2 reviews
I remembered the TV show The Rebel staring Nick Adams, but it was through the fog of 65 years as I was 13 at the time the show began its run on TV. There it was running on Prime, so I started series 1, episode 1. As the episodes began running, I thought it might be of use for some streaming service to start running the show again.
Johnny Yuma is a literate young man who survived the Civil War but has been away from home for a year after the war's conclusion. Now he is traveling through Texas and takes an occasional run into another state or territory writing down what he has seen and what he is currently seeing as a sort of personal psychotherapy: Yuma is struggling to make sense of a world that doesn't make sense. Someone surrendered and the war is over and everyone is moving forward as if nothing happened.
As the episodes played out, most dealt with healing as people tried to suppress or forget or persecute (if you were on the Northern side). What disturbed me was given the current political divide-red state vs blue state-it appears we never got past 1861.
Watching can become a challenge as you recognize actors who became either known character actors or future TV stars. The writing was top-notch for the most part as the episodes run as small plays. Not many TV shows hold up over the years. The plots are thin and the acting awkward. I believe The Rebel deserves a second showing; I would hate seeing it recast and put back on TV as some newish action series.
Johnny Yuma is a literate young man who survived the Civil War but has been away from home for a year after the war's conclusion. Now he is traveling through Texas and takes an occasional run into another state or territory writing down what he has seen and what he is currently seeing as a sort of personal psychotherapy: Yuma is struggling to make sense of a world that doesn't make sense. Someone surrendered and the war is over and everyone is moving forward as if nothing happened.
As the episodes played out, most dealt with healing as people tried to suppress or forget or persecute (if you were on the Northern side). What disturbed me was given the current political divide-red state vs blue state-it appears we never got past 1861.
Watching can become a challenge as you recognize actors who became either known character actors or future TV stars. The writing was top-notch for the most part as the episodes run as small plays. Not many TV shows hold up over the years. The plots are thin and the acting awkward. I believe The Rebel deserves a second showing; I would hate seeing it recast and put back on TV as some newish action series.