Original subtitles

[ theme song playing ]

♪♪

LACEY: There's only one sure way to handle range jumpers, so why wait?

PROCTOR: The letter of the law can't be respected in a case like this!

We've had outsiders move in on the range before.

LACEY: Not when you're dealing with a man like him!

We know how to handle people of his kind.

Tercell's no kind you've ever met before.

Shouldn't we let Tercell speak his own mind

before we get all excited, boys?

He spoke it to me yesterday when I rode out to see him,

and he said his pa would say the same when he got here.

When will that be?

Well, he's on his way from Australia now.

That's more than a day or two away.

PROCTOR: So why wait?

There's only one sure way to handle range jumpers.

The Tercells bought and paid for the old canyon ranch.

What they do with their land is their own business.

And what they do with the open range is ours.

We'll have to come to some kind of understanding,

but that means agreement, not argument.

But there's just so much open range, and so much grass.

No amount of agreement is gonna change that.

Proctor's right. It's a fact of your life same as ours.

One sheep graze that land, cattle won't touch it and you know it.

It's a question of our cattle surviving.

I say you worry about yours..

and I'll worry about mine.

I told you yesterday, Tercell!

Yes. You're worried about your cows.

It's not that simple.

And who are you?

I'm from the Shiloh Ranch.

I heard a Judge Garth owned that property.

He does; I'm his foreman.

Oh? Well, I'm Abel Tercell,

and you can take the Judge this message.

11,000 acres of Wyoming territory

is now Tercell property.

Running sheep is our business,

and running sheep is what we'll be doing,

soon as we can move our flocks in.

Look, you know as well as I do

cattle and sheep can't work together.

Now, we're willing to work out a fair partitioning.

That's why we called this meeting.

That's more than any stinking sheep herder deserves.

You don't use a whip on a man.

I'll remember that... foreman.

I guess the meeting stands adjourned.

Force. That's the only language

those foreigners will ever understand.

Emmett.

There's been a, uh, distinct improvement

in the company you keep.

Oh, yeah?

Who is she?

My name's Tercell, Reagan Tercell.

Miss Tercell, this is the Shiloh foreman.

That makes you two neighbors.

You did say Tercell?

Abel is my brother.

Oh.

Is that all then, Mr. Ryker?

Just drop this off at the bank,

and that ought to do it.

I wish you luck.Thank you.

How did the meeting go?

Not very well.

I see.

It's amazing.

You look so much like someone I used to know.

I'm flattered.

There's a pretty woman.

She's an improvement over her brother.

He ended the meeting by using a whip on Proctor

and I had to knock him down.

Says as soon as his sheep get here

he'll run 'em anyplace he pleases.

Well, if he, uh, means open range,

that's not against the law.

You're saying you'll back his stand?

No, no, I'm just explaining the law.

I know the law.

Well, then you know it also says a man's wrong

if he beats up the local citizenry.

Why don't you try telling that to Mr. Tercell?

Well, I'll get around to it.

Good. In the meantime, let me buy you a drink.

I wouldn't want you to die on an empty stomach.

Thanks.

[ indistinct ] Two glasses.

I heard tell there was a bit of a ruckus.

I waited around hoping we'd get a chance to talk.

This is Mr. Pierce, Tercell's foreman.

How do.

My partner, Tippy.

About five minutes.

I found Tippy out in the desert.

Just a little tyke.

His folks had been killed, his wagon burned,

and Aborigines had made sure he'd never speak again.

Still, he can... he can talk better with his hands

than many people can with their lips.

He's a good lad.

I'm sure he is.

I may not look much like a peacemaker, but...

Is this Tercell's idea?

Oh, no.

Abel's too stubborn and knot-headed.

There's nobody could hold him in

or make him bend except his father.

We have laws here, Mr. Pierce,

to hold all of us in.

I know.

But I thought if you knew

a bit more about the Tercell family

it might help you to be a bit more patient.

At least until Adam gets here.

Just what is it you want us to know?

Part of Australia we come from

is not an easy place to live in.

It's semi-desert.

The soil is weary from over 70 generations of sheep.

It's a savage land

that makes a man over in its own image,

if he's to survive.What about the law?

The nearest queen's officer may be over 600 miles away.

Mostly Adam Tercell's word was the law.

He fought that land for over a quarter of a century.

First it took his wife, and then his soul.

Come to think of it, maybe it took his soul first.

Anyway, four years of drought finished it.

Drove him out, the rest of us, too.

What about his son?

I've been with the family over 25 years,

and I've watched Abel grow up in the shadow of his father.

It costs a man to do that, you know.

Well, granting that, just how patient do you expect us to be?

Enough to avoid trouble.

Adam is a good man, and he loves his son,

but if anything should happen...

Well, he's bringing most of his men

with him from Australia.

They've eaten his bread and salt for a long time,

and they're as faithful to him

as dogs would be to other men.

They'd even die for him if he asks them to.

Sounds like a threat.

Well, it isn't meant to be.

It's just that I know Adam,

and there's more of the Old Testament in him than the New.

But if you were to lean over backwards,

he'd do the same.

But if the other happens...

Well, I've said my piece.

Mr. Pierce, this town will go the limit of being patient.

Do you agree?

As far as Abel will let us.

That's all I could hope for.

I'm much obliged to you, gentlemen.

Good day.

He made a pretty good case

of the Tercell cussedness, anyway.

Except for one thing.

Yeah?

Savage land he was talking about.

Doesn't seem to have made him over in its image, does it?

♪♪

See you.

Abel.

Now I know why I disliked him on sight.

Looks like him, doesn't he?

Acts like him, too.

Where are you going?

Nowhere, little sister.

Nowhere at all.

Abel!

[ neighing ]

We're even, Tercell. Let's leave it that way.

Nobody shames Abel Tercell and gets away with it.

Look, I just had a nice long talk with your foreman.

There's no need for any trouble between us.

[ whinnies ]

I say different.

Tercell, don't push it.

Do I have to spit in your face?

Get off your horse, foreman.

Get out of my way.

[ whinnies ]

[ whip cracking ]

[ fires ]

He's dead.

Tippy says Abel forced it all the way.

Poor little brother.

Take her home, son.

Then bring back the buckboard.

It's just like six years ago, isn't it?

Six years ago you stood just where you stand now,

only my brother had killed a man.

I always wanted to ask you why.

Now, Reagan.

Why you just stood there then, like now.

How does a man know where his loyalty ends,

or where his cowardice begins?

That's the answer to my question?

Reagan--

When will it stop? When?

The man she talked about...

he looked just like you.

She loved him very much.

But there was a fight over the land.

He was on the other side.

Then he was dead.

This poor lad killed him.

How do you tell a father...

his son's been killed?

I remember when I told Adam that his wife was dead.

He just stared at me.

Didn't say a word,

and then he went back to work.

He's not one to show emotion.

When I tell him about Abel,

he'll go up on the hillock

where I'm going to bury his son,

he'll read the Bible over him,

and then in his own good time,

he'll try to kill you.

♪♪

PIERCE: The Virginian hit Abel.

He fell and hit his head against a boulder.

Abel stood up slowly,

but shaky on his feet.

Then he fell down.

He was dead.

That's all.

Thank you.

Will this satisfy the court?

Will it satisfy my father?

Well, I'm afraid it'll have to, miss.

You see? Tippy knows too.

[ train whistle blows ]

Miss Tercell?

You know, if I were truly a Tercell,

I'd take a gun and claim an eye for an eye.

Your blood for my brother's.

My father might even be proud of me for it.

I'm sure he is.

Only men are truly Tercells.

I'm a low trick that God played on my father.

He wanted another son.

I... I want to try to talk to your father.

Tell him what happened, make him understand.

The Virginian's a friend of yours, ain't he?

And a good one.[ train whistle blows ]

Oh, I hate trains.

Well, that one's heading north.

There isn't another one

due through here for two whole days.

In a few days, that train

may bring a man to end your friendship.

Ach, no chance to that, Mr. Pierce.

With death there is always a chance.

♪♪

Hello, girl.

Hello, Adam.

John.

Adam.

Where's Abel?

Abel's dead.

When did it happen?

A week ago.

There's a hillock behind the house.

I buried him there.

"And the victory that day

"was turned into mourning for all the people:

"for the people heard say that day

"how the king was grieved for his son.

"And the people gat them by stealth...into the city,

"as people being ashamed steal away

"when they flee in battle.

"But the king covered his face...

"and cried with a loud voice,

"'O my son Absalom,

O Absalom, my son, my son!'"

Amen.

"Our Father has chastised you with whips."

"But I will chastise you with scorpions."

♪♪

[ knocking ]

REAGAN:Come in.

Hello.

Hello, Reagan.

She was beautiful, wasn't she?

She looks like you.

I was fishing,

and you're a gentleman.

Sit down.

I, uh, waited at the lake till nearly sundown.

What happened?

I was meeting Father.

Where is he?

Due back anytime with the sheriff.

He heard what happened.

Yes.

What's he expect from Ryker?

A trial, and you hung for murder.

There's nothing he can do.

He said he wanted the law to have its chance first.

Ryker's a good man and a good friend.

Maybe he can change his mind.

[ gravel shifting ]

I thought I heard horses.

Should I go?

I want you to do exactly what you want to do...

not what's expected of you

or what's right or what's good for me.

Has anyone told you today how lovely you are?

To be pretty and admired...

I guess that's what every woman wants.

That's what every woman gets.

When I was a little girl, my mother said one day

that a man forgets, but...

a woman remembers.

She always remembers her own beauty and youth.

Being young.

She remembers the look in men's eyes,

she said.

And one man more than all the others.

Your mother must've been a very wise woman.

Yes.

And beautiful.

Before she died,

I can remember how different it was,

how different my father was.

He loved her very much, I think.

Perhaps too much.

At first, everything he did was for her,

and then after we moved to South Wales, it--

it changed.

The hot, dry land seemed to become

a personal challenge to him.

And every month, every year,

the fight to beat the land

became more and more important.

And then one day,

he looked up and noticed that

her youth and beauty had been stolen away.

This is a different country, Reagan...

and it can be different for you

if you want it to be.

I've heard it said that...

the shadow of a man cast at midday is

his to answer to at sundown,

and his alone.

Well, my trouble is that I don't know

which shadow is mine and which is my father's.

Help me.

That's him, isn't it?

Aye, that's him.

Somehow I thought he'd be bigger.

Oh. Just coming out to see you.

Save you the trouble of the trip.

Tercell, he's...

Well, he's kind of put me in a difficult situation.

He, um, read the depositions?

Yep.What'd he say?

[ scoffs ] He said a lot of things.

Summed up, they mean that a cat--

or a skunk, as he put it--

can be skinned in more than one way.

Meaning he'll, uh, run his sheep

on open range to create an incident.

That's correct.

That way he can kill you

without violating the law, see.

I'm surprised he even considers the law.

Oh, he told me he was a just man.

Just. Anything you can do?

Nope. Okay, this is a section map of this area,

see, and these blocked-in outlined areas are--

are open range.

I've checked on 'em all.

He's got as much right to use them as anybody else.

The law is explicit on that point.

Something else is explicit here, too.

Some of our ranches have got 30,

40 years of living equity in this land.

They deserve a special consideration.

Well, not according to the law.

Law and morality have to be the same thing.

You sound like Judge Garth talking.

It is.

What do you expect me to do?

You want me to ignore the law as a favor to my friends?

No, but don't hold it

as a club over their heads, either.

♪♪

Adam.

How is it that daughter

comes to call her father by his first name?

May I talk to you for a minute?

When does it start, and why?

Let's leave this place,

just as soon as we can.

What are you talking about?

Sell out, move farther.

Nah.

But this country's bigger than Australia.

There's open land from here

all the way to the Pacific Ocean,

and most of it with natural sweet grass.

Then let them in town move to it.

First Arnhemland,

then to South Wales,

always fighting men with fences

and a land with no water.

There's no more moving in me.

Nah, only more killing.

Hold your tongue.

Why? Do I owe you a parent's respect?

Do you even claim me as a child, Dad'um?

At least owe me the title of father.

No, you're wrong.

You owe me.

You haven't realized it yet, but I'm all you got left.

Stop this kind of talk, you hear?

No, you listen to me.

Listen to the truth for once.

You had a son, and he's gone,

and a wife, too.

Your precious land is more important to you

than either one of them.

More important even

than the woman you said you loved.

Unh!

No more!

That's the truth, isn't it?

You killed my mother

with your ambition and thoughtlessness

just as if you'd choked her with your hands.

No.

Is that why you never had any love to give to Abel?

To me?

[ sobbing]

She's not fooling me.

It's because of him that she's talking like this.

What are you, a succubus

that you'd want your brother's murderer?

Adam.

Tomorrow, John.

As soon as that load of sheep

are boarded in Fort Wayne Junction.

They can be here in three days.

Aye, sir.

[ urging ]

[ knocking ]

Come in.

Tercell sent men to start bringing in his sheep.

How do you know that?

He came to town and spread the word.

Where are the sheep?

Fort Wayne Junction.

Well, unless they want to go seven days out of their way,

there's only one way for 'em to bring those sheep into the valley.

North Pass.

North Pass is on Shiloh property.

I think we'd better pay Mr. Tercell a visit.

♪♪

[ whinnies ]

A few days ago we talked about

a town that could be patient.

John!

We're not impatient, Mr. Pierce.

We just came to talk.

ADAM: There's nothing for you and me to talk about.

These other men are ranchers,

cattle ranchers, businessmen just like you,

only their product is cattle, not sheep.

By working together, we've managed to keep most

of our cattle from starving to death every winter.

A noble feat.

All we ask is a little consideration, Mr. Tercell.

You'll promise to limit your sheep to certain areas,

which we'll all agree upon.

Not interested.

Maybe you don't understand the problem.

It's the only way we've got

to be sure of having winter feed for all our stock,

including yours.

I gave you my answer.

I understand you're bringing your sheep in

from Fort Wayne Junction.

That means you'll have to go through the North Pass.

The North Pass happens to be on Shiloh property.

You're saying I can't go through?

Partially fenced now.

By the time your sheep get here,

it'll all be fenced.

Put it up good and strong, boy,

because I'll cut it down.

I wish you wouldn't try.

Well, you can count on it.

You want a drink, John?

No.

Then say what you've come to say.

I've been with you a long time, Adam.

I was there when your wife died.

I was there when a man was killed

because he stood up to you,

because he dared to love your daughter.

You were there when a man took the life of my son.

I was.

And you watched while they wrote out the words

for a creature that was something less than a man

saying that Abel's death was his own fault.

Tippy don't know what it is to lie.

I can remember seeing tears in your eyes only once, John.

She was a very special woman, Adam.

Yes, she was.

Now, did you have a point to make?

Only that you still have a daughter.

Her daughter.

You're a man of sentiment.

I've always admired that about you.

Till now.

It's a new country, Adam, a place for new beginnings.

Reagan has a right for new beginnings, too.

A chance for happiness.

Not that it's your business,

but one day she'll come into everything I own.

Happiness, love?

Will you include that in your will?

You take much advantage of our years.

Perhaps I do,

but there are good people in this valley, Adam.

Give them a chance to prove it.

Give Reagan a chance to.

What of my son?

Your son is dead.

Yes. One book I read

says that only blood will wash away blood.

[ pouring ]

It is him, isn't it?

What?

The one Reagan's afraid for.

It is the one who killed my son, isn't it?

Well, she can have him...

if he kills me first.

♪♪

Here comes something.

Sightseeing?Yeah, sort of.

You been busy?

Tercell woke me up early,

complaining about this fence of yours.

It's all on Shiloh property.

He said be that as it might,

your aim was to violate the law of the land.

What about his insistence

on overrunning the countryside

with baaing sheep?

Yesterday we bent so far over backward

for him we could see our own heels.

Yeah, so I've been told by everybody in Medicine Bow.

That makes it a Mexican standoff.

I, uh...

don't suppose you'll take down the fence?

Sorry, Emmett.

Well, Adam was sorry, too.

You're tried. You've done your duty.

Well, I just don't like to see my friends die, you know.

Be two dozen of us out here, you know.

I guess you haven't heard.

Adam has that many coming in by train this afternoon.

He's already bought horses for all of them.

Has them lined up back in the depot,

ready and waiting.

Well, like you said, I've...

I've done my duty.

Well, maybe he's bluffing.

Tercell's over in the gun shop,

buying ammunition by the case.

Good morning, Mr. Tercell.

Good morning, Sheriff.

[ train whistle blows ]

"Not a creature was stirring."

Here they come.

[ man playing guitar ]

♪ Out on the boards the old shearer stands ♪

♪ Gripping his shears in his thin, bony hands ♪

♪ Mountains of wool on the blue-bellied joe ♪

♪ Golly, if he gets it, he'll make the ringer go ♪

♪ Click go the shears, boys

♪ Click, click, click

♪ Wide is his blow and his hands move quick ♪

♪ The ringer looks around, for time is running low ♪

♪ Curses the old snagger with the blue-bellied joe ♪

♪ Now Mr. Tercell, for to begin ♪

♪ In seven paddocks bring the sheep in ♪

♪ Leave none behind, for whatever you may do ♪

♪ Then you'll be fit, boys, for a jackaroo ♪

♪ Click go the shears, boys

♪ Click, click, click

♪ Wide is his blow and his hands move quick ♪

♪ The ringer looks around, for time is running low ♪

Well, I think the shift in numerical odds

has just changed the name of the game.

Yeah? To what ?

From the skirmish at the fence to the war at the fence.

That's very clever, I'm sure.

Just what are we gonna do?

Keep stringing wire.

♪♪

What are you doing here?

Like you, sir. Waiting.

You're a long way from Mr. Tercell's ranch.

Indeed I am, sir,

and a longer way from home.

Well, I...

I see your work is almost done,

and ours is almost ready to begin.

There's no need for trouble, you know.

A man's trouble is shaped by his fate.

Shaped by his beliefs and his desires.

You believe each of us will meet that fate?

I do, sir.

Mr. Adam... me...

Miss Reagan...

and you, sir.

Well, I-I give you good day, sir.

They're almost ready, sir.

It'll be tomorrow, I think.

Will they fight?

Some as always.

Others will be more fearful.

Fear is like sugar.

It must be stirred to sweeten the candy.

Take a couple of men along

to give the fence builders something to think about.

Right, sir.

Tippy.

I want to talk to you, boy.

About what, Adam?

I want him to stay with Reagan.

Is that all right, John?

Aye, sir.

That's all.

Got a job I want you to do, boy.

Miss Reagan.

I want you to stay close to her.

Watch her. Do you understand?

She's not to leave this ranch,

not for any reason.

If she tries, you stop her or tell me.

She's not to go away from here.

Make no mistake about that, boy.

Do you understand?

Oh! Tippy.

Oh, you frightened me.

You say I can't go?

Adam doesn't want me to go?

He had you watch me?

It's all right, Tippy.

Now, I'm just going for a ride.

Please, Tippy, let me go.

PIERCE: Tippy!

It's all right, son. I'll take over.

It's no good, Reagan.

You can't stop me.

If I have to.

What kind of a man are you?

You better get back to the house.

Look. This is all Adam Tercell wants--

the world in a handful of earth.

Tercell earth.

Well, I renounce it.

You just can't walk away.

Why not?

They say youth is cruel and has no remorse,

but who's more cruel and remorseless than he is?

Or you, with your silent voice, no matter what he does.

I remember when you were different, John,

when Mother was alive.

You spoke out then.

Has time destroyed your voice?

Not time. Sorrow.

I remember the flowers, too,

the ones you kept fresh on her grave.

Our remembering is meaningless

as winds in the dry grass.

No.

After a while, the memories

get all mixed up with the years in between,

all naked and twisted like branches

washed up on the beach by the sea.

And after a while, we get like that, too...

all twisted.

But don't you see?

That's why I must go.

I don't want that to happen to me.

I want the chance my mother never had

while I'm young,

while there's still time.

♪♪

I understand.

Your mother once said...

that the innocent...

and the beautiful had no enemy but time.

She was right.

Go on, Reagan.

Let's go water the stock, boy.

[ gunshot ]

[ firing continues ]

Get down!

All right, lads.

LACEY: I didn't think they'd try anything

till they came with the sheep.

Scare tactics, Lacey.

Make sure they're gone, boys.

He'll be all right.

Couple of you get this man into town to the doctor.

♪♪

♪ There was a wild colonial boy ♪

♪ Jack Duggin was his name ♪

♪ He was born and bred in Ireland ♪

♪ In a town called Castlemagne ♪

♪ He was his father's only son

♪ His mother's pride and joy

♪ And dearly did his parents love ♪

♪ This wild colonial boy

Come!

Where's John Pierce?

He took the horses to pasture, sir,

he and the boy.

As soon as they return, bring the boy to me.

Right, sir.

♪ At the early age of 16 years ♪

♪ He left his native home

♪ And to Australia's sunny shores ♪

♪ He was inclined to roam

♪ He robbed the wealthy squires ♪

♪ All arms he did destroy

♪ A terror to Australia--

Sorry, laddie, we've got no choice.

[ whip cracking ]

John!

Not Cobb. Me.

Why, Adam, why?

He disobeyed.

He let Reagan go.

He tried to stop her.

'Twas me that let her go.

Well, then, let's just say he had it coming anyway.

Because he told the truth about your son, is that it?

What do you know of truth, John?

You think I don't know

how you felt about her all those years?

Why you stayed on with me,

living on another man's land

for another man's wife?

♪♪

Now, take the boy and Mr. Pierce

and get them off my land.

All right, lads.

[ playing guitar ]

♪ Out on the boards the old shearer stands ♪

♪ Gripping his shears in his thin, bony hands ♪

♪ Mountains of wool on a blue-bellied joe ♪

♪ Golly, if he gets it, he'll make the ringer go ♪

♪ Oh, click go the shears, boys ♪

♪ Click, click, click

♪ Quick are his hands

♪ They move real slick

♪ The ringer looks around, 'cause time is getting low ♪

♪ And curses the snagger...

♪ The blue-bellied joe

[ rustling ]

Somebody's out there.

VIRGINIAN: Trampas! Over here!

It's Pierce, Tercell's foreman.

What's he doing on Shiloh property?

I don't know.

Let's get him down to the fire.

Randy, get on back out there and stay on guard.

Who did this to you?

Adam.

He'll be at you in the morning.

You sure?

As sure as death.

Man's mad, doing this to his own men.

Will you stop him?

If we can.

Let's get him to the bunkhouse.

[ knocking ]

[ door opens ]

Ahem.

The sheep are bedded down north of the pass, sir.

All right.

Alert the men.

We'll move them at daylight.

Right, sir.

Come. Sir?

You'll be riding for John Pierce.

Thank you, sir.

[ baaing ]

Hyah!

Hyah!

Hyah!

They moving?No, sir.

They're in a meadow up to the east, there.

Something under a mile, I'd say.

I'll get them moving.

After they cut the fence,

drive the sheep straight through.

All right, sir.

Let's go.

[ knocking ]

VIRGINIAN: Come in.

Trampas says you'd better come quick.

Tercell's starting to move.

Looks like we'll have to go with the men we have.

Foreman, may the boy and I ride with you?

All right, Pierce.

Let's join the others.

Cut the fence!

Wait.

This time you'll have to kill me, too.

Wherever your guns are,

I promise you I'll be there in front of them.

Stand aside, girl!

You're a taker, Adam.

Your only way is to take,

a taker who never gives,

a taker of love and affection,

a taker even of life itself!

Cut.

Oh, Adam, this time you're not alone.

There are many here like yourself who will watch

and sit in judgment and decide what kind

of a man you really are.

They'll find me no worse than most.

Maybe not,

but I'm your daughter,

and I thought you better than most.

I'm the same as all men.

I never considered you just any man.

I thought of you as someone special...

the man I loved as my father

but who I could never call by that name.

All this because of you.

Because of you.

You, John.

I saw a scorpion once in the desert, Adam.

He was just like you,

a giant brute wired with pain.

Met him by the blaze of the sun,

stinging himself to death.

Cut.

Hold it! Hold it! Hold it!

REAGAN: A man forgets, but...

a woman remembers.

She remembers the look in men's eyes,

and one man more than all the others.

ADAM: ♪ Tomorrow is another day

♪ 'Twill dawn with golden light ♪

♪ Would I will be remembering ♪

♪ The hopes that fell in flight ♪

♪ The love that wasn't meant to be ♪

♪ That faded out of sight

♪ And when the shadows close around ♪

♪ A dark and lonely night

[ theme song playing ]