Review of '49-'17

'49-'17 (1917)
6/10
Old, very old movie, full of continuity mistakes, yet enjoyable
17 December 2020
As many other reviewers noticed, the movie is full of cliches and some continuity errors especially relating to the age of the characters. Indeed the title is '49-'17, so some characters should be much older than you see in the movie. I wondered if the "49" might be related not to the real year, but to a sense of "westerness" as identity that the judge feels. I mention this because in "Roughing it" by Twain, "real" western people (he writes in the 1870s) define themselves as fortyniners - and shun the tender-feet who just emigrated... however the title kind of points out they literally meant the judge had been out west in 1849, in which case... the movies wasn't really so deeply thought of...

However, I strangely found it enjoyable. It was described as a parody, which some people doubt. I did think some scenes were indeed to funny to be intended seriously. I will not fully spoiler even a movie like this, but one characters uses gold nuggets as stones to chase a wolf away and he does not realize they are not simple rocks.

The story is weak or rather forces some deep suspension of disbelief. In any case it was a fun watch.
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