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Hell of a ride: Steve Shaw's love of the West has taken him from horseback adventures to film fest accolades
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TIJERAS 鈥 Steve Shaw grew up in Southern California in the 1950s when Westerns were still a major genre on the big screen and were riding roughshod over the competition in the fledgling television industry.
In 1958, seven of the top-10 rated TV series were Westerns.
Shaw鈥檚 favorite TV Western was 鈥淭he Rifleman,鈥 starring Chuck Connors, but he was also partial to Hugh O鈥橞rian in 鈥淭he Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp鈥 and Fess Parker in the Disney TV miniseries about Davy Crockett.
Hell of a ride: Steve Shaw's love of the West has taken him from horseback adventures to film fest accolades
As a kid, he was mesmerized by reruns of movies such as 1939鈥檚 鈥淛esse James,鈥 with Tyrone Power in the title role, and 1941鈥檚 鈥淭hey Died With Their Boots On鈥 featuring Errol Flynn as George Armstrong Custer.
鈥淎nd of course I loved John Wayne,鈥 Shaw, 74, said. 鈥淚 have always been influenced by the movies and TV.鈥
So, it鈥檚 no big surprise that Shaw would get around to trying his hand at Western movies.
鈥淕oin鈥 Home,鈥 a 91-minute Western he filmed over 15 days in 2021 and then spent 2陆 years editing, has racked up 27 awards on the film-festival circuit in 2023 and 2024.
It won nine awards alone at The Wild Bunch Film Festival in Tucson in September 2023 鈥 including best action Western feature film.
Naturally, Shaw, who wrote and directed the movie, is pleased, but also somewhat surprised by the accolades, which come from festivals as far away as Berlin, Tokyo, Rome and Edinburgh, Scotland.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not 鈥楾ombstone,鈥 鈥 he said of his film. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not 鈥楺uigley Down Under.鈥 鈥
鈥淕oin鈥 Home鈥 is about a troop of U.S. cavalrymen assigned to pursue a band of Apaches who have jumped the reservation to avenge the murder of an Apache girl. Shaw describes the soldiers as obnoxious, ill-tempered and bigoted.
鈥淭hey have a young second lieutenant just out of West Point, and they don鈥檛 like him,鈥 Shaw said. 鈥淭hey have an Apache scout, and they don鈥檛 like him either.鈥
However, duty, honor, respect and comradery emerge when the men are suddenly confronted by a superior number of Apaches.
Shaw said his movie was inspired by director John Ford鈥檚 cavalry trilogy 鈥 1948鈥檚 鈥淔ort Apache,鈥 1949鈥檚 鈥淪he Wore a Yellow Ribbon鈥 and 1950鈥檚 鈥淩io Grande,鈥 all of which starred John Wayne.
鈥淚 wanted to do a John Ford-John Wayne movie, except we don鈥檛 have John Wayne, and I鈥檓 not John Ford.鈥
Ridin鈥 the riverShaw doesn鈥檛 have to tell you he has a passion for the Old West. All you have to do is walk into the home he and his wife, Marcie, share in Tijeras鈥 Woodlands neighborhood.
It鈥檚 like visiting a museum of Western art and history. Everything from the imposing buffalo head hanging on a wall above a doorway to a plethora of paintings and sculptures to dinner plates and coffee mugs and rugs on the floor are Western themed.
The Shaws moved into the house in 2006 after coming here from Orange County, California.
鈥淚n California, our house was French country,鈥 Marcie said. 鈥淥nly Steve鈥檚 office was Western.鈥 She has, however, become accustomed to her hell-bent-for-leather household decor.
鈥淚 fell in love with it,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t took us 17 years to acquire things. I helped pick everything out, and I figure out where to put it. In California, it didn鈥檛 fit. But here, it does.鈥
Marcie is from Pittsburgh. She and Steve met in October 1979 when he was in Pittsburgh for a business conference, and they married in March 1980. She soon discovered his fascination with the Old West.
鈥淗e showed me pictures of himself as a little boy,鈥 she said. 鈥淗e was standing outside his house, dressed as a cowboy.鈥
It would be impossible to be around Shaw long without learning about his fixation. While serving as an Air Force officer following graduation from the University of California, Long Beach, he requested an assignment to Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City, South Dakota, just so he could be close to the area鈥檚 frontier history, which includes Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane, Custer and Crazy Horse.
After the Air Force, Steve pursued a career in corporate America, working for Ford, Volkswagen, Sterling Motor Cars and other companies. Marcie worked in the healthcare industry.
In 1998, Steve talked Marcie into going on the 鈥淗ole-in-the-Wall鈥 trail ride in Wyoming, although neither of them had much experience horseback.
鈥淚 slept on the ground,鈥 Marcie said. 鈥淚 rode in the rain.鈥
They both had a good time on the ride, but Marcie figured Steve owed her, so she insisted on a more genteel excursion, a trip on the steamboat Delta Queen.
In succeeding years, Steve and Marcie traveled by steamboat on the Mississippi, Ohio and Columbia rivers, clothed in 19th-century attire and accompanied by like-minded companions, also in costume. That was the genesis of Great American Adventures, a company started by the Shaws to offer historic tours, train trips and steamboat rides.
On one of the steamboat cruises, they met Steve Alexander, an actor and writer devoted to the history of George Armstrong Custer.
鈥淗e (Alexander) said, 鈥榊ou know, we do a ride to the Little Big Horn,鈥 鈥 Steve said.
It鈥檚 a wrapSteve and Marcie retired from their corporate jobs in the early 2000s. In 2004, Great American Adventures started organizing and hosting Old West horseback rides.
The first was 鈥淐uster鈥檚 Ride to Glory,鈥 in which paying customers, attired in period costume, rode to the scene of Custer鈥檚 last stand near the Little Big Horn River in Montana.
鈥淲e did that ride for five years, but not consecutively,鈥 Shaw said. 鈥淪teve Alexander portrayed Custer. We rode through the swollen Little Big Horn River.鈥
The company would eventually offer 17 different Old West rides, including 鈥淛eremiah Johnson鈥檚 Wilderness Ride鈥 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming; 鈥淏illy the Kid鈥檚 Regulator Ride鈥 in Lincoln, New Mexico; 鈥淨uanah Parker鈥檚 Comanche Moon Ride鈥 in Palo Duro Canyon, Texas; 鈥淏uffalo Bill Cody鈥檚 Great Scout Ride鈥 in Cody, Wyoming; and 鈥淛ohn Wayne鈥檚 Monument Valley Ride鈥 in Monument Valley, Arizona.
One of Shaw鈥檚 favorite Western movies is 1993鈥檚 鈥淭ombstone,鈥 which starred Kurt Russell as legendary lawman Wyatt Earp, so he also created 鈥淲yatt Earp鈥檚 Vendetta Ride鈥 in Arizona.
鈥淚t was a five-day ride,鈥 Shaw said. 鈥淲e did it for 12 years. We went to the place where Wyatt killed (gunman and rustler) Curly Bill Brocius.鈥
Shaw鈥檚 movies, 鈥淕oin鈥 Home鈥 and 2016鈥檚 鈥淭he Peacemakers: The Night of the Ripper,鈥 grew out of Great American Adventures. Instead of paying the Shaws to go on historic horse rides, clients paid to appear in a Western movie.
Steve and Marcie were the crew, doing everything from hair, makeup and props to directing the action.
Of the 50 persons who appeared in 鈥淕oin鈥 Home,鈥 25 paid Shaw. He paid the others and fed all of them.
So far, the movie has been seen only by those attending festivals, but Shaw is working to make it available on Prime Video Direct.
鈥淭his has been a hell of a ride,鈥 Shaw said of his venture into moviemaking. 鈥淚 loved the writing and fidgeting with the script to fit the clients who were cast as actors. I鈥檝e had to learn websites, close-captioning, movie music.鈥 And patience.
Shaw said he and Marcie are now retired from leading historic tours and making movies.
鈥淲e are going back to traveling just for fun,鈥 he said. 鈥淣o more clients. If I could do another movie with less stress, I鈥檇 do it.鈥
But he doesn鈥檛 see that happening, so he says 鈥淕oin鈥 Home鈥 is his last film.
And all he has to show for it is 27 awards, the most recent, received earlier this month, is for best director of a feature film, presented by the Rome (Italy) World Cinema Fest.
