James Best passed away in 2015 with his best-known part being that of a bumbling sheriff on Dukes of Hazzard; this show from 1960 (75 years earlier) will give you an idea of what his best could have been--and another Jimmy Stewart with a little more time, imo wouldn't have been a far reach.
Best went easy to comedy but his work in drama is as underrated as it is exceptional.
Here, he plays a shepherd in the middle of southwest nowhere with a small flock of half-starved sheep on open range land that banditos claim is used by their jefe(hefe) for cattle. They want him gone and all his sheep with him, but he's not leaving on principle--open range belongs to everyone.
Yuma is somehow passing this veritable wasteland on his way west, both he and his horse thirsting for water- and spots the shepherd's campfire. He falls down, grabs the canteen, just about gets the top off and lifts to take a drink when a rifle lines up on his left ear--it's Best, but he drops away when we learn the name of his character the shepherd is Lt. Waares, son of General Waares, originally from Virginia.
Everyone's heard that story...right...?
This one starts out a little kooky and then gets seriously dark and personal. The only way it could be told is the way it got told; however, there's a countdown of sorts folded in for drama and expediency here. The shepherd is actually an emotionally crippled patriot, once perfect and proudly standing among other patriots in his family and in his own unit. Yuma is quick to pronounce him out of place in this faraway sheep dip and wants the goods. Waares doesn't give, so they battle, Yuma wins, then the banditos show up and yeah, now They win. Besides every weapon the two men had, they take the lieutenant's watch his father had engraved for him and they dispatch his flock of sheep with extreme prejudice. They say they'll be back at dawn to make sure no one is in the area or whomever they find will be "underneath" the area.
In that darkest hour before dawn we learn the whole story: we feel what Waares felt, we see what Waares saw, we believe what Waares suffered because Best killed it, he's Waares, he gets us there. Yuma is affected by the story like we were, but he cuts through with another viewpoint, the other side of the coin. I didn't see it before he said it, chances are you didn't either. Definitely worth your time to watch it on youtube (free currently).
Best went easy to comedy but his work in drama is as underrated as it is exceptional.
Here, he plays a shepherd in the middle of southwest nowhere with a small flock of half-starved sheep on open range land that banditos claim is used by their jefe(hefe) for cattle. They want him gone and all his sheep with him, but he's not leaving on principle--open range belongs to everyone.
Yuma is somehow passing this veritable wasteland on his way west, both he and his horse thirsting for water- and spots the shepherd's campfire. He falls down, grabs the canteen, just about gets the top off and lifts to take a drink when a rifle lines up on his left ear--it's Best, but he drops away when we learn the name of his character the shepherd is Lt. Waares, son of General Waares, originally from Virginia.
Everyone's heard that story...right...?
This one starts out a little kooky and then gets seriously dark and personal. The only way it could be told is the way it got told; however, there's a countdown of sorts folded in for drama and expediency here. The shepherd is actually an emotionally crippled patriot, once perfect and proudly standing among other patriots in his family and in his own unit. Yuma is quick to pronounce him out of place in this faraway sheep dip and wants the goods. Waares doesn't give, so they battle, Yuma wins, then the banditos show up and yeah, now They win. Besides every weapon the two men had, they take the lieutenant's watch his father had engraved for him and they dispatch his flock of sheep with extreme prejudice. They say they'll be back at dawn to make sure no one is in the area or whomever they find will be "underneath" the area.
In that darkest hour before dawn we learn the whole story: we feel what Waares felt, we see what Waares saw, we believe what Waares suffered because Best killed it, he's Waares, he gets us there. Yuma is affected by the story like we were, but he cuts through with another viewpoint, the other side of the coin. I didn't see it before he said it, chances are you didn't either. Definitely worth your time to watch it on youtube (free currently).