Original subtitles

Starring James Arness as Matt Dillon.

♪♪

All I'm asking for is a little dab of fire, Comanche,

to put this thing together.

Festus, it's gonna take more than fire to fix that.

I'm gonna have to put a sleeve on either end.

A sleeve?

Well, that probably cost a heap of money, huh?

Well, about two dollars.

- Two dollars?! - Yeah, two dollars.

Well, golly Bill, I was figuring to sell it for three.

What do you want to fool around with a busted lightning rod for

when I sell brand-new ones right here for five dollars?

Five dollars.

That means you could buy mine for three

and still come off with a whopping profit.

Well, I guess I could if I was in the business

of buying and selling used lightning rods.

Hey.

Got time, Quint, to change the axle pin before I leave?

That's all the matter with it, Joe.

I guess it's only the pin, but you might check that collar.

Can I have my bag there?

Well, the stop's further up the street, mister.

Well, I got a mind to walking.

Thank you.

- Be back as soon as I unload. - All right.

Giddyap.

Be obliged to help you, mister.

Oh, no. No, thank you.

I'm being met by my son.

I'm Jonah Hutchinson.

Festus Haggen.

Howdy.

Funny thing.

That old man said it like I'd ought to blink my eyeballs

when I heard his name.

What's his name?

Jonah Hutchinson.

Sure walking slow this morning. What's the matter?

Well, I'm just tired, that's all.

Tired? What are you tired from?

Well, I've been up all night, that's what.

Hmm.

You tried working a little,

you'd know what it is to get tired.

Well, you're sure looking poorly.

I'll tell you, if, uh... if there was a doctor in this town,

I'd recommend you to see one.

You gonna buy me that coffee, or were you lying about that, too?

I'll buy it for you.

I'll be along in a minute, Doc.

Mr. Hutchinson?

Yeah, I answer to that.

My name's Matt Dillon, Mr. Hutchinson.

- Well. - I'm the marshal here.

Mighty glad to know you, Marshal.

Yes, your, uh... your stage got in a little bit early.

I know your boys were planning to come in and see you.

I'm used to waiting.

It don't bother me none at all.

Yeah, I walked up the street for old times.

I'd say that back in '39,

me and the boys were the first over this section.

Right here where you laid in the street.

We looped north of the Santa Fe with our herd,

and we saved a week's time.

Sure. It was the old cut-off.

Mm-hmm.

I shot buffalo on maybe this same spot.

- Yeah, there was a lot of them around. - Yeah.

Say, how about having a beer

down at the Long Branch while you're waiting?

It might cut the dust.

Yeah, it might go good.

Fine.

Pa, there's the stage. It's in already.

Whoa. Howdy, Quint, Festus.

- Howdy, Sam, fellas. - Hello, Sam.

How long the stage been in?

About ten minutes, I guess.

Did you see our grandpa on it?

Your grandpa?

Hutchinson.

Well, sure, I ought to have guessed that.

Well, looks like we missed our chance

to give him a whooping welcome.

Well, you should be able to catch him.

He's just down the street someplace.

Thanks, Quint.

You bet your life you don't find it that way today.

People talk about the old days, you know.

They forget that bread earned with a sweatier brow

was not just an expression.

No, sir. Lot of times, bread was all people got.

- Mm-hmm. - Hello, Kitty.

- Hello, Doc. Matt. - Kitty.

Kitty, I want you to meet Jonah Hutchinson.

- This is Sam's father. - Hi, ma'am.

I should have recognized you, Mr. Hutchinson.

Sam takes after you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Can I buy you a homecoming drink?

Well...

it'd be the first time that a lady ever, uh...

Wh-What's the matter with him?

It's a painting of the fight at Hutchinson house.

Hmm.

Must bring back memories for him.

Artist passing through here about five years ago

paid off his debts with that.

It's kind of been a favorite of mine.

Yeah. It's a long time ago.

You can have the painting.

Oh, no. No, thank you.

It belongs where it is.

Uh, sort of belong to everybody.

Your grandpa's right over there, boys.

- I'm Franklin, Grandpa. - Well.

Franklin. Well, what do you know!

- What do you know. - This here's Steven and Aaron.

- Steven. - Hi, Grandpa.

- Aaron. - Grandpa.

Oh, I can pick you boys out anywhere.

You got the shoulders of Hutchinsons.

Well, it sure is great to see you home again, Grandpa.

Oh, it's good to be back. It's real good to be back.

You still look just like your picture, Grandpa.

Well, I probably got a gray hair or two.

Franklin, will you go over there and get my bag,

and we'll be on our way?

I'll meet you boys outside, hmm?

Sure, Grandpa.

Miss, uh...

I've been trying to think of something special

to do with this.

Little over 30 cents a year.

Money that hard to come by...

It ought to be put to some special purpose.

I'll tell you what.

You set up drinks for the first man

to come in here tonight with empty pockets,

and then keep filling them up for him until this is gone, hmm?

If you say so, Mr. Hutchinson.

Thank you.

Marshal. Thank you for the beer.

- Pleasure, Mr. Hutchinson. - Uh-huh.

Doctor.

Mr. Hutchinson.

I'm glad you're home.

Samuel.

Hey, look at this.

Ten dollars.

30 years out of a man's life.

Yeah, it's a long time.

You know something I didn't know till tonight?

That that picture up there had anything to do

with the fight at Hutchinson house.

I didn't know that.

It's not too accurate, either.

There'd be seven dead men lying in front of the house,

and two lawmen still on their feet.

Looking at the old man now,

it's hard to believe he was so ruthless in those days.

Well, I don't know if "ruthless" is the word, either, Kitty.

You know, in those days, it was a question

of might was right a lot of times.

The only way a man could hold his property

is if he had the most guns.

Now, Jonah's only mistake was,

he didn't realize the law had moved in for good.

We, uh... we've got a good horse broken in for you, Grandpa,

if you'd care to do some riding.

I'll be doing plenty of riding, Steven.

Bet on that.

How's it feel to have leather in your hands again, Grandpa?

Feels real good, Franklin. Real good.

One job you appear to have done real well, Samuel,

is to raise five boys.

Guess you always were kind of a hero to them, Pa.

Fine boys.

Might make it easier at home if...

you and me was to forget old times,

start over with a handshake.

Real fine boys.

Whoa.

"Double Bar S"?

Seems to me our south boundary come down further than here.

Had to sell off a piece or two, Pa.

We've had some hard years.

Giddyap.

You better anchor this place down before it blows away.

I know you expected us to be better off, Pa.

I'll be right back.

Want to go over and pay a visit to the Hutchinson house.

Giddyap.

Going over to look at the ruins.

Wonder what he'll say when he sees them.

He called it "the Hutchinson House,"

like it was really still a house.

Should have met him at the prison,

had a long talk on the way down, explain things.

He didn't want me to meet him.

He didn't want any visitors.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Yes?

Yes?

Who is it?

Who's there, I say?!

Pete?

Warren?

Is that you?

Alex?

Alex?!

Supper's ready, Grandpa.

Was that you calling me just now, Franklin?

I guess it was me you heard, Grandpa.

They're all dead, Franklin.

All dead.

30 years ago.

Such a long time.

We better get along to supper, Grandpa.

Yeah.

- Sam? - No, thank you, Phoebe.

More coffee, Grandpa?

Huh? Uh, oh, no.

No, thank you, Phoebe.

- Boys. - No, Mom.

Pa... you've got to know how it was.

Had some hard years, no price for beef.

We had to sell land to keep going.

And those title fights... Lots of them.

People were claiming that your land markers were no good.

Title fights? How hard did you fight?

Pa... I know you're disappointed,

but we do well in providing here.

40 years ago, I come up the Santa Fe,

and I put my name on a half million acres of land!

If you'd had any spine, these boys of yours

would have a legacy today.

Oh, maybe I overplayed my hand a bit,

but when I went to prison, I left you with two feet

standing on the biggest spread in the country.

Pa! I'm trying to tell you, people came in!

"People came in"!

Was you looking them in the eye, or did you run again?

Grandpa, you're not being fair.

Sam's worked hard at keeping the land we got.

All right.

All right, it's my last word on it.

How many head are we grazing now?

Well, uh, we market maybe 50 a year, Grandpa.

In a good year, 60.

On my way back from the Hutchinson House,

heard you call it "the ruins" now.

Didn't see any point

in finishing the house, Pa, the way things were.

You didn't see much point

in finishing anything that I started!

I was about to say,

I seen more than 500 head grazing west of the canyons.

Nobody bothers with fences over there.

You let anybody graze on Hutchinson land

that has a mind to?!

Pa, the land's no good.

Whoa.

It's Mr. Gorth.

I got just one more question.

Does our land still take in Canyon Creek?

Still takes it in.

40 years ago, I noticed

that where that canyon bent to the south...

Well, hello. Well, glad to see you made it all right.

Gorth. Joe Gorth.

Nearest neighbor, I reckon.

Have a cup of coffee with us, Mr. Gorth.

No, thank you, Phoebe.

Just passing by to welcome Jonah here home.

Now, uh, don't tell me you can't play,

because that don't make no difference.

Joe Gorth is the greatest teacher there is.

Now, we can swap riding over.

One day, you ride over my way, next day, I ride over this way.

What are you talking about?

Checkers! Passing the time of day.

Ever since old Turley died, I had no neighbor to play with,

but now I figure that you and me...

Get this old fool out of here!

Mr. Gorth means...

I've spent 30 years of my life passing the time.

Get him out of here!

- Get out of here. - Oh, I...

- Now! - I didn't mean to offend you...

Get out!

Mr. Gorth is a good neighbor of ours.

The word "neighbor" is somebody sitting on land belonging to me.

Don't you tell me about neighbors!

They stole from you!

They destroyed you!

There's other ranchers grazing on my land!

Squatters make a living off of it!

People shouting to the world

that the name "Hutchinson" is less

than the dirt that they're walking on!

Well, that's being changed!

Come over here and sit down, Aaron.

Boys, my life is almost through,

and your pa's is more than half over,

so what we do now, we're doing for you boys.

You're old enough to make your own decisions,

so I'm asking you.

Do you want to see the JH brand mean something again?

No, no.

Now, it's you boys that I'm talking to.

You're the Hutchinsons that are gonna be running things.

Well, your grandpa's right about one thing.

This land will be yours one day.

What are we doing first, Grandpa?

Well, the first thing we're doing is breaking out any bottle

of whatever you got stored away for a winter's cough.

And then we're drinking to the Hutchinsons

holding their heads high again in this county.

I'll get it, Grandpa.

Hello, boys.

- Howdy, Marshal. - Howdy, Marshal. -Hi.

Well, you got a need for all those guns, have you?

Handguns, Marshal. First time we ever had any of them.

Get up there, Franklin. Mount up, boys.

Well, Mr. Hutchinson, you're not planning

to start some kind of war out there, are you?

Let's go. Hyah.

My gosh, Marshal, he just about cleaned me out of everything...

Rifles, guns, shells.

Well, did they say why they were stocking up?

Well, the old man was in no mind to answer any questions.

Bought dynamite, too... Three cases of it.

Enough to blow up the whole county.

If you ask me, looks kind of funny,

but it's none of my business; I just sell it.

Hyah! Hyah.

Get him back in with the herd, boys.

They'll never let you get away with it, Pa.

Putting your irons on calves not yours.

There's no law against branding mavericks.

Since when did any calf

being suckled by a branded cow a maverick?

People treat our land as open range,

they can do it at their own risk.

They don't like it, let them build fences.

Pa, ain't nothing illegal with what we're doing.

They could even be our calves for all we know.

Except you know they're not, son.

I see that you've all chosen to start wearing guns...

on our land.

♪♪

Howdy, boys. Mr. Hutchinson.

You Lefferts?

You might call me Dan

like everybody else, Mr. Hutchinson.

Long time since I heard my last name.

Starting today, you're paying lease money for this land...

$100 a year.

I just never heard any leasing money, Mr. Hutchinson.

Well, now you're hearing.

First of the month will give you time to get the money up.

Now, just a darned minute!

I've been here 17, 18 years.

Ask the boys.

Take your hand off my horse!

Steven, tell your grandfather.

I've been 17, 18 years.

Well, maybe you should have been paying for all them years, Dan.

This here land's just sitting.

Be sitting here till doomsday, nobody ever using it.

You'll pay up or get out.

I ain't doing neither.

I got rights, now.

Anybody coming around here with his hand out

can start looking for my squirrel gun.

That your last word?

You bet your doggone life it is!

I ain't about to knuckle down to no...

- Burn it. - Just plumb crazy.

Boy, you back away.

Get on with it!

♪♪

I guess we won't get too many arguments

from the rest of them on paying lease money.

There's a real good lesson for you, boys.

You want to take something and the law is a shade on your side,

you go ahead and take it.

You take it, and let the lawyers and the judges argue over it.

They'll go on arguing the right and the wrong of it

till the day you die.

But... the thing you wanted done, you done.

I'll say this... For the first time in my life,

I feel like we're headed in the right direction.

Like we'll finally get a chance to get up off our knees.

I kind of like the feeling.

Well... Grandpa's sure right about one thing:

Hutchinson name's gonna be known all over this county.

I know that's hurting a little.

Feels like you're yanking a tooth out through my leg.

Oh, for heaven's sakes, it's not that bad...

It's just under the skin.

Now, hold still a minute, and I'll-I'll have it.

There we are.

That's it.

Well, is he gonna make it, Doc?

Oh, he'll be all right.

I'm mad, Marshal, just burning mad.

Well, I don't say I blame you for that, Dan.

When you putting that crazy old fool behind bars?

I'm afraid it's not quite that simple.

You know, when you grabbed that axe and started for Steven,

you lost some of the law.

I was burned out, Marshal, burned out.

I had lots of law.

You got more sympathy than law right at the moment.

Now, old Jonah came in to see me

and he told me, as far as he was concerned,

he was getting rid of a nuisance on his property.

Said he was perfectly willing to go to jail

if I thought that was necessary.

The fact is that everything he did was legal.

Legal? You call shooting a man...

You just quit squirming around and yelling,

you'll be a lot more comfortable, I'll tell you that.

Matt, what's this I hear about branding calves,

stealing them and so on?

Well, several of the ranchers came to see me, Doc.

They claim old Jonah's put brands

on about 200 of their calves.

Was he within his rights?

Well, these ranches are without fences, you know?

They have to go more or less by the Golden Rule.

There's no law against branding calves on your own property.

Just depends on how neighborly you want to be.

Kind of makes a difference if you got a neighbor

like Jonah Hutchinson though, don't it?

Yeah, well, I'm gonna go out and see him,

see what he's got on his mind.

And you ain't arresting him?

Dan, I hate to arrest a man

and have to turn him loose again the same day.

Doc, I'll see you later. Hope the leg mends up.

Fine, Matt. See you.

Here now, Dan, sit up there.

That's gonna be hurting a little; you have to be careful.

"Hope the leg mends up."

Real consolation.

Well, you've got to obey the law, too, you know.

What's it cost me, Doc, the leg?

Well, I get five dollars for removing bullets now.

Pistol or rifle?

Nobody ever asked me that before.

A pistol makes an easier job, don't it?

How much easier do you figure it ought to be?

Oh, maybe a dollar?

All right, a dollar easier.

Hey, sure looks like it all went off, Grandpa.

Now get down there and get busy with them shovels!

- Mr. Hutchinson. - Yeah?

Does this here mean what I think it means?

We're turning this creek down the west slope.

But keeping water away from your neighbors

just so it can go to waste doesn't make much sense.

Well, maybe not, if it was going to waste.

But turning that creek down the west slope

spills it out on Hutchinson Flats.

- Yeah, where it sinks into the dirt. - For a time.

But water and dirt eventually make grassland.

Take a lot of imagination to figure that scrub section

of yours is grassland.

Maybe so, Marshal, but all I'm concerned with

is keeping that creek water on Hutchinson land.

It starts on our land, and I see no reason to let it run off.

Did you ever stop to think what's gonna happen

when the ranchers south of here run out of water?

Well, you might say I ain't interested, Marshal.

You see, I become kind of a stickler for abiding by the law,

and I'm hoping other folks will do the same.

And what takes place on Hutchinson land

is mostly my business.

There might come a time when it gets to be everybody's business.

I came out here to try and talk some sense to you,

but it could be I'm wasting my time.

Now, that might be the case, Marshal.

That might be the case.

It's like I said, boys, when a thing is done, it's done.

You let the other fella worry about it.

Now get busy with them shovels and let's finish this up.

Golly Bill, you can't say it won't work, Doc,

if-if nobody ain't never tried it.

Of course it won't work.

It's the craziest idea I ever heard of.

- Well, why? - Well, because.

Because, well, selling wooden lightning rods

is worse than trying to sell wooden bullets.

What's the matter with you?

Well, it ain't gonna be all wood.

The tippy-tip would be made out of iron or tin or something...

Enough to trap the lightning, like it's supposed to do.

I'm gonna try to explain this one more time to you.

The reason lightning rods are made out of metal

is because the lightning goes down through the metal

into the ground, like it's supposed to.

That's where it's trapped.

Now, if... well, if there was wood,

uh, the wood would be just burnt to a cinder, I'll tell you that.

And your tippy-tip would, too.

Wouldn't just trap the lightning, huh?

I'm afraid not.

Well, have you ever saw it happen?

Have I ever saw what happen?

A wood lightning rod burnt to a cinder.

No.

No, and because... There never was...

Nobody would be...

If I bought you another drink,

would you just change the subject?

Well, whatever you think's fair.

Whiskey.

Mr. Hutchinson, how are you?

Offhand, Doctor, I would say,

who's even interested in knowing?

I'd ought to have knowed you when I first seen you,

Mr. Hutchinson.

I didn't mean to be impolite.

Hutchinson.

I want you to know, if the water drains off my north section,

I'll be doing something about it.

Is that so?

I can spare those calves you stole.

But if I start losing my grass in the spring,

I'll be paying a visit to that canyon creek.

Mm. Figure on turning it back the other way?

Way it's been flowing for 100 years or more.

Well, I guess I wouldn't have the manpower to stop you.

I'd just have to run to the law.

And I hear you got pretty good law in this county.

You looking for trouble along our boundary, Hutchinson,

you'll be accommodated.

I think you people got a lot more worries

on the way than fence worries.

You're all sitting on land that I put my land markers on.

A lot of it you bought from my son

during the hard years.

Now, it just might be

that a bill of sale without my name to it isn't worth much.

Samuel sold that land with the power of attorney,

signed by you.

How do you know it was my signature?

I wasn't even there.

Now, it just may be

that some smart lawyer that I might hire

will find it worthwhile looking over those titles of yours,

especially when I don't remember ever signing anything away.

What's gotten into him?

Why doesn't he just sit on his front porch and sun himself?

Well, I don't know. He's got that choice,

or he can pick up where he left off.

Well, that's gonna get him nothing but hard feelings.

Kind of sounds to me like that's exactly what he's after.

You keep swinging that sledge, Grandpa,

there ain't gonna be a wall left standing.

Well, whatever comes down don't deserve to be left standing.

S-Sure gonna be a powerful lot of work

we're putting in here, Grandpa.

You won't mind the time, Steven.

Once you see a roof going into place,

see a house being built that your grandchildren can live in.

Yeah, maybe even their children.

We each really gonna have a room to ourselves, Grandpa?

You'll have all that and more.

And later on, we'll add wings,

so's when you boys take wives,

why, you'll all be Hutchinsons living in one place

and working to keep that name known in these parts.

Now come on.

Let's get back to work; we'll never get done.

We're getting visitors, Grandpa.

Six, maybe seven of them.

What kind of visitors?

Ranchers. They were all collecting at the saloon,

all coming out here.

Heard one of them say, you'd be talking sense

or getting yourself buried.

We'll be ready for them.

We got thick walls to stand behind.

Well, who's all coming, Franklin?

Mr. Dobkins, Mr. Swenson,

Higher brothers, even Mr. O'Neil.

He was talking about a shooting being better

than getting walked on by Grandpa.

Well, we've been doing things only on Hutchinson land.

I guess we can get as hardnosed as them.

Come on inside. We'll set up your positions.

Was about here that Alex took his spot.

This'll be yours, Franklin.

Mine, Grandpa?

Yeah.

Alex was a man you boys would have been proud of.

Smile on his face, gun in his hand.

He was a man that you took to.

You had to like him.

He had a way with him.

Steve,

this'll be your place right over here.

Now, remember... you keep your head down, boy.

There was five of them came up here with me.

Five of the best.

We come up that Santa Fe asking no favors

and sure not giving any.

Men, boys.

All men. Oh, no older than yourselves.

But nobody with a hand out. Oh, no.

Gun on your side there, muscle in your shoulder.

That was what counted.

You didn't ask for nothing, because you knew beforehand,

nothing was gonna be given to you.

You just ate the dirt, you sweated it out,

and you built the land.

This won't come to guns, Grandpa.

Well, we know most of these people.

Maybe all of them.

Whatever it comes to,

they'll be Hutchinsons here, boy,

ready and waiting.

Bring that wagon around the side, we'll get her unloaded.

♪♪

- Samuel. - Hello, Matt.

- Phoebe. - Morning, Marshal.

Your pa seems to have a lot of people bothered these days.

It's his own doing, not mine, Matt.

Well, he's a pretty old man. Maybe he needs some advice.

That'll be the day when my pa takes advice from anybody.

Well, all right, then maybe "advice" isn't the right word.

Maybe he needs to be taken in hand by his son.

My pa taken in hand?

That some kind of a joke, Marshal?

It's no joke, Samuel.

Not when there's a range war about to start.

It's his own doing.

You've always been a man

that's taken pretty good care of his sons.

I don't recall your boys being in any scrapes.

Now, suddenly, you turn them over

to a man that's liable to get them killed.

I don't understand it.

My boys are old enough

to make their own decisions, Matt.

Oh, do you think they're making their own decisions,

or are they just following the advice

of somebody they think is wiser than they are?

Where's your pa?

He's at the ruins.

Samuel, he's gonna get himself killed one of these days.

He's gonna be riding over that scrub section of yours,

and somebody's gonna pick him off.

There's nothing I can do about it, Matt.

He can't do any of the things he's doing

without your boys' help.

Now, I figure a good man is always able

to handle his own sons.

And I figure you for a good man.

Phoebe.

Marshal.

How long do we go on living

with the ghost of 30 years ago, Sam?

♪♪

Stay right there, Marshal.

We were expecting a different breed.

Something change their plan?

I ran into them outside of town; I told them to go back.

Weren't very strong in their convictions, were they?

Jonah, I'm gonna have to take you into jail.

You got a charge?

I talked to Judge Brooking about that.

He said we're gonna charge you with inciting to riot.

Inciting to riot?

Now, just what does that cover?

Diverting water that's used as range water,

shooting a man, burning his house down,

branding cattle that aren't yours.

Isn't a one that'll make stick, and he knows it.

I wouldn't count on that.

You're gonna have to convince the judge

you're not deliberately trying to start a range war out here.

Marshal, you come on a bit light to take me off my own property.

Samuel, I was hoping I could bring Jonah in peaceable.

Oh, you did, did you?

Well, you better get, before we send you on your way.

You boys there... how do you feel about those guns?

They feel like I say. Now you get!

Mr. Hutchinson, this doesn't make sense.

What you're doing now, what you've been doing.

It doesn't make any sense at all.

Just like it didn't make any sense 30 years ago.

There are some things best left unsaid by you, Samuel.

Boys, I want you to take off your gun belts.

We don't use handguns on our own land.

I'm making them into Hutchinsons, Samuel.

Except for having that name,

you wouldn't understand what that means.

I told you boys to get rid of your gun belts.

Maybe it's about time these boys heard the truth about you.

Time to figure out just how much respect you've got coming.

Your grandfather's talking about

the fight at Hutchinson house here.

I ran out on him and the others.

You ran and hid, like a spineless coward.

You were afraid!

Our pa's no coward, Grandpa.

Isn't he? Isn't he?!

Well, ask him! Ask!

I guess, Pa, I'll never know why I ran.

I was 15.

Maybe I was afraid.

Or maybe I saw you in the wrong again.

Maybe I got fed up seeing you killing people,

keep them off the land.

Land, land.

Nothing but land.

Spreading the Hutchinson name.

Always the name... Jonah Hutchinson.

Sniveling like a coward.

Not crying for myself, Pa.

I was crying for you.

Like the way I feel now.

You're always using people, Pa.

Like now.

You come back here thinking

that the whole territory has the name "Jonah Hutchinson"

on their lips.

You find out they don't.

So you're aiming to fix that.

Gonna start using people again.

But, Pa... you're not using my sons.

Franklin, you come out here!

Hey, now don't listen to him.

You're a Hutchinson!

I want you to take off your gun belt and get on your horse.

He ran!

Your father ran! He's got no rights!

Franklin.

A boy becomes a man in two ways:

in his shoulder and in his head.

One without the other, and he's still a boy.

I want you to take off your gun belt

before I prove you're a boy both ways.

Pa, I think we know...

The trouble is, Franklin, you haven't been thinking.

Now, you boys whip me, you have a right to stay here.

But whipping me you're gonna have to do first.

No. Boys, he ran!

Your father ran, boys!

Listen, he's got no rights!

Don't listen to him!

Running! Running!

You're all running!

- Samuel? - Mm?

You think you can handle your father,

I'll let you take him into town.

I-I'd hate to put him in jail.

I come mighty close...

to being the biggest.

Don't you ever forget that... boy.

♪♪

Well, I'd say this is pretty easy to figure.

He just had two choices.

He could... sit in a rocking chair

and be an old man and sun himself there, you know,

or he could give up his life right there in that house,

go out being an important man,

at least in his own eyes.

Well, I just can't believe

he would deliberately set out to end his own life.

Well, Kitty, he must have known

that he could only push people around here so far

till he'd have his back against the wall.

No, sir. I figure he meant to die,

and he just chose a time and a place to do it.

You know, I always liked that old picture.

It was like a little bit of the past.

Folklore, almost.

I don't know now.

Just seems like an old man causing a lot of trouble.

Well, I don't know, Kitty.

There's another way of looking at it.

He may not have been the wisest,

but don't forget, he was the first man up this way.

First man to see this country was worth settling.

He planted a marker

100 miles from the sound of the nearest human voice.

Good or bad, I got to drink to a man like that.