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What's a Rawhider?Fate of Girl With the Quint Family?

posted 14 years ago by bebop63-1
7 replies | jump to latest

Though I have read quite a number of Western novels, this movie is the first time I've encountered the term rawhider to refer to a person, or in this case, a group of persons (the Quint clan). What exactly is the definition of it? I'm guessing from the context of the movie, that it would mean an outlaw or itinerant, as that's what Preacher Quint and his family appeared to be.

And I distinctly recall there was a young girl or woman among the family, judging from her age she was most likely Preacher Quint's daughter. What happened to her after Will Penny and his pards shot the Quint men? The scene after that shows her running to embrace Preacher Quint's body but after that no mention or scene of her after that. Is this a goof of omission on the director's part perhaps?

[–] ChuckHestonFan 13 years ago

I don't believe it's a goof. She was lucky not to have been killed along with the rest of them.

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[–] tightspotkilo 9 years ago

She was able to move on and make a better life for herself, rumored to be San Francisco, where she prospered in dry goods.

Get the facts first - you can distort them later!

[–] PinbackWiggly (427) 6 years ago

Hmmm, this sounds like a Clint Eastwood movie I once watched. :)

[–] terrien-scott 9 years ago

A rawhider is like a dry gulcher. Someone that would take everything you have and leave you to die.

[–] bastasch8647 9 years ago

My guess would be that the young woman would have been taken under the Flat Iron's wing until her story got sorted out. I can't see Will testifying against her - she was only along for the ride and was utterly dependent on the Crazy Crew for her own survival.

Note that she doesn't speak a single line in the entire film, which leads me to suspect some kind of congenital disability - which of course, would probably render her less criminal even if she was seens as a "guilty bystander"... and her apparent muteness would immediately be noticed, and hopefully pitied enough to get her off the legal hook ... and of course, it may have prevented her from explaining herself, which would have prevented her from going to trial - unless she was literate enough to write her story down, which seems highly unlikely judging from the company she was keeping...

So I see her as being sent out from the Flat Iron, and doing seamstress/cooking/maid's work in some town.

[–] sandcrab277 8 years ago

if you watched enough westerns or read enough books, you'd know a rawhider is a person that kills animals for their untreated hides...they usually smell bad enough to gag a dog on a gut wagon (thank you sam peckinpah) ...lol...they got their names originally from killing bison for hides on the plains..a very unsavory bunch to say the least

[–] liscarkat (18888) 2 years ago

The girl seemed retarded. She'll need to find a family that will take care of her, probably in exchange for domestic servitude.