Cimarron Strip (1967–1968): Season 1, Episode 6 - The Battle of Bloody Stones - full transcript
When a young Indian is killed after challenging the accuracy of a battle depicted in a Wild West show, Marshal Crown must prevent the young man's father, an Indian chief from avenging his son's death upon the star of the show.
(whooping)
(gunfire)
(horse whinnying)
(gunfire continues)
(shouting in Native
American language)
Ah!
(cheering and
applause) (band playing)
(guns firing salutes)
Yeah!
(applauding)
(applauding)
Ladies...
Ladies and gentlemen,
friends of the west,
fellow Americans...
and pioneers.
This concludes our
Battle of Bloody Stones.
(cheering and applause)
Come back tomorrow if you can.
The same time
for another inspirational moment
of our history as I knew it...
as I lived it!
(cheering and applause)
(band playing "Yankee Doodle")
(whistling and cheering)
♪♪
(loud chatter)
How'd you like shooting
like that Wildcat?
(mimicking gunfire)
Boy, howdy!
Can you imagine 50 cents
a day just to play a settler?
Did you see the show?
It's like the real thing, huh?
I sure hope they got some
decent whiskey in this town.
A town full hay-shackers, nah!
Marshal, that's the way it was
when we got to Blue Clay Flats.
Time we got there,
those cussed Indians
had scalped 14
women that same day,
but we got it back on 'em.
I guess you just about
seen everything, huh, Will?
Everything from Mandan
meetings to ring-tailed epizooties.
Oh, yeah, let me tell
you about the time
we were hold up
on the South Fork.
We was hold up there...
(excited chatter)
It was fantastic, just like I
always imagined it would be.
And you were so
brave to lead the way.
Would you sign my program
for a souvenir, please?
Certainly, ma'am, I'd
do it hundred times again
for one kind word from you.
Bring back memories?
Memories I'd just
as soon forget.
Sure, and there's
many a horrible sight
I'd like to scourge
from my mind.
Besides, it'll make a man
cry out in a cold sweat at night.
When the old days come
galloping back in dreams.
Duty, and duty had to be done,
no matter the consequence.
The cowards never started
and the weak died along the way.
Can I buy you a drink, marshal?
Well, I know you have
your own special railway car,
but the inn would be honored
if you'd stop by there
for some refreshments.
Why, thank you, ma'am.
This is the most hospitable
town I've ever seen
in all my years of touring.
Well, then I'll expect you.
Ma'am.
Marshal, I expected
you've rid the rivers
and studied the prairie
elephant as much as me.
From teepee to
soddy, saber to plough.
Any notions for my show?
One... Cancel it.
Well now, is that a polite way
of sayin' my show's no good?
Too good.
You confuse me, marshal.
You can dredge up the old
days in St. Louis and Des Moines,
but not here, not now.
You're too close to
the meat of the bone.
There's too many men who
sleep under the buffalo grass
to be forgotten,
marshal, too many.
I recall down at
Ken Mine Springs,
the best friend I ever had took
a Shawnee arrow in his back.
And the last words
he ever said to me.
He said, "Don't let 'em forget,
Wildcat, don't let 'em forget.
It's our blood that makes
their field so green."
It's mostly the wild blood that
greens the fields here about.
There isn't any buffalo left,
wolf, beaver or
wild Indian hardly.
(man shouting)
Keep your hands
off me, you redskin.
Lies... It never happened
that way, I know it.
You don't know enough
to put sand down a rat hole.
My father...
Your father don't know
beans from buckshot.
Hey!
Get your hands off me!
Jim: All right, let's break
it up... I said, break it up!
- Let 'em go, marshal.
- Break it up.
Break it up, break
it up, break it up,
I said, break it up!
It was him that
started it, marshal.
No, it was him!
You stinkin' of
dog-eater, I'll fix you.
I'll cut your lying tongue out!
I said, break it up!
It never happened that way.
It's just a show, that's
all it is, it's just a show.
It's lies, all lies.
One thing for
sure, it's over now.
Now go on home.
You two boys take him home.
Go on, now, make
sure he stays there.
Dirty skulldragger...
I ought to kill 'em.
Let it be, Max.
We've already whooped his kind.
No sense rubbing
their noses in it.
Heh.
Now you mentioned
something about buying a drink.
What's it gonna be,
belly wash or bourbon?
Belly wash... No, marshal.
Nothing but the best red
milonga hela for the likes of us.
This is your street, ain't it?
Yeah, sure it's our street.
You allow this in your town?
- Come on, come on, come on.
- No.
The show ain't over yet.
Wasn't like that...
My father knows.
Your father, Ghost Wolf.
He's the only one left who
can wear the eagle feathers.
He fought the battles...
He's still fighting them.
Are you mice?
Bloody Stones.
Ghost Wolf was there.
I believe him.
What's going on...
I don't understand.
I don't know.
It's been years since
anybody acted like these fellas.
Maybe it's a good
thing we stopped by.
You boys have been
laying down on the job.
Lettin' 'em take over here.
No, we ain't.
I never seen no other town
let Indians put on like them.
Tromp all over ya.
We know how to handle 'em.
Stay out of this.
You hear?
You hear that?
Are you gonna... are you gonna
stand there and let them dog-eaters
talk to you like that, huh?
♪♪
(distant laughing)
♪♪
Jim!
Jim!
Stop it!
Stop that, stop it!
All right, break it
up... Break it up!
Break it up!
Break it up!
Break it up!
I told you guys... Now
you can cool off in a cage.
Dulcey, go for the doc.
MacGregor, take
'em into my office.
All right, you guys it's
lockup time, come on.
Francis, get 'em off the ground.
Come on.
Just like the real
thing, huh, Francis?
Come on... Jail's over there.
Put 'em in a cell.
- Come on, move it.
- Look, marshal, we didn't do nothing.
It's a matter of self-respect.
Well, you better pray
your idea of self-respect
doesn't lead to a
charge of murder.
Come on, move it along.
(cell locking)
What's the name of
that boy who was hurt?
John Wolf.
Has he got any folks hereabouts?
Only his father.
You want him?
That depends on
what the doctor says.
- Where does he live?
- Skull Butte.
You ride up there and
you tell him John is hurt.
I know Skull Butte.
Then you know Ghost Wolf.
This must be my lucky day.
Another ten minutes,
I'd be gone fishing.
I'd sooner sew up a redskin than
catch a sack full of catfish any day.
They're always in top condition.
First-rate muscle tone,
no fat, lots of red blood.
Never a case of lockjaw.
Don't flinch away, neither.
Stoics, you know.
(grunting)
All of 'em, tough
as barbed wire.
Cotton in the box, there.
All right, now, you hold this.
That's it.
I haven't worked on
one since the wars.
That's how I learned my trade,
just a young sawbones
tramping out west.
Saved a few, lost a few.
Best and fastest
training that a...
a surgeon can get.
And the "Injuns", they'd get
better in spite of my mistakes.
Gives a young doctor
a feeling of confidence.
I never thought of the...
pain and the blood.
I mean, real blood.
Troops didn't exactly try
to leave any laying around
for a fella to work on,
but there was always one or
two crawled off into the brush.
Some of the wickedest wounds
I ever saw, them Big .50s.
They'd be barely hanging on.
Hardly no blood pressure,
most of 'em in shock.
They'd generally come through.
Make the croaker look like
a miracle man... Scissors.
Right about there.
That's it.
Got that needle?
There we are.
Some of the wild ones you
had to tie down to work on.
They were so red-eyed mad.
Doctor, lawyer, preacher,
robber, beggar, you name it.
Charlie Redskin
don't care, he's mad.
He never gives up.
But you healed them.
Wash down by these ribs here.
No harder, harder,
he won't feel it.
Here.
That's it.
There.
Looks like simple fractures.
It'll tickle for a while.
Best work on him while he's out.
When he comes to,
he's liable to be ornery
as a stump-tail
bull in fly-time.
No, I don't think I ever
worked on this one before.
He ain't scarred up.
Don't see many of the
young'uns anymore.
Time's is changing.
This one looks
pretty clean, too.
Must be kind of a tame type.
Amazing.
And ain't much that you can
do for them ribs, you know.
Just tie 'em up and hope that
he'll take it easy for a while.
Now, here you are...
Help me to bind it.
- Oh, but...
- Grab a hold, grab a hold.
That's it.
Now you grab it,
that's it, tight, tight.
Now the best thing
is to keep him down.
Resting as long as he will.
And then you can tell
when he's getting better.
He's meaner.
All right... Scissors.
There we are.
(ripping)
Now turn him over,
he'll never know it.
There we are.
Don't get many of these anymore.
Thank goodness for that.
There, he's done.
How's he doing?
Oh, he'll be a touch
tender for a few days.
But he'll be all right.
If the nurse doesn't kill him
with kindness and apple pie.
Do you think I can keep him
here for a few days under guard?
That'll be too soft
for his taste, likely.
He can always have the floor.
You talk as if he
were an animal.
(door closing) Dulcey.
Well, it's inhuman.
Well, you were making as much
noise as anybody at that show.
Well, that's not the same.
Dulcey, this land's gonna
rise up and stomp you down
the way a twister
wipes out a cornfield.
It'll come whirling in
here, beat you to flinders,
keep on going and it
won't think about you at all.
Mr. Crown, I am not a child.
I'm a grown adult female!
I might as well be talking to a
grown, adult, female fencepost.
(door closing)
Then when that old girl said,
"How'd your beard get so read?"
I said, "It ain't red,
it's just bloodshot."
(all laughing)
Buy 'em all another one here.
Get 'em all one.
What do you wanna hear?
Fabrizio, let me
have a soda water.
Marshal...
Boys will be boys, nothing
like a fight to clarify the blood.
I hear the best way to break
a horse is to ride him hard.
Say, tell me, Wildcat.
Where did you pick up your crew?
Back east, railroad towns.
Always like to give
the down-and-outer
a chance for a fresh start.
Why, sure.
But can you depend on 'em?
Well, uh, they think pretty
much the same way I do.
And I always try to set
a good example for 'em.
I see.
So as long as they're
agreeable to you,
why then, you wanna keep
'em close at hand, huh?
That's right.
We're all brothers under
the skin, ain't we, boys?
- Oh, yeah.
- That's right.
Did I ever tell
you about the time
that us boys was hold
up on the South Fork...
You tell 'em, Will...
You lived back then.
Fireball, another one, will ya?
I never will forget that
as long as I remember it...
Marshal, what's the
bail on those boys?
10,000 apiece.
(chuckling)
Well, that'd be a bargain
if you throw in the
state of Texas to boot.
I'm gonna shut you down.
Just a minute, marshal.
You got a reason?
I smell trouble the way
you'd smell a slaughterhouse.
Now you brought it here,
you're gonna take it away.
That ain't no reason.
10,000!
I'll go straight to a judge.
Hurry up, he's holding court
in Fort Smith, all this week.
I'm leaving tomorrow night...
If not before.
Listen, marshal, I just don't
think you're gonna shut me down
without some legal reason.
I just did.
I bought a license from you.
That's all I need.
It's cancelled.
You can't just make
up laws to suit yourself.
I got laws, all right!
Disturbing the peace,
obstructing the law.
- Now look...
- Unlawful assembly.
I'm entitled to two
more performances.
(shouting over each other)
- Unlawful assembly!
- Sold out and paid for in advance.
Suspicion of being an alien.
A little fist fight ain't
gonna start no war.
The only war is between
you and the people.
- And if you need any more laws...
- You sold me a license.
That's all I need!
- MacGregor!
- You're not shutting me down.
Oh.
Will you go down to the
depot and see how soon
they can hook up
Wildcat's show onto a train.
Which way is he going?
- Out and fast.
- Right.
- Heaven help us.
When men forget how to
stand up on their own hind legs.
This new generation leaning
on the government for everything.
Won't even cross a puny river
to take up their own
land and make it bloom.
They want machines to
do all the hard work for 'em.
All the thrashing and the
drilling and the digging.
All machinery!
Why they don't even
kill Indians no more!
Just politely ask 'em
right in the front door.
I seen Indians and I
got a belly full of 'em.
And that's why these folks
come to see my shows.
They knew where
their history is.
And they come to
see it lived again.
You ain't shutting
me down, marshal.
I got your word.
A souvenir from me.
Max, get him off me,
he'll break my neck!
- Hey, there!
- Get him off me!
Let him go, Injun... let him go.
♪♪
(all shouting)
(whooping)
Rabbits... What's
a couple Indians?
Well, you just hang
onto that thought.
(horses trotting) Ho...
Ghost Wolf, where are you?
Ghost Wolf, where is your son?
Ghost Wolf, where is your son?!
He's not in jail, I know.
Suppose he's hurt?
Could he be hurt?
Maybe a white man knows.
Where is John Wolf?
Is he home?
Maybe Ghost Wolf knows!
No, Ghost Wolf, he
never crosses the river!
Ghost Wolf afraid
to cross river!
Afraid of white man's jail.
Oh, no... Ghost
Wolf great warrior!
Ghost Wolf says
he is great warrior.
He still wears eagle feather.
While his people
wear straw hats!
He flies like eagle
and screams like hawk!
And we are like mice to him.
Ghost Wolf hates white man!
Ghost Wolf hates everyone!
Where is John Wolf?
Oh, Ghost Wolf,
much smoke, little fire!
Ghost Wolf, big
thunder, no lightning!
♪♪
(barking)
Company B, that
was the old seventh.
Wiped out at Alma Creek.
We got there the next
day, found what you left.
Dog meat.
That's the closest you and
I ever got to a showdown.
Till now.
You pay attention
to me, Ghost Wolf.
Your people used to claim
all the buffalo west
of the Missouri.
Now there are no buffalo.
You used to claim all the
prairie north of Smokey Hill.
Now you have a dusty wind-blown
corner of Indian Territory, why?
Because you've been
beaten so many times.
Mister, I was at the
Battle of Adobe Walls.
Alma Creek, Sylvan Grove.
Bull Foot Salt Lake.
Medicine Lodge.
(barking)
Talk big.
Bloody Stones.
Now you live here with your dog.
Even your own tribe hates you.
They are soft willow bark.
Gutless as minnow fish.
You need 'em.
I still have a son.
Where is he?
I'll tell you where he is.
He's locked up.
And I'll tell you
why I locked him up.
Otherwise he'd be up
here with the rest of the boys
trying to provoke you.
He'd be telling you how he got
the pie watered beat out of him
by a gang of outsiders.
He'd tell you how it started
because of a wild west show
and a rory-tory
man in a flashy outfit
who killed all the Indians and
became the hero of Bloody Stone.
Bloody Stones.
You stay put.
You'll get your boy back
after Wildcat Gallagher's gone.
After that you can track him
down and cut his throat for all I care.
But you're not gonna start
anything here in Cimarron.
Bloody Stones.
I know you were there, but
that doesn't change anything.
I said you'd get your boy
back unharmed and I mean it.
You don't have any choice.
You show up in town and I'll
throw you into a four-by-four cell
faster than you can snap
the head off a rattlesnake.
No, sir, boys, Wildcat
don't back down for nobody.
Marshal or no marshal.
And Wildcat don't forget
his enemies or his friends.
I remember Liver Eater Johnson.
Tell them sawbusters!
Tell 'em, Wildcat!
That man hated Indians
worse than anything.
No sooner did the
smoke clear away,
and he'd be in
there braiding scalps
and chawing on raw Indian liver.
That was a real fighting
man, let me tell you.
You bet'cha.
He did it just to remind
himself how much he hated 'em,
'cause of what they
did to his pa and his ma
and his little sister.
Liver Eater.
We all know why he had to do it.
He had to show up them
savages for what they was.
Let me tell you, they don't
make men like that no more.
No, no more.
Blood's running pale and thin.
Now you tell them about
them stinking Comanches!
Yes, sir, well, boys.
There was three of us.
We was herding Mexican
cows up the old Chisholm Trail.
That's when them
Comanches hit us.
They was young
bucks, out after scalps.
Well, it was Big Walt Trotter,
And Duck Krenkle and me,
and we wasn't figuring on
losing our hair for nothing.
So we just forwarded up
behind a couple of dead critters.
Well, now boys.
I had me my old .44 Spencer.
I crunched a few of 'em
out there, ki-yaying away.
But there was
lots of them, boys.
And they as out after blood.
Did you hear that... blood!
And there weren't no
marshal to help you.
Marshal... Ha!
Marshal.
Well, old Tucker,
he took a barb.
And big Walt, he
took a ball in the arm.
And boys, boys, let me tell you,
I come out of there
a-blasting away
like a Fourth of
July in Springfield.
Ah, Wildcat, I can just
see you coming out of there.
Yeah, marshal, ha!
Boys, boys, tell me, where
was the marshal then?
Let me tell you, them
skunk-face Comanches
was dropping like flies.
And it wasn't long bef...
(Wildcat continues)
He's asleep.
When will Jim be back?
It shouldn't be long now.
Well, I'm worried.
They're just like a tea
kettle letting off steam.
Better to let 'em
boil and bubble
then lock a lid on
and see it blown off.
I don't think I'll ever
get used to the way
you do things out here.
Hmm, and I hope
you never are, lass.
(water dripping)
Marshal, marshal, ha!
And even though that battle
never did get in the history books
it taught me a lot.
It taught me how
to purify my blood
and purge myself
of lazy tendencies.
And after the law came in!
Yeah.
Well, them days are gone.
Now it's dog eat dog.
And the law's for them.
We don't ever get
any chances like that.
And we're just as good.
Boys, boys!
You gotta make your own chances.
(Wildcat continues)
(water dripping)
Uh, my hair?
Well, it's just ordinary,
useless, troublesome stuff.
It's just like anybody
else's scalp... I mean, hair.
Well, I hope you're
feeling better now.
The doctor said that you'd
be fine, just a couple of days.
Palomino.
I'm new out here.
I've never seen a...
A boy like you before.
I come from Providence,
Rhode Island.
You know, where
they have the big ships,
the tall masts and acres
and acres of white sail.
Have you ever
seen a sailing ship?
Uh, well, they carry cargo
from all over the world
into this tiny little port.
And, uh, they carry, um,
Chinaware and tea and spices
and teak and
mahogany timbers and...
they carry people just like
our stagecoaches carry people.
Only these people come from
France and Portugal and Italy
and, um, Ireland and England.
Just like me.
I came out here by myself.
Do you have any family out here?
My father, Ghost Wolf.
Uh, well, I had a father but
he died before I got out here.
That's how I happen
to have this place.
Palomino.
Wheat fields.
Sunrise, meadowlark.
The ocean's a
very pretty blue, it...
It has whitecaps when
it's stormy and, uh,
the big ships go up and down...
Up and down over
the clean, bright waves.
You know, when you came
running in here, I thought...
Well, I didn't know...
I'm sorry.
The color of sunflowers.
I think maybe you're
just a dark Irishman.
Full of blarney.
(knocking on window)
Now get away, you
awful people, go on!
You're spoiling the view!
(banging)
Get away from the door!
Go back to your boozing!
(rabble shouting)
Let me at 'em... We have to get a
chance to see pedigree Indians anymore.
There's plenty across
the river to look at!
This one's under guard.
MacGregor.
It's all right, lass,
they won't get past me.
You ain't no regular marshal.
Oh, what a shame!
(banging and knocking)
Hey, we just wanna take a look!
Tickle yourselves!
For the last time, move out
or there'll be lead
coming through the door.
(rabble shouting)
Clear out, you blaggards,
go on, clear out!
(all shouting)
MacGregor, they're breaking in.
They'll have me to face.
You better about
face or I'll be using this.
There he is.
Now you leave him
be or so help me I'll...
Hey, MacGregor.
There, sir.
There's no need for that.
Now these are all good boys.
All good boys.
Only wish I'd had 'em with me
at the Battle of Bloody Stones.
- Hey!
- Out of the way!
Nothing like a little
hazing to purify the blood.
They already purified
their blood abusing that boy.
Get out of the way.
There he is... There's
the dirty little injun!
(all shouting)
Just stop it... Stop it!
Stop it!
(all shouting)
No... No!
Cowards!
Oh, please.
(silence)
Nobody made him jump...
He did it all by himself.
I'm sorry, ma'am.
I didn't think he'd
take it that way.
Even if he is an
Indian, I'm sorry.
That boy was
insurance on your neck.
You wanted a fight
and now you got it.
Get out.
♪♪
Dulcey.
(sniffling)
Death out here is too
common to mourn much.
Even if it tragic beyond words.
Seems it keeps breeding
more and more of the same.
Be quiet, just be quiet.
I wanted you not
to get in so deep.
He was just really a nice boy.
That's all, just a nice boy.
♪♪
♪♪
Kinda waste of time
patching him up, wasn't it?
Lord knows, we don't work
for the fun of it anymore.
I'll take him home
in the morning.
Don't 'spose he's in any hurry.
Come to think of it, neither
am I every now and then.
Right now, I'd settle for a nice
little epidemic of hookworm.
You better get some
sleep while you can.
We've come to take him home.
Take him.
Don't start anything.
We didn't start it.
♪♪
(knocking on door)
Who is it?
Jim.
Come in.
I saw the lights were on.
You can't sleep?
They came for John
Wolf, his friends,
Little Crow, Tom Penney.
You ever see an Indian burial?
Do you know anything about it?
It comes out different
with different tribes.
When it gets down to
bedrock, why, it's all the same.
Man's body is just something
he uses while he's here.
But his spirit, the real him...
or whatever you wanna call it,
he keeps on living in the air,
in the trees, hills, lakes.
Well, at the burial, they...
They take a handful of dust
and they throw it in the wind.
It's like turning the spirit
loose to find a new place.
A better one.
I thought you'd wanna know.
I was telling him
about Providence.
About the ocean.
And the clipper ships.
I wonder if he understood.
Are those pictures of Brawlings?
This... this is me when I
was 12 in front of the church.
- And that's the school I went to.
- Hmm.
That's the last
house I worked at.
I was the upstairs maid.
A lot of upstairs in that house.
That's my room,
right at the top.
From there I could
see the ocean.
The ships sailing
into safe harbor.
You miss it?
Sometimes, there'd
be storm clouds.
And I'd watch them come in.
And the wind would
shake the house
and there'd be torrents of rain.
And afterwards, the
skies were all washed.
Does it give you a feeling
that you'd wanna go back?
I couldn't blame you.
There's nothing out
here but blood and dirt.
People kicking, clawing...
jungle.
No place for a girl like you.
It's not like Providence.
No, it's not like Providence.
Everything there
was so beautiful.
And peaceful.
Fresh and clear.
An upstairs maid in
a three-story house.
And what have you got here?
A bar and a restaurant
and seven rooms.
And a bull-headed
marshal who pays rent.
But it's all yours, Dulcey.
We can hope, can't we, Jim?
Someday the pain
and the anger will...
it'll all be over?
Yes, Dulcey.
We can hope.
♪♪
♪♪
(metal clanking)
Phew.
What a mess.
(metal clanking)
Those young bucks did
a good job, didn't they?
Yeah.
Who the heck are them Indians
made at anyhow, the railroad?
That's not quite it.
I need this bridge.
How long will it
take you to fix it?
Hmm... a day, at least.
If I can keep the men at it.
I thought them
Indians was pacified.
They thought they'd
lock in Wildcat's train.
We figured it was a challenge.
And we don't aim
to back away from it.
Of course, you don't.
You wanna be real, Harry?
Pacify the Indians
and clarify the blood?
Fine, go ahead.
- You mean that?
- Sure.
You go up to Skull Butte
and look up an old Indian there
by the name of Ghost Wolf
and then take him apart.
- Oh, no, you don't.
- How come?
One dirty redskin hasn't
got a friend or a son anymore.
He didn't burn this bridge.
Well, don't debate, it,
Bert, you do it or you don't.
(sniffing)
Now you're smart.
You go on back home
and you stay there.
- Stay with it, huh, Roy?
- All right, Jim.
♪♪
(singing in Native
American language)
(wind whistling)
Jim: God knows I'm sorry.
My fault.
Your boy'd be alive if
I'd have been smarter.
(horses approaching)
They want your approval.
Give it to them.
They want your praise.
Last night they burned a bridge.
Monument for John Wolf.
Tell 'em that they're
brave warriors.
That they've
earned their feather.
Tell 'em a job well done
and send 'em home.
They are mice.
Jim: They wanna feel like men.
Give them something.
Wisdom, reason, something.
Nothing.
♪♪
You were day late
at Bloody Stones.
I'm here now.
♪♪
(gun barrel spinning)
Man sells his wares,
expects to be paid.
Or maybe you didn't
expect to oblige.
On me.
(coin clinking) Keep your money.
Call on your notion,
not your pride.
.50s, big shells.
You must be going
after some big game,
or you'd make hash out
of squirrels and jackrabbits.
Come to think of it,
there's hardly any big game
left around here anymore.
Big shells, big walla.
I know, I used 'em myself
and I can use 'em again.
Now I'm not giving
you any preacher talk
about peace and
understanding, now.
You hear me flat out.
The Indians are whipped,
smashed, just about wiped out.
One more war and
the job is finished.
It's a fact and you're just
gonna have to live with it.
John Wolf didn't.
A shroud on Skull Butte.
Dust in the wind.
Ghost Wolf.
Dying.
Like Wildcat Gallagher?
And him, walking dead
man, just trying to stay alive.
And pulling kids
like you, Bert, Sam,
right into the grave with 'em.
You're not mice...
Mice run and hide.
You fought back... You
burnt down a bridge.
Now I should haul
you in, but I'm not.
Nobody's gonna pay
off anybody anymore.
We've had a belly full of
it and it stops right here.
Now go on back to the farm.
Live for yourselves,
not the dead.
♪♪
♪♪
(gunshots)
Sam, Sam!
(horse whinnying)
(gunfire)
(gunshots)
(panting)
(gun cocking)
Wait a minute... Wait a minute!
Listen...
(panting)
Nobody meant any harm.
I wasn't the only one.
You better watch it!
We're gonna get you!
Listen...
You started it.
You know, heh...
(gunshot blasting) Ah... Oh!
Why... why...
Why, marshal?
(galloping fading)
Don't you worry, boy.
We'll make it up to you.
There ain't a man in this
town that won't follow me.
This time we'll teach
'em a pertinent lesson.
We'll cut down every
Indian in the outlet.
They'll pay for your pain, son.
Oh, how they'll
pay, pay ten to one.
A burnin' for a burnin'.
He's dead.
Tell Major Covington.
Tell him to pick up Tom
Penney and Little Crow.
It's murder.
Well, it's all over.
All but one Indian who's
used to following the old ways.
I'd like to see that red sucker.
♪♪
I've been forbearing...
- and I've been cooperative.
- I want all accounts squared.
I sacrificed
thousands of dollars,
and suffered my
pride to be humiliated
because I hated to
see what happened...
What about the money
you laid out for all of you
who were in the show?
That old renegade buck's
down there waiting for me,
and there ain't no
Indian gonna mock me
after I've given up my life
to open up these prairies.
You do that, you
get yourself killed.
I'm just hankering for a riot.
I'm going down there
and take care of that fella.
Then I'm gonna put my show on.
Well, you take your show and you
put it on in Cleveland or Chicago.
MacGregor!
You representing
this town or just one...
- And make yourself a fortune.
- (shouting)
In San Francisco,
Sacramento, Salt Lake.
Especially no Indian.
I remember down in
Stoney Gap years ago,
there was such an Indian...
He hasn't come back yet, he
went out about some wagons.
I wanna know how many he's got.
Well, sir, I'd taken up
that big old Buffalo .50
and I'd drawn a long,
cool bead on that sucker.
And I'll tell you this...
You don't have to
listen to any of this.
He won't be waving his bare
behind at no white man no more.
And I done it but one shot, too.
Got it all straightened out.
These contracts are with local
merchants, all due tills and cash.
We're quits with Gallagher.
If he wants to squawk about
it, tell him to get a lawyer.
Well, how did you do it?
Well, I might've
been born in St. Louis
but it wasn't yesterday.
Puts me in mind
to Bloody Stones.
Bloody Stones?
The battle you're going
through twice a day out there
was fought in the
month of May, 1876.
I buried all the
dead that was there.
You were nowhere around.
Do you know that or
don't you wanna know it?
What are you talking about?
You saying I ain't what I am?
You saying Wildcat
ain't Wildcat?
There's a time a man'd come
up sudden dead talking like that.
Ahh.
There's Wildcat Gallagher.
There's the hero of Bloody
Stones and Massacre Gap
and Medicine Lodge
and 20-mile Creek
and Adobe Walls
and don't you forget it!
Yes, sir.
There's Wildcat, half
alligator and half horse
and nine rows of teeth
and never been rode.
There's Wildcat Gallagher
leading the charge
and a scalp for every bullet.
Every bullet, huh?
Birdshot.
Why, you never killed anybody
with birdshot in your whole life.
Why the act?
Unordinary people
even up with you?
Or do you have to be top dog
because you're such
a cheap jack-leg skunk.
You take this phony
ammunition up against Ghost Wolf
and he's gonna
laugh himself silly
while he cuts you up, down,
backwards and sidewards.
And then every gun
this side of the river
is gonna be smoking
with vengeance.
And then we'll have the
Massacre of Cimarron.
MacGregor: Jim!
Jim... I've got three
wagons and drivers.
That ought to be enough.
Francis, you take one down
to the station, Wildcat's boxcar.
You take the other
two to the arena.
Look up all the
roustabouts you can find.
Load up the show.
I want the whole shooting match
ready to move out before night.
Right.
My show goes on,
it always goes on.
Where would the west have
been without the leaders?
They cleared away the rabble
so the settlers could
move out in peace.
All right, you monkeys.
- Turn around, face that wall.
- Our country was built on bravery.
On the honor of walking
knee-deep through enemy blood.
Now who remembers?
Who remembers?
Inside.
It's my duty to tell the
people about the great battles.
About Massacre Gap and
Pigeon Ridge and Bloody Stones.
Somewhere else, not here.
Yes, here... Here
more than any place.
Here where you've forgotten.
Here where you let
the Indian rise again.
Here where you let one
single Indian walk your streets
and spit on traditions.
I won't have it!
You're not going out there.
Face to face and hand to hand!
I'll stop you.
You know I'll stop you.
(gun cocking)
Inside.
(cell locking)
Marshal, a gun ain't
the test of a man.
You tell that red sucker
I'll take him apart
with my bare hands.
Yeah.
♪♪
(chain clinking)
The sun is setting.
Go on home, Ghost Wolf.
Oh, you're gonna go
home one way or another.
I'm here to see to that.
Listen to me.
This is not 1870, those
days are long gone, history.
Words written in a book.
White bones piled
on the prairies.
You and I know that.
The Indians are weak and few.
They've been
dispossessed and defeated.
Now you and I
didn't want it that way
but that's the way it is,
and we gotta live with it.
I am not defeated.
The old days are defeated.
An Indian is a
man, he is not a dog.
An Indian is a man, I know.
Yesterday, my son came here.
Today he is history.
His spirit is in the wind.
Blame me!
You...
Him.
Wildcat?
Why you'd kill him the
same way you'd kill a mouse.
Snap, off he goes.
And then what's gonna
happen to you and your people?
Finished.
While this whole
territory will go up in fire,
and you'll be wiped
out and what for?
Wildcat Gallagher?
Who's never been in any battle?
Who's nothing but a bag
of hot wind and birdshot?
He's not worth one ounce
of somebody's blood.
Why you're no better than he is.
You're nothing but a
low-down, mean, lazy...
♪♪
(horse whinnying)
What are we doing here?
Why?
Somebody like
Wildcat comes along...
tells us all about
how we did it.
Doesn't add up
five minutes later.
You understand?
We were there.
Now they're trying to
take away what we were.
By twisting it, coloring it.
The more they talk about
it, why, the more wrong it is.
When we did it,
it had to be right.
There was no other way.
I hardly remembered
how... How it was?
But you were there, Ghost Wolf.
I know that.
♪♪
(band playing)
(cheering and shouting)
Ladies and gentlemen.
Ladies and gentlemen, please.
Ladies and gentlemen.
I wanna thank
you all for coming.
I wanna say that of all the towns
I've seen in western America,
I've never seen
one more hospitable!
(cheering)
- And I mean that.
- Atta way!
And I wanna thank the
merchants of Cimarron City
for inviting me.
And for carrying
on the traditions
laid down by the many brave
men who've gone on ahead.
(cheering)
Now the good Lord willing,
we'll be back again next year!
(cheering)
And my special thanks
to your Marshal Crown.
(cheering and applause)
Who represents
the true frontiersman
keeping the peace in
the best western tradition.
(cheering)
The gall of the old windbag.
Folks...
Folks, I... I fit
many a battle...
in a great many towns.
But wherever I go,
I'll be thinking of you.
So keep our faith, folks
and remember Wildcat Gallagher
and the Battle of Bloody Stones!
(cheering)
(band playing)
Look at 'em... They all want to
shake the hand of Wildcat Gallagher.
They want to believe he's
what they would have been.
Who's gonna tell
'em it wasn't that way?
The western man
had fleas in his hair,
grease on his shirt front,
calluses on his backside.
They do a lot of talkin' today,
but we didn't talk then.
We didn't have anything to say.
The only thing we thought about
was where we were
gonna find our next meal.
Times change.
There was a last
beaver, a last wolf,
a last longhorn, a last buffalo.
There was a last Indian.
(band playing continues)
♪♪
(gunfire)
(horse whinnying)
(gunfire continues)
(shouting in Native
American language)
Ah!
(cheering and
applause) (band playing)
(guns firing salutes)
Yeah!
(applauding)
(applauding)
Ladies...
Ladies and gentlemen,
friends of the west,
fellow Americans...
and pioneers.
This concludes our
Battle of Bloody Stones.
(cheering and applause)
Come back tomorrow if you can.
The same time
for another inspirational moment
of our history as I knew it...
as I lived it!
(cheering and applause)
(band playing "Yankee Doodle")
(whistling and cheering)
♪♪
(loud chatter)
How'd you like shooting
like that Wildcat?
(mimicking gunfire)
Boy, howdy!
Can you imagine 50 cents
a day just to play a settler?
Did you see the show?
It's like the real thing, huh?
I sure hope they got some
decent whiskey in this town.
A town full hay-shackers, nah!
Marshal, that's the way it was
when we got to Blue Clay Flats.
Time we got there,
those cussed Indians
had scalped 14
women that same day,
but we got it back on 'em.
I guess you just about
seen everything, huh, Will?
Everything from Mandan
meetings to ring-tailed epizooties.
Oh, yeah, let me tell
you about the time
we were hold up
on the South Fork.
We was hold up there...
(excited chatter)
It was fantastic, just like I
always imagined it would be.
And you were so
brave to lead the way.
Would you sign my program
for a souvenir, please?
Certainly, ma'am, I'd
do it hundred times again
for one kind word from you.
Bring back memories?
Memories I'd just
as soon forget.
Sure, and there's
many a horrible sight
I'd like to scourge
from my mind.
Besides, it'll make a man
cry out in a cold sweat at night.
When the old days come
galloping back in dreams.
Duty, and duty had to be done,
no matter the consequence.
The cowards never started
and the weak died along the way.
Can I buy you a drink, marshal?
Well, I know you have
your own special railway car,
but the inn would be honored
if you'd stop by there
for some refreshments.
Why, thank you, ma'am.
This is the most hospitable
town I've ever seen
in all my years of touring.
Well, then I'll expect you.
Ma'am.
Marshal, I expected
you've rid the rivers
and studied the prairie
elephant as much as me.
From teepee to
soddy, saber to plough.
Any notions for my show?
One... Cancel it.
Well now, is that a polite way
of sayin' my show's no good?
Too good.
You confuse me, marshal.
You can dredge up the old
days in St. Louis and Des Moines,
but not here, not now.
You're too close to
the meat of the bone.
There's too many men who
sleep under the buffalo grass
to be forgotten,
marshal, too many.
I recall down at
Ken Mine Springs,
the best friend I ever had took
a Shawnee arrow in his back.
And the last words
he ever said to me.
He said, "Don't let 'em forget,
Wildcat, don't let 'em forget.
It's our blood that makes
their field so green."
It's mostly the wild blood that
greens the fields here about.
There isn't any buffalo left,
wolf, beaver or
wild Indian hardly.
(man shouting)
Keep your hands
off me, you redskin.
Lies... It never happened
that way, I know it.
You don't know enough
to put sand down a rat hole.
My father...
Your father don't know
beans from buckshot.
Hey!
Get your hands off me!
Jim: All right, let's break
it up... I said, break it up!
- Let 'em go, marshal.
- Break it up.
Break it up, break
it up, break it up,
I said, break it up!
It was him that
started it, marshal.
No, it was him!
You stinkin' of
dog-eater, I'll fix you.
I'll cut your lying tongue out!
I said, break it up!
It never happened that way.
It's just a show, that's
all it is, it's just a show.
It's lies, all lies.
One thing for
sure, it's over now.
Now go on home.
You two boys take him home.
Go on, now, make
sure he stays there.
Dirty skulldragger...
I ought to kill 'em.
Let it be, Max.
We've already whooped his kind.
No sense rubbing
their noses in it.
Heh.
Now you mentioned
something about buying a drink.
What's it gonna be,
belly wash or bourbon?
Belly wash... No, marshal.
Nothing but the best red
milonga hela for the likes of us.
This is your street, ain't it?
Yeah, sure it's our street.
You allow this in your town?
- Come on, come on, come on.
- No.
The show ain't over yet.
Wasn't like that...
My father knows.
Your father, Ghost Wolf.
He's the only one left who
can wear the eagle feathers.
He fought the battles...
He's still fighting them.
Are you mice?
Bloody Stones.
Ghost Wolf was there.
I believe him.
What's going on...
I don't understand.
I don't know.
It's been years since
anybody acted like these fellas.
Maybe it's a good
thing we stopped by.
You boys have been
laying down on the job.
Lettin' 'em take over here.
No, we ain't.
I never seen no other town
let Indians put on like them.
Tromp all over ya.
We know how to handle 'em.
Stay out of this.
You hear?
You hear that?
Are you gonna... are you gonna
stand there and let them dog-eaters
talk to you like that, huh?
♪♪
(distant laughing)
♪♪
Jim!
Jim!
Stop it!
Stop that, stop it!
All right, break it
up... Break it up!
Break it up!
Break it up!
Break it up!
I told you guys... Now
you can cool off in a cage.
Dulcey, go for the doc.
MacGregor, take
'em into my office.
All right, you guys it's
lockup time, come on.
Francis, get 'em off the ground.
Come on.
Just like the real
thing, huh, Francis?
Come on... Jail's over there.
Put 'em in a cell.
- Come on, move it.
- Look, marshal, we didn't do nothing.
It's a matter of self-respect.
Well, you better pray
your idea of self-respect
doesn't lead to a
charge of murder.
Come on, move it along.
(cell locking)
What's the name of
that boy who was hurt?
John Wolf.
Has he got any folks hereabouts?
Only his father.
You want him?
That depends on
what the doctor says.
- Where does he live?
- Skull Butte.
You ride up there and
you tell him John is hurt.
I know Skull Butte.
Then you know Ghost Wolf.
This must be my lucky day.
Another ten minutes,
I'd be gone fishing.
I'd sooner sew up a redskin than
catch a sack full of catfish any day.
They're always in top condition.
First-rate muscle tone,
no fat, lots of red blood.
Never a case of lockjaw.
Don't flinch away, neither.
Stoics, you know.
(grunting)
All of 'em, tough
as barbed wire.
Cotton in the box, there.
All right, now, you hold this.
That's it.
I haven't worked on
one since the wars.
That's how I learned my trade,
just a young sawbones
tramping out west.
Saved a few, lost a few.
Best and fastest
training that a...
a surgeon can get.
And the "Injuns", they'd get
better in spite of my mistakes.
Gives a young doctor
a feeling of confidence.
I never thought of the...
pain and the blood.
I mean, real blood.
Troops didn't exactly try
to leave any laying around
for a fella to work on,
but there was always one or
two crawled off into the brush.
Some of the wickedest wounds
I ever saw, them Big .50s.
They'd be barely hanging on.
Hardly no blood pressure,
most of 'em in shock.
They'd generally come through.
Make the croaker look like
a miracle man... Scissors.
Right about there.
That's it.
Got that needle?
There we are.
Some of the wild ones you
had to tie down to work on.
They were so red-eyed mad.
Doctor, lawyer, preacher,
robber, beggar, you name it.
Charlie Redskin
don't care, he's mad.
He never gives up.
But you healed them.
Wash down by these ribs here.
No harder, harder,
he won't feel it.
Here.
That's it.
There.
Looks like simple fractures.
It'll tickle for a while.
Best work on him while he's out.
When he comes to,
he's liable to be ornery
as a stump-tail
bull in fly-time.
No, I don't think I ever
worked on this one before.
He ain't scarred up.
Don't see many of the
young'uns anymore.
Time's is changing.
This one looks
pretty clean, too.
Must be kind of a tame type.
Amazing.
And ain't much that you can
do for them ribs, you know.
Just tie 'em up and hope that
he'll take it easy for a while.
Now, here you are...
Help me to bind it.
- Oh, but...
- Grab a hold, grab a hold.
That's it.
Now you grab it,
that's it, tight, tight.
Now the best thing
is to keep him down.
Resting as long as he will.
And then you can tell
when he's getting better.
He's meaner.
All right... Scissors.
There we are.
(ripping)
Now turn him over,
he'll never know it.
There we are.
Don't get many of these anymore.
Thank goodness for that.
There, he's done.
How's he doing?
Oh, he'll be a touch
tender for a few days.
But he'll be all right.
If the nurse doesn't kill him
with kindness and apple pie.
Do you think I can keep him
here for a few days under guard?
That'll be too soft
for his taste, likely.
He can always have the floor.
You talk as if he
were an animal.
(door closing) Dulcey.
Well, it's inhuman.
Well, you were making as much
noise as anybody at that show.
Well, that's not the same.
Dulcey, this land's gonna
rise up and stomp you down
the way a twister
wipes out a cornfield.
It'll come whirling in
here, beat you to flinders,
keep on going and it
won't think about you at all.
Mr. Crown, I am not a child.
I'm a grown adult female!
I might as well be talking to a
grown, adult, female fencepost.
(door closing)
Then when that old girl said,
"How'd your beard get so read?"
I said, "It ain't red,
it's just bloodshot."
(all laughing)
Buy 'em all another one here.
Get 'em all one.
What do you wanna hear?
Fabrizio, let me
have a soda water.
Marshal...
Boys will be boys, nothing
like a fight to clarify the blood.
I hear the best way to break
a horse is to ride him hard.
Say, tell me, Wildcat.
Where did you pick up your crew?
Back east, railroad towns.
Always like to give
the down-and-outer
a chance for a fresh start.
Why, sure.
But can you depend on 'em?
Well, uh, they think pretty
much the same way I do.
And I always try to set
a good example for 'em.
I see.
So as long as they're
agreeable to you,
why then, you wanna keep
'em close at hand, huh?
That's right.
We're all brothers under
the skin, ain't we, boys?
- Oh, yeah.
- That's right.
Did I ever tell
you about the time
that us boys was hold
up on the South Fork...
You tell 'em, Will...
You lived back then.
Fireball, another one, will ya?
I never will forget that
as long as I remember it...
Marshal, what's the
bail on those boys?
10,000 apiece.
(chuckling)
Well, that'd be a bargain
if you throw in the
state of Texas to boot.
I'm gonna shut you down.
Just a minute, marshal.
You got a reason?
I smell trouble the way
you'd smell a slaughterhouse.
Now you brought it here,
you're gonna take it away.
That ain't no reason.
10,000!
I'll go straight to a judge.
Hurry up, he's holding court
in Fort Smith, all this week.
I'm leaving tomorrow night...
If not before.
Listen, marshal, I just don't
think you're gonna shut me down
without some legal reason.
I just did.
I bought a license from you.
That's all I need.
It's cancelled.
You can't just make
up laws to suit yourself.
I got laws, all right!
Disturbing the peace,
obstructing the law.
- Now look...
- Unlawful assembly.
I'm entitled to two
more performances.
(shouting over each other)
- Unlawful assembly!
- Sold out and paid for in advance.
Suspicion of being an alien.
A little fist fight ain't
gonna start no war.
The only war is between
you and the people.
- And if you need any more laws...
- You sold me a license.
That's all I need!
- MacGregor!
- You're not shutting me down.
Oh.
Will you go down to the
depot and see how soon
they can hook up
Wildcat's show onto a train.
Which way is he going?
- Out and fast.
- Right.
- Heaven help us.
When men forget how to
stand up on their own hind legs.
This new generation leaning
on the government for everything.
Won't even cross a puny river
to take up their own
land and make it bloom.
They want machines to
do all the hard work for 'em.
All the thrashing and the
drilling and the digging.
All machinery!
Why they don't even
kill Indians no more!
Just politely ask 'em
right in the front door.
I seen Indians and I
got a belly full of 'em.
And that's why these folks
come to see my shows.
They knew where
their history is.
And they come to
see it lived again.
You ain't shutting
me down, marshal.
I got your word.
A souvenir from me.
Max, get him off me,
he'll break my neck!
- Hey, there!
- Get him off me!
Let him go, Injun... let him go.
♪♪
(all shouting)
(whooping)
Rabbits... What's
a couple Indians?
Well, you just hang
onto that thought.
(horses trotting) Ho...
Ghost Wolf, where are you?
Ghost Wolf, where is your son?
Ghost Wolf, where is your son?!
He's not in jail, I know.
Suppose he's hurt?
Could he be hurt?
Maybe a white man knows.
Where is John Wolf?
Is he home?
Maybe Ghost Wolf knows!
No, Ghost Wolf, he
never crosses the river!
Ghost Wolf afraid
to cross river!
Afraid of white man's jail.
Oh, no... Ghost
Wolf great warrior!
Ghost Wolf says
he is great warrior.
He still wears eagle feather.
While his people
wear straw hats!
He flies like eagle
and screams like hawk!
And we are like mice to him.
Ghost Wolf hates white man!
Ghost Wolf hates everyone!
Where is John Wolf?
Oh, Ghost Wolf,
much smoke, little fire!
Ghost Wolf, big
thunder, no lightning!
♪♪
(barking)
Company B, that
was the old seventh.
Wiped out at Alma Creek.
We got there the next
day, found what you left.
Dog meat.
That's the closest you and
I ever got to a showdown.
Till now.
You pay attention
to me, Ghost Wolf.
Your people used to claim
all the buffalo west
of the Missouri.
Now there are no buffalo.
You used to claim all the
prairie north of Smokey Hill.
Now you have a dusty wind-blown
corner of Indian Territory, why?
Because you've been
beaten so many times.
Mister, I was at the
Battle of Adobe Walls.
Alma Creek, Sylvan Grove.
Bull Foot Salt Lake.
Medicine Lodge.
(barking)
Talk big.
Bloody Stones.
Now you live here with your dog.
Even your own tribe hates you.
They are soft willow bark.
Gutless as minnow fish.
You need 'em.
I still have a son.
Where is he?
I'll tell you where he is.
He's locked up.
And I'll tell you
why I locked him up.
Otherwise he'd be up
here with the rest of the boys
trying to provoke you.
He'd be telling you how he got
the pie watered beat out of him
by a gang of outsiders.
He'd tell you how it started
because of a wild west show
and a rory-tory
man in a flashy outfit
who killed all the Indians and
became the hero of Bloody Stone.
Bloody Stones.
You stay put.
You'll get your boy back
after Wildcat Gallagher's gone.
After that you can track him
down and cut his throat for all I care.
But you're not gonna start
anything here in Cimarron.
Bloody Stones.
I know you were there, but
that doesn't change anything.
I said you'd get your boy
back unharmed and I mean it.
You don't have any choice.
You show up in town and I'll
throw you into a four-by-four cell
faster than you can snap
the head off a rattlesnake.
No, sir, boys, Wildcat
don't back down for nobody.
Marshal or no marshal.
And Wildcat don't forget
his enemies or his friends.
I remember Liver Eater Johnson.
Tell them sawbusters!
Tell 'em, Wildcat!
That man hated Indians
worse than anything.
No sooner did the
smoke clear away,
and he'd be in
there braiding scalps
and chawing on raw Indian liver.
That was a real fighting
man, let me tell you.
You bet'cha.
He did it just to remind
himself how much he hated 'em,
'cause of what they
did to his pa and his ma
and his little sister.
Liver Eater.
We all know why he had to do it.
He had to show up them
savages for what they was.
Let me tell you, they don't
make men like that no more.
No, no more.
Blood's running pale and thin.
Now you tell them about
them stinking Comanches!
Yes, sir, well, boys.
There was three of us.
We was herding Mexican
cows up the old Chisholm Trail.
That's when them
Comanches hit us.
They was young
bucks, out after scalps.
Well, it was Big Walt Trotter,
And Duck Krenkle and me,
and we wasn't figuring on
losing our hair for nothing.
So we just forwarded up
behind a couple of dead critters.
Well, now boys.
I had me my old .44 Spencer.
I crunched a few of 'em
out there, ki-yaying away.
But there was
lots of them, boys.
And they as out after blood.
Did you hear that... blood!
And there weren't no
marshal to help you.
Marshal... Ha!
Marshal.
Well, old Tucker,
he took a barb.
And big Walt, he
took a ball in the arm.
And boys, boys, let me tell you,
I come out of there
a-blasting away
like a Fourth of
July in Springfield.
Ah, Wildcat, I can just
see you coming out of there.
Yeah, marshal, ha!
Boys, boys, tell me, where
was the marshal then?
Let me tell you, them
skunk-face Comanches
was dropping like flies.
And it wasn't long bef...
(Wildcat continues)
He's asleep.
When will Jim be back?
It shouldn't be long now.
Well, I'm worried.
They're just like a tea
kettle letting off steam.
Better to let 'em
boil and bubble
then lock a lid on
and see it blown off.
I don't think I'll ever
get used to the way
you do things out here.
Hmm, and I hope
you never are, lass.
(water dripping)
Marshal, marshal, ha!
And even though that battle
never did get in the history books
it taught me a lot.
It taught me how
to purify my blood
and purge myself
of lazy tendencies.
And after the law came in!
Yeah.
Well, them days are gone.
Now it's dog eat dog.
And the law's for them.
We don't ever get
any chances like that.
And we're just as good.
Boys, boys!
You gotta make your own chances.
(Wildcat continues)
(water dripping)
Uh, my hair?
Well, it's just ordinary,
useless, troublesome stuff.
It's just like anybody
else's scalp... I mean, hair.
Well, I hope you're
feeling better now.
The doctor said that you'd
be fine, just a couple of days.
Palomino.
I'm new out here.
I've never seen a...
A boy like you before.
I come from Providence,
Rhode Island.
You know, where
they have the big ships,
the tall masts and acres
and acres of white sail.
Have you ever
seen a sailing ship?
Uh, well, they carry cargo
from all over the world
into this tiny little port.
And, uh, they carry, um,
Chinaware and tea and spices
and teak and
mahogany timbers and...
they carry people just like
our stagecoaches carry people.
Only these people come from
France and Portugal and Italy
and, um, Ireland and England.
Just like me.
I came out here by myself.
Do you have any family out here?
My father, Ghost Wolf.
Uh, well, I had a father but
he died before I got out here.
That's how I happen
to have this place.
Palomino.
Wheat fields.
Sunrise, meadowlark.
The ocean's a
very pretty blue, it...
It has whitecaps when
it's stormy and, uh,
the big ships go up and down...
Up and down over
the clean, bright waves.
You know, when you came
running in here, I thought...
Well, I didn't know...
I'm sorry.
The color of sunflowers.
I think maybe you're
just a dark Irishman.
Full of blarney.
(knocking on window)
Now get away, you
awful people, go on!
You're spoiling the view!
(banging)
Get away from the door!
Go back to your boozing!
(rabble shouting)
Let me at 'em... We have to get a
chance to see pedigree Indians anymore.
There's plenty across
the river to look at!
This one's under guard.
MacGregor.
It's all right, lass,
they won't get past me.
You ain't no regular marshal.
Oh, what a shame!
(banging and knocking)
Hey, we just wanna take a look!
Tickle yourselves!
For the last time, move out
or there'll be lead
coming through the door.
(rabble shouting)
Clear out, you blaggards,
go on, clear out!
(all shouting)
MacGregor, they're breaking in.
They'll have me to face.
You better about
face or I'll be using this.
There he is.
Now you leave him
be or so help me I'll...
Hey, MacGregor.
There, sir.
There's no need for that.
Now these are all good boys.
All good boys.
Only wish I'd had 'em with me
at the Battle of Bloody Stones.
- Hey!
- Out of the way!
Nothing like a little
hazing to purify the blood.
They already purified
their blood abusing that boy.
Get out of the way.
There he is... There's
the dirty little injun!
(all shouting)
Just stop it... Stop it!
Stop it!
(all shouting)
No... No!
Cowards!
Oh, please.
(silence)
Nobody made him jump...
He did it all by himself.
I'm sorry, ma'am.
I didn't think he'd
take it that way.
Even if he is an
Indian, I'm sorry.
That boy was
insurance on your neck.
You wanted a fight
and now you got it.
Get out.
♪♪
Dulcey.
(sniffling)
Death out here is too
common to mourn much.
Even if it tragic beyond words.
Seems it keeps breeding
more and more of the same.
Be quiet, just be quiet.
I wanted you not
to get in so deep.
He was just really a nice boy.
That's all, just a nice boy.
♪♪
♪♪
Kinda waste of time
patching him up, wasn't it?
Lord knows, we don't work
for the fun of it anymore.
I'll take him home
in the morning.
Don't 'spose he's in any hurry.
Come to think of it, neither
am I every now and then.
Right now, I'd settle for a nice
little epidemic of hookworm.
You better get some
sleep while you can.
We've come to take him home.
Take him.
Don't start anything.
We didn't start it.
♪♪
(knocking on door)
Who is it?
Jim.
Come in.
I saw the lights were on.
You can't sleep?
They came for John
Wolf, his friends,
Little Crow, Tom Penney.
You ever see an Indian burial?
Do you know anything about it?
It comes out different
with different tribes.
When it gets down to
bedrock, why, it's all the same.
Man's body is just something
he uses while he's here.
But his spirit, the real him...
or whatever you wanna call it,
he keeps on living in the air,
in the trees, hills, lakes.
Well, at the burial, they...
They take a handful of dust
and they throw it in the wind.
It's like turning the spirit
loose to find a new place.
A better one.
I thought you'd wanna know.
I was telling him
about Providence.
About the ocean.
And the clipper ships.
I wonder if he understood.
Are those pictures of Brawlings?
This... this is me when I
was 12 in front of the church.
- And that's the school I went to.
- Hmm.
That's the last
house I worked at.
I was the upstairs maid.
A lot of upstairs in that house.
That's my room,
right at the top.
From there I could
see the ocean.
The ships sailing
into safe harbor.
You miss it?
Sometimes, there'd
be storm clouds.
And I'd watch them come in.
And the wind would
shake the house
and there'd be torrents of rain.
And afterwards, the
skies were all washed.
Does it give you a feeling
that you'd wanna go back?
I couldn't blame you.
There's nothing out
here but blood and dirt.
People kicking, clawing...
jungle.
No place for a girl like you.
It's not like Providence.
No, it's not like Providence.
Everything there
was so beautiful.
And peaceful.
Fresh and clear.
An upstairs maid in
a three-story house.
And what have you got here?
A bar and a restaurant
and seven rooms.
And a bull-headed
marshal who pays rent.
But it's all yours, Dulcey.
We can hope, can't we, Jim?
Someday the pain
and the anger will...
it'll all be over?
Yes, Dulcey.
We can hope.
♪♪
♪♪
(metal clanking)
Phew.
What a mess.
(metal clanking)
Those young bucks did
a good job, didn't they?
Yeah.
Who the heck are them Indians
made at anyhow, the railroad?
That's not quite it.
I need this bridge.
How long will it
take you to fix it?
Hmm... a day, at least.
If I can keep the men at it.
I thought them
Indians was pacified.
They thought they'd
lock in Wildcat's train.
We figured it was a challenge.
And we don't aim
to back away from it.
Of course, you don't.
You wanna be real, Harry?
Pacify the Indians
and clarify the blood?
Fine, go ahead.
- You mean that?
- Sure.
You go up to Skull Butte
and look up an old Indian there
by the name of Ghost Wolf
and then take him apart.
- Oh, no, you don't.
- How come?
One dirty redskin hasn't
got a friend or a son anymore.
He didn't burn this bridge.
Well, don't debate, it,
Bert, you do it or you don't.
(sniffing)
Now you're smart.
You go on back home
and you stay there.
- Stay with it, huh, Roy?
- All right, Jim.
♪♪
(singing in Native
American language)
(wind whistling)
Jim: God knows I'm sorry.
My fault.
Your boy'd be alive if
I'd have been smarter.
(horses approaching)
They want your approval.
Give it to them.
They want your praise.
Last night they burned a bridge.
Monument for John Wolf.
Tell 'em that they're
brave warriors.
That they've
earned their feather.
Tell 'em a job well done
and send 'em home.
They are mice.
Jim: They wanna feel like men.
Give them something.
Wisdom, reason, something.
Nothing.
♪♪
You were day late
at Bloody Stones.
I'm here now.
♪♪
(gun barrel spinning)
Man sells his wares,
expects to be paid.
Or maybe you didn't
expect to oblige.
On me.
(coin clinking) Keep your money.
Call on your notion,
not your pride.
.50s, big shells.
You must be going
after some big game,
or you'd make hash out
of squirrels and jackrabbits.
Come to think of it,
there's hardly any big game
left around here anymore.
Big shells, big walla.
I know, I used 'em myself
and I can use 'em again.
Now I'm not giving
you any preacher talk
about peace and
understanding, now.
You hear me flat out.
The Indians are whipped,
smashed, just about wiped out.
One more war and
the job is finished.
It's a fact and you're just
gonna have to live with it.
John Wolf didn't.
A shroud on Skull Butte.
Dust in the wind.
Ghost Wolf.
Dying.
Like Wildcat Gallagher?
And him, walking dead
man, just trying to stay alive.
And pulling kids
like you, Bert, Sam,
right into the grave with 'em.
You're not mice...
Mice run and hide.
You fought back... You
burnt down a bridge.
Now I should haul
you in, but I'm not.
Nobody's gonna pay
off anybody anymore.
We've had a belly full of
it and it stops right here.
Now go on back to the farm.
Live for yourselves,
not the dead.
♪♪
♪♪
(gunshots)
Sam, Sam!
(horse whinnying)
(gunfire)
(gunshots)
(panting)
(gun cocking)
Wait a minute... Wait a minute!
Listen...
(panting)
Nobody meant any harm.
I wasn't the only one.
You better watch it!
We're gonna get you!
Listen...
You started it.
You know, heh...
(gunshot blasting) Ah... Oh!
Why... why...
Why, marshal?
(galloping fading)
Don't you worry, boy.
We'll make it up to you.
There ain't a man in this
town that won't follow me.
This time we'll teach
'em a pertinent lesson.
We'll cut down every
Indian in the outlet.
They'll pay for your pain, son.
Oh, how they'll
pay, pay ten to one.
A burnin' for a burnin'.
He's dead.
Tell Major Covington.
Tell him to pick up Tom
Penney and Little Crow.
It's murder.
Well, it's all over.
All but one Indian who's
used to following the old ways.
I'd like to see that red sucker.
♪♪
I've been forbearing...
- and I've been cooperative.
- I want all accounts squared.
I sacrificed
thousands of dollars,
and suffered my
pride to be humiliated
because I hated to
see what happened...
What about the money
you laid out for all of you
who were in the show?
That old renegade buck's
down there waiting for me,
and there ain't no
Indian gonna mock me
after I've given up my life
to open up these prairies.
You do that, you
get yourself killed.
I'm just hankering for a riot.
I'm going down there
and take care of that fella.
Then I'm gonna put my show on.
Well, you take your show and you
put it on in Cleveland or Chicago.
MacGregor!
You representing
this town or just one...
- And make yourself a fortune.
- (shouting)
In San Francisco,
Sacramento, Salt Lake.
Especially no Indian.
I remember down in
Stoney Gap years ago,
there was such an Indian...
He hasn't come back yet, he
went out about some wagons.
I wanna know how many he's got.
Well, sir, I'd taken up
that big old Buffalo .50
and I'd drawn a long,
cool bead on that sucker.
And I'll tell you this...
You don't have to
listen to any of this.
He won't be waving his bare
behind at no white man no more.
And I done it but one shot, too.
Got it all straightened out.
These contracts are with local
merchants, all due tills and cash.
We're quits with Gallagher.
If he wants to squawk about
it, tell him to get a lawyer.
Well, how did you do it?
Well, I might've
been born in St. Louis
but it wasn't yesterday.
Puts me in mind
to Bloody Stones.
Bloody Stones?
The battle you're going
through twice a day out there
was fought in the
month of May, 1876.
I buried all the
dead that was there.
You were nowhere around.
Do you know that or
don't you wanna know it?
What are you talking about?
You saying I ain't what I am?
You saying Wildcat
ain't Wildcat?
There's a time a man'd come
up sudden dead talking like that.
Ahh.
There's Wildcat Gallagher.
There's the hero of Bloody
Stones and Massacre Gap
and Medicine Lodge
and 20-mile Creek
and Adobe Walls
and don't you forget it!
Yes, sir.
There's Wildcat, half
alligator and half horse
and nine rows of teeth
and never been rode.
There's Wildcat Gallagher
leading the charge
and a scalp for every bullet.
Every bullet, huh?
Birdshot.
Why, you never killed anybody
with birdshot in your whole life.
Why the act?
Unordinary people
even up with you?
Or do you have to be top dog
because you're such
a cheap jack-leg skunk.
You take this phony
ammunition up against Ghost Wolf
and he's gonna
laugh himself silly
while he cuts you up, down,
backwards and sidewards.
And then every gun
this side of the river
is gonna be smoking
with vengeance.
And then we'll have the
Massacre of Cimarron.
MacGregor: Jim!
Jim... I've got three
wagons and drivers.
That ought to be enough.
Francis, you take one down
to the station, Wildcat's boxcar.
You take the other
two to the arena.
Look up all the
roustabouts you can find.
Load up the show.
I want the whole shooting match
ready to move out before night.
Right.
My show goes on,
it always goes on.
Where would the west have
been without the leaders?
They cleared away the rabble
so the settlers could
move out in peace.
All right, you monkeys.
- Turn around, face that wall.
- Our country was built on bravery.
On the honor of walking
knee-deep through enemy blood.
Now who remembers?
Who remembers?
Inside.
It's my duty to tell the
people about the great battles.
About Massacre Gap and
Pigeon Ridge and Bloody Stones.
Somewhere else, not here.
Yes, here... Here
more than any place.
Here where you've forgotten.
Here where you let
the Indian rise again.
Here where you let one
single Indian walk your streets
and spit on traditions.
I won't have it!
You're not going out there.
Face to face and hand to hand!
I'll stop you.
You know I'll stop you.
(gun cocking)
Inside.
(cell locking)
Marshal, a gun ain't
the test of a man.
You tell that red sucker
I'll take him apart
with my bare hands.
Yeah.
♪♪
(chain clinking)
The sun is setting.
Go on home, Ghost Wolf.
Oh, you're gonna go
home one way or another.
I'm here to see to that.
Listen to me.
This is not 1870, those
days are long gone, history.
Words written in a book.
White bones piled
on the prairies.
You and I know that.
The Indians are weak and few.
They've been
dispossessed and defeated.
Now you and I
didn't want it that way
but that's the way it is,
and we gotta live with it.
I am not defeated.
The old days are defeated.
An Indian is a
man, he is not a dog.
An Indian is a man, I know.
Yesterday, my son came here.
Today he is history.
His spirit is in the wind.
Blame me!
You...
Him.
Wildcat?
Why you'd kill him the
same way you'd kill a mouse.
Snap, off he goes.
And then what's gonna
happen to you and your people?
Finished.
While this whole
territory will go up in fire,
and you'll be wiped
out and what for?
Wildcat Gallagher?
Who's never been in any battle?
Who's nothing but a bag
of hot wind and birdshot?
He's not worth one ounce
of somebody's blood.
Why you're no better than he is.
You're nothing but a
low-down, mean, lazy...
♪♪
(horse whinnying)
What are we doing here?
Why?
Somebody like
Wildcat comes along...
tells us all about
how we did it.
Doesn't add up
five minutes later.
You understand?
We were there.
Now they're trying to
take away what we were.
By twisting it, coloring it.
The more they talk about
it, why, the more wrong it is.
When we did it,
it had to be right.
There was no other way.
I hardly remembered
how... How it was?
But you were there, Ghost Wolf.
I know that.
♪♪
(band playing)
(cheering and shouting)
Ladies and gentlemen.
Ladies and gentlemen, please.
Ladies and gentlemen.
I wanna thank
you all for coming.
I wanna say that of all the towns
I've seen in western America,
I've never seen
one more hospitable!
(cheering)
- And I mean that.
- Atta way!
And I wanna thank the
merchants of Cimarron City
for inviting me.
And for carrying
on the traditions
laid down by the many brave
men who've gone on ahead.
(cheering)
Now the good Lord willing,
we'll be back again next year!
(cheering)
And my special thanks
to your Marshal Crown.
(cheering and applause)
Who represents
the true frontiersman
keeping the peace in
the best western tradition.
(cheering)
The gall of the old windbag.
Folks...
Folks, I... I fit
many a battle...
in a great many towns.
But wherever I go,
I'll be thinking of you.
So keep our faith, folks
and remember Wildcat Gallagher
and the Battle of Bloody Stones!
(cheering)
(band playing)
Look at 'em... They all want to
shake the hand of Wildcat Gallagher.
They want to believe he's
what they would have been.
Who's gonna tell
'em it wasn't that way?
The western man
had fleas in his hair,
grease on his shirt front,
calluses on his backside.
They do a lot of talkin' today,
but we didn't talk then.
We didn't have anything to say.
The only thing we thought about
was where we were
gonna find our next meal.
Times change.
There was a last
beaver, a last wolf,
a last longhorn, a last buffalo.
There was a last Indian.
(band playing continues)
♪♪