They're saying the perfect Western doesn't exis– jk, it might be this. In which a curious & young Harvard dropout travels west just for the love of the game and a desire to see what the fuss is about. He gets wrapped up hunting buffalo on a "holy grail" type of quest.

For every action that can be taken in the Colorado country there is an equal and opposite reason why you shouldn't. Like "we should go while it's early" or "we should wait until it's evening and the heat has died down." "We should cut down to the Arkansas because there's definitely water" vs. "we should keep going the course because we've been going away from the Arkansas at an angle the country will kill you." The certitude of the "wise" and "experienced" men on their journey is intentionally obtuse.

The party returns after surviving the brutal winter, loses all the hides they managed to extract in the crossing, as well as Schneider. And upon final arrival, BC has become a ghost town since the buffalo trade popped and the railroad past the city by 50mi north.

All the meat they left to waste could’ve been sold to the railroaders, but the hides are worthless and McDonald doesn’t have any $ to even pay them for the cache they left, if they were able to recover it. A year of their lives spent. It's chilling and precise. Completely different vibe than Stoner but similar execution. Banger.

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