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| lane batot |
Posted - November 20 2011 : 1:05:39 PM
While continuing to explore and read on this extensive website, I have seen several comments made regarding some purple painted pigeons that were prepared to use in the filming, but never ended up in the movie. All the comments I've seen so far are from folks who had no idea what they were trying to do with those birds--even a suggestion that perhaps they were going to be in one of the characters' hallucinations! Well, I actually heard what they were supposed to represent, and being the total and complete critter geek that I am, I was interested, of course, and so still remember after all these years! So, at long last(unless it is somewhere else already on this vast website!) I will now reveal THE TRUTH about the purple pigeons! And, I think, it was actually a good and unique idea, if not successful for whatever reasons. Those pigeons were painted to try to represent the now extinct Passenger Pigeons, that covered the skies in flocks miles long and miles deep back in frontier days! But I guess they didn't turn out good enough for the director to use(and so probably ended up in the Xtra commisary tent--hey, come to think of it, I sorta DO recall some purple fuzz in my food one day!!!). But WHAT a great concept! I'm STILL waiting for an ACCURATE and DEFINITIVE Daniel Boone movie to git made, and NOW, they could realistically computer generate all those zillions of Passenger Pigeons covering the skies--that would be AWESOME!!!!! |
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| lane batot |
Posted - November 25 2011 : 08:33:27 AM
.....although in retrospect, the term "tractable coureur de bois" is a blatant oxymoron! |
| lane batot |
Posted - November 24 2011 : 1:19:28 PM
Ha! Yes, that is quite true, James; the days of the movie Xtra may be numbered! Michael Mann would have at least had some TRACTABLE coureur de bois(fake though they may have been!)-- but I still want to see a recreation of those Passenger Pigeons one day on some film about that time period(I'm suprised no one has done it yet)...... |
| James N. |
Posted - November 24 2011 : 10:42:56 AM
quote:
Originally posted by lane batot
Too bad they didn't have the technology then to computer generate the BILLIONS of Passenger Pigeons that used to exist--blocking out the sun like on a cloudy day when they passed over!
Lane, I STRONGLY disagree with that idea, and am thankful the technology DIDN'T exist - if it had, you and I would've never had the opportunity to work on the film. Instead WE would've been just another couple of CG blobs like so many of those in Gods and Generals! |
| lane batot |
Posted - November 24 2011 : 09:30:07 AM
...and thanks, Flammable, for that movie teaser--I hadn't seen it--makes me want to watch the movie all over again! Too bad they didn't have the technology then to computer generate the BILLIONS of Passenger Pigeons that used to exist--blocking out the sun like on a cloudy day when they passed over! That must have been some sight! And sound--all those billions of wings! And probably why a lot of frontiersmen in those days like to wear hats! |
| lane batot |
Posted - November 24 2011 : 09:16:39 AM
....okay! Animal geek information addition! And on a subject I am very involved in, being a zookeeper caring for a coupla cougars(and hearing all the stories about them on a daily basis!), and reading/researching these big cats all my life(literally--since I started reading at 5 years old!). One of the colloquial names for a cougar confuses people all the time--"Panther"--used most often for the cougars formerly found in the Eastern U.S., and especially the South, where an even more colloquial corruption of "Panther" became "Painter"! To confuse people even more, these cats are probably known by more names than any other mammal--cougar, mountain lion, Mexican lion, puma, catamount(the latter especially in New England), red tiger, panther, and painter(and more obscure ones rarely heard anymore)--ALL the SAME animal! Exact same species--just LOTS of different names--the rare "Florida Panther" just a subspecies of cougar. Ranging from the treeline in Canada, to the tip of South America, adapting to Northern forests, tropical jungles, high mountains, deserts, plains, swamps, and everything in between, it is no wonder this species of big cat aquired so many different common names! The term "Panther" originally designated a LEOPARD in the Old World--Africa and Asia, and just got transferred to the New World by early settlers, and attached to the most similar animal they found here. Just like our Bison became "buffalo". And the jaguar became "El Tigre'". Leopards have a black(melanstic) color phase--hence the term "Black Panther"--but they are the same species, and the color varieties can be found in the same litter! Jaguars from the Americas also have a black color phase, as do Servals, and even very rarely, Bobcats. But despite what you commonly hear from folks(who just don't know any better), THERE ARE NO BLACK COUGARS--absolutely NO verifiable record of one EVER--and this is despite thousands killed over the centuries, and still regularly hunted and killed out West to this day. Also NEVER has one occurred in captive breeding(although the occaisional rare albino has popped up now and then), and thousands of cougars are born in captivity regularly--they are often sold in the Exotic pet trade(often illegally)--both the cougars we have at my zoo were rescues from pet situations gone bad. Hence the term "Black Panther" used to describe cougars is completely inaccurate.....So all the reports of people seeing "Black Panthers"(especially here in the East, where cougars were all killed off by the turn of the 20th century, but ARE beginning to make a comeback in some states East of the Mississippi) are people telling tales, mistaking black housecats for cougars(and believe me--it happens all the time! You wouldn't think people could mistake an 8-10 pound housecat for a 100-200 pound cougar, but folks are getting so urbanized and unable to identify critters anymore, that it happens A LOT!), or(and not impossible with the illegal exotic pet trade in the U. S.) an ACTUAL black leopard or jaguar. In fact, as incredibly adaptable and elusive as leopards are, I personally wouldn't be suprised if a feral population of them DID get established somewhere in the U. S. one day!! But if they did, people should be seeing just as many(aye; MORE, since the black color phase is not as common genetically as the spotted) spotted leopards. Something about the mystique of "black panthers" attracts people like Bigfoot and Aliens! But sorry, folks--there are NO "black panthers" if the "panthers" being referred to are cougars. Perhaps it is not totally genetically impossible, as in the sense of color mutants like albinos, but it would be far rarer than an albino, of which there are only a small handful on record! The cougar/"panther" used in "Mohicans" was a regular, normal brown/grey color phase cougar. Calling it a panther WAS accurate, as that is the name used for them in the East at that time, and still to this day. But still the same critter as a cougar(puma, mountain lion, whatever). I loved that brief shot in the movie, though. I read on this site somewhere where that cougar ended up retired in a zoo in South Carolina somewhere--I don't know if it was one owned originally by some professional Hollywood animal trainer(which would be my guess), or just someone's local pet...... |
| Flammable |
Posted - November 23 2011 : 6:34:04 PM
Sad to hear about the extinct species of bird. It is always an end of the world when a species dies.
I must say I would enjoy the movie even more with that sort of details added as flavour to the scenes. The scenery is beautiful and I wish Mann had included even more of it, more nature in the film. Here is the movie's teaser trailer - very rare and interesting clip - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VBMGRf6lEw It shows the very first scene which is a beautiful panorama scene which was not included in the film. Also there are other unseen clips and many alternate angles. This was most likely released while the movie was still being filmed and the clip is analysed in a earlier topic on this board. I thought maybe Lane you haven't seen this and would find it interesting. |
| James N. |
Posted - November 23 2011 : 2:31:05 PM
Personally, I don't remember ever seeing the notorious "purple pigeons", but I DO remember waiting what seemed interminably while they vainly attempted a shot of the "panther" or whatever the black cat was. Mind you I never actually saw IT either, but was told THAT was what we were waiting for! My understanding is that it was somehow uncooperative ( hard to imagine, since it doesn't really DO anything! ) and that the shot of it was "inserted" from a later filming of it at a totally different location by itself. |
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