Cultural reflections in Butch Cassidy and the Wild West

By HILARY GAVIN

BUTCH CASSIDY and the Sundance Kid. If I’m being honest I miss the old Wild West outlaw telly shows that formed the cultural backdrop to my teenage years growing up in the Seventies.

Most youngsters my age were glued to the screens at home every week back then as we watched the exploits of Alias Smith & Jones – the “lovable” cowboys and bandits who robbed and held-up banks but never killed anyone.

Of course, I’m not a film critic but TV shows and movies like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were a breath of fresh air after the Goodies vs Baddies movies of the Fifties and Sixties which were, on the whole, allegoric of Cold War paranoia.

If you Google films like High Noon and Shane, you can read countless articles on the “rugged individualism, moral certainty and heroism” sub-text in these American cowboy movies reflecting anxieties about communism and the Soviet Union.

I won’t go on because I’m not a film buff, but I’ve embedded the trailer for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid here after listening to Rev’d Anne testifying how God had spoken to her in her life as her last official duty at St Stephen’s Church in North Mundham.

I was at last Sunday’s service and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Rev’d Anne especially when she mentioned the southern African mongoose Meerkats which she found such amusing critters.

See the link to Hunston and Mundham Churches website below:

Bringing hope, friendship and welcome by sharing the love of Jesus

I suspect many of us agree with Rev’d Anne because I find Meerkats amusing too as they stand sentry, ALERT to any danger that might befall their colonies, which can also be called mobs and gangs.

So why mention Cassidy and Sundance, I hear you cry! Well, I can remember laughing at Prairie Dogs encircling our log wood cabin on a press trip for a travel article on Colorado in the early 2000s.

Of course, Prairie Dogs are North American burrowing rodents and not southern African mongoose but they are sociable creatures who stand sentry and alert to any predators too.

I’d travelled to the US on a press trip for The Sun tabloid newspaper at the height of the global hoo-haa over the political and moral justification for the Second Gulf War on dictator Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

I’m not going to delve deeper here on my WordPress website into the crisis in the Middle East, global terrorism, arms-dealing, human exploitation and trafficking worldwide.

Saying that, I have the greatest admiration for brave journalists and war correspondents who are prepared to risk their lives to document the “frontline action” in war-torn states.

As for me, well, I donned a Little House on The Prairie pinny and cap to serve up apple pie and coffee as I stared at the Prairie Dogs watching us in our log cabin on a tourist Stagecoach trip.

Crazy, I know, but it seemed fitting at the time.

Dual roles: My Little House on the Prairie outfit and cowgirl hat on a press trip

By HILARY GAVIN

Copyright Saturday, September 5th, 2026

All photographs copyrighted Hilary Gavin

Hilary Gavin

A freelance journalist who wants to see a return to public accountability in the local press

Hilary Gavin

Freelance Journalist & Writer

T/A Business ‘n’ Commas

6 Southover Way

Hunston

CHICHESTER

West Sussex

PO20 1NY

Tel: 07940 444664

Email: grumpywoman@hilarygavin.blog

Hilary Gavin

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