American Cowboy | Traditional American Way of Life | Documentary | 1950

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• published: 08 Aug 2015
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►My channel: http://youtube.com/TheBestFilmArchives ►SUBSCRIBE: http://www.youtube.com/TheBestFilmArchives?sub_confirmation=1 ►Facebook: http://facebook.com/TheBestFilmArchives ►Google+: http://plus.google.com/+TheBestFilmArchives ►Twitter: http://twitter.com/BestFilmArch A city-slicker reporter spends a year on a cattle ranch (Gunnison, Colorado) in order to find out what the life of a cowboy is like. This film provides an interesting and quite complete snapshot of the life of cattle ranchers and ranchhands during the 1950s. By that time, some aspects of ranching had been modernized, but others were virtually unchanged from the 19th-century days of the open range. A full year's worth of cowboy activities are shown, including branding, driving cattle to summer pastures, winter feeding in raging blizzards, rodeos, haying, and driving the cattle to market. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of special significance and legend. A subtype, called a wrangler, specifically tends the horses used to work cattle. In addition to ranch work, some cowboys work for or participate in rodeos. Cowgirls, first defined as such in the late 19th century, had a less-well documented historical role, but in the modern world have established the ability to work at virtually identical tasks and obtained considerable respect for their achievements. There are also cattle handlers in many other parts of the world, particularly South America and Australia, who perform work similar to the cowboy in their respective nations. The cowboy has deep historic roots tracing back to Spain and the earliest European settlers of the Americas. Over the centuries, differences in terrain, climate and the influence of cattle-handling traditions from multiple cultures created several distinct styles of equipment, clothing and animal handling. As the ever-practical cowboy adapted to the modern world, the cowboy's equipment and techniques also adapted to some degree, though many classic traditions are still preserved today. Cowboys in popular culture: As the frontier ended, the cowboy life came to be highly romanticized. Exhibitions such as those of Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show helped to popularize the image of the cowboy as an idealized representative of the tradition of chivalry. In today's society, there is little understanding of the daily realities of actual agricultural life. Cowboys are more often associated with (mostly fictitious) Indian-fighting than with their actual life of ranch work and cattle-tending. The cowboy is also portrayed as a masculine ideal. Actors such as John Wayne are thought of as exemplifying a cowboy ideal, even though western movies seldom bear much resemblance to real cowboy life. Arguably, the modern rodeo competitor is much closer to being an actual cowboy, as many were actually raised on ranches and around livestock, and the rest have needed to learn livestock-handling skills on the job. However, in the United States and the Canadian West, as well as Australia, guest ranches offer people the opportunity to ride horses and get a taste of the western life—albeit in far greater comfort. Some ranches also offer vacationers the opportunity to actually perform cowboy tasks by participating in cattle drives or accompanying wagon trains. This type of vacation was popularized by the 1991 movie City Slickers, starring Billy Crystal. American Cowboy | Traditional American Way of Life | Documentary | 1950 TBFA_0003