3 Godfathers depicts one desert survival trick very accurately, much to the excitement of survival expert Les Stroud. Released in 1948, the Western film stars John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz, and Harry Carey Jr., who become godfathers to a newborn baby they find stranded in the desert. The film, which was directed by the legendary John Ford, takes place primarily in the American Southwest desert as the three characters struggle to protect the child from the harsh environment.
In a recent video for Insider, Stroud watched one desert survival scene from the John Wayne Western, 3 Godfathers, and rated it for realism.
The scene sees Carey Jr.’s character digging in the desert for water which, as Wayne’s character points out, is pointless. His character then extracts water from a barrel cactus, a desert survival trick that the film depicts very accurately, much to Stroud’s excitement. Overall, he rated the scene an 8/10 for realism. Read Stroud’s full commentary below:
With every survival book you read, they show an image of somebody digging down in the desert to get water. I’ve tried it so many times, and I’ve never found water yet. You got to remember when it comes to desert survival you always have to weigh the effort you put into something against the something you’re going to get.
Here we go, the barrel cactus trick. Once again we look at a survival cliché when it comes to the barrel cactus, that you can get water out of a barrel cactus. Yes or no? The answer is yes you can. There’s only one species of barrel cactus that is somewhat safe for humans to drink from – the fish-hooked barrel cactus. Other species of barrel cactus are somewhat toxic and can cause diarrhea. The reality is that if you do it right away it’s awful. It’s terrible tasting, but what this character gets right is that it isn’t going to taste great, and it’s going to take a long time, that is the reality of a barrel cactus.
People think you can just cut it open and start drinking. That’s not the way it works. It takes a long time to get water out of a barrel cactus because the water is not just readily available just there in a pool. It’s water within the fibers of the plant itself, and I’ve done it where I’ve squeezed it into my mouth, drops at a time, and even that does not taste good, but it can keep you alive. I’d rate this clip eight out of 10.
How Accurate Is 3 Godfathers’ Depiction Of Desert Survival?
As explained by Stroud, the desert survival tactics shown in the 3 Godfathers scene are fairly accurate, depicting both the futility of digging a hole in the desert for water and the effectiveness of the barrel cactus trick. However, other than the constant search for water and the occasional sandstorm, the depiction of desert survival in 3 Godfathers should be taken with a giant grain of salt. For starters, the three main characters are rustlers and bank robbers, and without any real expertise in desert survival, it’s unlikely they would have survived for as long as they did.
However, it would be unreasonable to expect 3 Godfathers to be an accurate survival guide, similar to Stroud’s TV show Survivorman. Instead, the Western is a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes, which it succeeds at. As a retelling of the biblical story Three Wise Men, 3 Godfathers is imbued with heavy religious symbolism that is absent from other John Ford movies, though it features all the beautiful desert panoramas that audiences expect from one of the greatest Western directors of all time.