Does anyone know how much animals have been used in this movie?
When they arrive in the city at the end of the movie Matt says something of about 8000 animals. And especially in those scenes it looks like a lot of cattle.
But it can't be 8000, can it?
It looks like 8,000ish when they get to Aberline but it is much less. Matt gets $21 a head and picks up a cheque for $50,000. I reckon that to be 2380 beasts. They set off with 9,000 so they either lose a lot on the way or the script writer goofed somewhat.
shareWasnt the 50,000 for Tom Dunson as sole profit after the rest of his men had been paid.
shareYep!!
"Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble & beautiful end of a Human Being"
"We started off with 9000 and lost six or seven hundred on the way."
That is what Matt says in the movie when they reach their destination.
So Dunson and Matt start out with 3 head of cattle between them, and 15 years later, when Matt comes back from the war, they have a herd of 9,000 to drive to market. That's some prodigious breeding there!
shareIt looks like obviously thousands!
shareRemember: they take cattle belonging to other ranchers, too.
shareAlso, not all the cows were offspring of the first two the Dunson and Matt brought. In Texas, after the Civil War, there were thousands of "maverick" cows- animals that had never been branded. With so many Texas men off to fight the war, the cows simply bred like jackrabbits in the Texans' absence. In that time and place, any unbranded cow belonged to whoever branded it. I'm sure that Dunson had his men scouring the prairie and brush, branding mavericks like crazy. For a brief time after the war, some ranchers paid a small bonus to their hands for every maverick they branded. It's estimated that in the 20 years following the War, Texas exported around 6 million cows to other states. I have no trouble believing a herd of 8000 plus cows, as long as there were men enough to handle them.
Also, the $50,000 check that the buyer gives Matt is just an advance, so Matt can pay his men, buy supplies, etc. The balance will be paid after a firm count of the cattle is made. The balance will be in excess of $100,000, when it is finally paid.
"It ain't dying I'm talking about, it's living!!!"
Augustus McCrae