After three straight episodes in the barrios and freeways of L.A., Sean and Cody sample some slow living in the early 19th century Pacific Northwest as they examine this quirky and unusual 2020 indie Western. In First Cow, frontier cook Otis “Cookie” Figowitz (John Magaro) gets fired and chased through the forest by his former employers, and is fortunate to hook up with Chinese immigrant King-Lu (Orion Lee) who’s similarly down on his luck. When they spot a single cow wandering through the Oregon forest they hatch a scheme to milk it and use the dairy to make tasty oily cakes to sell at the local trading post. Unfortunately their best customer, the Chief Factor (Toby Jones), is also the owner of the cow. Environmental issues discussed include the role of cows and cattle in European settlement of the West, how cattle was a harbinger of colonialism, and the environmental history of Sauvie Island, Oregon where the movie was filmed and presumably takes place.
Why would a single cow be such a valuable resource in Oregon Territory in 1820? Who owned Oregon Territory at that time anyway, and why is it so hard to tell? Why did a British Navy captain deliberately import cows into Hawaii in 1792, and why was the King of Hawaii so jazzed about the arrangement? What’s “cattle colonialism”? How come Westerns usually focus on the stories of white men with guns “taming” the West, and how does this film present a different story? Why would this movie make John Wayne really, really mad? Which racist trope which has appeared in numerous other Green Screen films is refreshingly absent from this one? How do you pronounce “clafoutis”? How about “Auberjonois”? Which That Guy in this film is the son of another That Guy who appeared in a previous film profiled on the podcast? Why does Amazon think anyone in their right mind would watch reruns of Murder, She Wrote with commercials? All these questions and more are ready for milking in this decidedly bovine episode of Green Screen.
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