This is a good entry with top notch actors. John Pickard has been in a slew of episodes of many tv series; Michael Ansara has a fitting role of an experienced man of the times; Ben Cooper is the focus of the show. Cooper is wearing an anachronistic quick draw rig with a steel lined holster dropped low, probably by Arvo Ojala. He's been in many westerns and was probably one of the faster fast draw celebrities; I read that the ubiquitous balding John Doucette was probably fastest. What struck me as almost humorous was the way Mr. Ansara handled the younger, inexperienced gun. He walked out of the saloon gun in hand, not in his holster; Cooper is startled to learn his quick draw won't help and fires two wild shots, none of which hit Ansara who aims his fire and hits Cooper to the ground in pain. I have often wondered why Matt Dillon didn't do the same; it would have been much safer and...duller. Another bit of reality was showing how a 45 Long Colt cartridge would enter fairly small and exit with a real life threatening hole. When Pickard got hit, being hit in the arm or shoulder usually is treated inconsequentially; here it lead to profuse bleeding and death. I think Peckinpah was probably a shooter who had immense respect for firearms and was dispelling the public's fantasies of "it's just a flesh wound" had vastly underrated the brutality of violence and death in the late 1800s and early 1900s when medicine and surgeons were miles or years away. It's too bad there is only one episode after this. Let's not forget that Brian Keith's presence made this series what it was; he fit the role of a survivor who would walk away when fighting was a waste and he knew it, but would under the right circumstances.
Review of Hand on the Gun
