I’ve watched, as you would guess, one million Westerns. You should watch a bunch too, plus some Samurai flicks. Most of them won’t be quite right, though: the protagonists usually want to be left alone, but get dragged into things despite themselves. Crime flicks are better for protagonists who come into a situation ready to pronounce judgment.
The Quick and the Dead is an exception. Ellen’d make a Dog.
Tombstone is interesting for the way the principle townspeople fall all over themselves to line up with or against Wyatt Earp. NPCs in Dogs act that way.
You can’t go wrong with the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
Or High Plains Drifter. Man.
Good non-Westerns with Dogs-like stories: LA Confidential. Devil in a Blue Dress. The Untouchables.
Definitely watch Green Snake for inspiration if you’re playing a high-supernatural game. A Chinese Ghost Story too.
But of ’em all, Brigham City, a little indie flick by Richard Dutcher, is the most exactly right. When you watch it, consider that when Wes Clayton’s the bishop, he’s the branch Steward, and when he’s the sheriff, he’s the Dogs.
www.brighamcitythemovie.com
The ideal Dogs in the Vineyard soundtrack includes some Johnny Cash, Slaid Cleaves, Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer, Alison Krauss, Lyle Lovett, the Stone Coyotes, and Cordelia’s Dad (of the later shaped-note sort). Strike a balance between spirituals and murder ballads, and be sure to include “the Man Comes Around.”
If you’d like to learn more about the LDS church, you can visit its official site:
www.lds.org
For a (much) more critical picture, try:
www.lds-mormon.com.
And I’ve got a bunch of online resources going, from reenactment catalogs to old maps to landscape photos to “how a revolver works.” Surf to:
www.lumpley.com