In the famous song "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better" from Annie Get Your Gun, Frank Butler brags to Annie Oakley, "I can knit a sweater." To which she retorts, "I can fill it better." Turns out, Annie herself wasn't so bad with a needle and thread, as evidenced by a new acquisition on display at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame.
The Fort Worth museum announced August 13 — which would have been Oakley's 159th birthday — that it has acquired a needlework belt created and worn by the famous female sharpshooter.
The belt is on display now in the "Hitting the Mark: Cowgirls and Wild West Shows" exhibition, which showcases female performers from these popular outdoor events.
The belt was created during Oakley's third European tour in 1891, the museum says in a release. Oakley would often do needlework in her tent between performances, they say, adding that the belt has the tour year, “1891,” and her initials “AO,” on opposite ends of the belt.
The belt measures roughly 33.5 inches in length.
“We have a few artifacts from Oakley that are singular in their ability to tie the public Annie Oakley to the private Annie Butler,” says Diana Vela, associate executive director, in the release. “This belt is one of the objects that she worked on in her private time while she was on tour.”
Oakley, born on August 13, 1860 is a Cowgirl Hall of Fame Honoree. The belt is one of several Oakley objects on display at the museum.
Annie Oakley was about the most famous female sharpshooter in history.
Photo courtesy of National Cowgirl Museum
Annie Oakley was about the most famous female sharpshooter in history.
Music biopics never seem to go out of style, although they’re rarely very good because most of them tend to tell the same story. A musician/band gets discovered, rises to popularity, experiences trouble at their peak due to (insert sex/drugs/alcohol/ego), and either finds a measure of redemption once they’ve been sufficiently humbled or dies due to their lack of control.
Paradoxically, what few music biopics fail to do is properly showcase the music that made the person popular in the first place, a mistake that A Complete Unknown doesn’t repeat, becoming a smashing success in the process. The film follows Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) over a roughly four-year period from when he first arrived in New York City in 1961 to his then-revolutionary electric set at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.
Dylan seeks out well-known folk singers Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) and an ailing Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) when he first arrives, with Seeger taking him under his wing. Dylan starts to establish himself in the local club scene with his unique songwriting voice, meeting fellow singer Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), with whom he starts an on-and-off relationship. As his popularity grows, his reaction is antithetical to what’s expected, as he rarely engages with fans and focuses on his next song(s) instead of the ones for which he became known.
Directed by James Mangold (Walk the Line) and written by Mangold and Jay Cocks, the film may not be much of a revelation for Dylan superfans, but for casual fans or those who know nothing about him, it is one of the most effective music biopics in recent memory, if not ever. Not only does Mangold track the musical evolution of Dylan, but he gives the full context of the people who influenced him most, including Guthrie, Seeger, Baez, and more.
The film is not a musical in the traditional sense, but the amount of music in it makes it the next best thing. Rarely does more than a few minutes go by before someone is singing, either on stage, for someone close to them, or as part of the songwriting process. Whether you’re a folk music fan or not, the way the genre is showcased in the film will make you believe in its power and why it was so popular at that particular point in time.
Dylan is famous for his enigmatic personality, and Mangold does a great job of maintaining that elusiveness while still exploring what drove Dylan early in his career. His relationships with Baez and the fictional Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) give him some dimension, but why he continually went back-and-forth between them (or why they put up with him) is only lightly explored. The film keeps most of the drama focused on the music, and it’s this decision that makes it as compelling as it is.
Chalamet has been “The Next Big Thing” since his Oscar nomination for Call Me By Your Name, but the combination of the Duneseries, Wonka, and now this has firmly established him as the star he is. His Dylan impersonation (including singing) is subtle-yet-clear, and he has the cool factor that makes him completely believable in the role. The supporting cast is also off-the-charts good, with Norton and Barbaro making the best cases for awards notice.
While 2024 has had its fair share of great movies, A Complete Unknown - in this critic’s opinion - should now be the favorite to win Best Picture at next year’s Oscars. It bucks the trend of mediocre music biopics by giving moviegoers the transporting feeling of what it was like to experience Dylan’s meteoric rise, and why his early songs remain so indelible.
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A Complete Unknown opens in theaters on December 25.
