorinda is left with little choice but to change her name and flee town, eventually becoming a waitress in a frontier town in Colorado. After killing a local scion (and would-be rapist) in self-defense, she’s imprisoned, but escapes with the help of her roommate – a female member of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch gang. She falls in with the gang, falls in love with the Sundance Kid, robs trains, befriends young Eleanor Roosevelt, joins Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show for a time, and generally stays one step ahead of the law, but the life of an outlaw is never easy… she’s still hunted by her father’s creditors, as well as by the notorious Pinkerton detectives.

Review: I don’t really read Westerns – in fact, my extremely limited knowledge of the Wild West comes almost exclusively from watching Deadwood on DVD. So, when I started this book, I’d never even heard the name Etta Place… but as I read, I quickly got to know her, and know her well. Kolpan not only brings this elusive figure to vivid life, but provides a background for her that is so plausible that it reads as truth rather than conjecture. Is it likely that the real Etta Place tamed an untameable horse, befriended Eleanor Roosevelt, saved the president’s life, was active in the early socialist movement, and was the only female to rob a train in New Jersey? No, probably not, but these people have become legends specifically because they’re larger than life, and Kolpan makes us believe that all of these things could have happened the way he says they did.

It’s this same larger-than-life quality that introduces a few pacing problems into the novel – because Etta does so much, and is involved with so many prominent people and events of the period, certain elements wind up getting shorter shrift than they deserve. Etta’s story is told in rich detail until the point where she actually becomes an outlaw, but after that, things get a little jumpier. I particularly wanted a little more detail regarding her life in the Wild Bunch – we get snippets, but it feels as though she both falls in love with Sundance and falls into the life of an outlaw a little too quickly to be fully believable.

Still, I really enjoyed this novel. Despite being centered around characters from the Wild West, it’s not really a Western – it’s more straight-up historical fiction. Kolpan’s writing is smooth and authentic, and he seamlessly weaves letters, newspaper articles, wanted ads, etc. into his main narrative, which is not always the easiest style to pull off. Etta inspired me to go learn more about the actual history of the people involved, plus it kept me interested enough to tear through it in less than two days. 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: People who actually know something about the American West will be interested to see Kolpan’s vision of who Etta Place might have been, but more generally, anyone who likes vivid, well-crafted historical fiction should find this an absorbing read.

This Review on LibraryThing | This Book on LibraryThing | This Book on Amazon

Links:
- Etta website
- Wikipedia articles on: Etta Place, Harry Longbaugh (aka the Sundance Kid), and The Wild Bunch.

Other Reviews: As you read and review this, let me know… just leave a comment with the link and I’ll add it in.

First Line: From the New York Herald Tribune, December 9, 1960: Lorinda Jameson Carr, 80: Philanthropist, Horsewoman, “Sure Shot” – Manhattan – Mrs. Lorinda Jameson Carr, wife of the late Ralph Worthington Carr, died at her Fifth Avenue apartment late Wednesday morning.

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/25/2007 Run time: 219 minutes Rating: Pg13

This massive, in-depth study of the dark Western icon comes off with mixed results. Trying to capture the whole life, (warts and all) of the lawman-criminal-brother-fortune hunter, director Lawrence Kasdan gains points for sheer scale, giving us a rich epic painted in dark colors with gritty settings. But the visual poetry and extensive foreshadowing ruin the dramatic drive. Some scenes have as much impact as stalker movies; you’re just waiting for someone to get knocked off. As Earp, Kevin Costner is not afraid to look rumpled and play colorlessly (as in The Bodyguard), but it saps the energy of this 3-hour-plus film. The only relief is Dennis Quaid as a droll Doc Holiday, a much more engaging character. New faces Linden Ashby and Joanna Going (as an Earp brother and a lover, respectively) are solid finds, though the remainder of the female cast is barely given anything to do. Best is the first half, with Costner, as hip as he was in his Silverado days, going through a series of ups and downs until he accidentally finds his profession. Great set design (Ida Random) utilizes dozens of similar settings that always look distinctive. Recommended to fans of the star and the genre, but the story never justifies its length. –Doug Thomas

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