'Heaven's Gate' was based on a true story about the cattle people: the people who had the money turned on the settlers who were in the area. And it was mainly a defense of their behavior. And the cattlemen's association had just about declared war on these people who were poaching cattle, and because they were mainly immigrants.
El Paso is the final Wild, Wild West city.
It was my effort, in depicting the West, to depict it as it was.
The West is now closed.
I've always been a fan of Westerns, but my favorite kind of Westerns mostly were Sam Peckinpah's Westerns, and they mainly took place in the West that was changing.
I wanted to be a cattle rancher when I was young, because it was what I knew and I loved it.
When people think of the West, it's easy to envision wagon trains, Buffalo Bill, the glory days of the Gold Rush. Cowboy hats come to mind.
Westerns give people a chance to see wide-open spaces and life before technology took over.
When I was a girl, the West was still young, and the law of force, of physical force, was dominant.
They're such different things [Townies and Lonesome Dove]. I certainly love them both. Certainly Lonesome Dove would be way hard now, because, I mean, back then I wasn't married.
I do love Westerns. But, in a way, traditional Westerns, for me, have been hard to love viscerally and personally.
When I was growing up, it was not the heyday of the western.
My western heritage runs deep.
I used to love American Westerns, growing up in Germany.
The period western doesn't have a lot to say to most people today.
The Westerns have probably affected me more than any one thing, Western-related material. I love Westerns.
