Original subtitles

♪ [ trumpet ]

The year was 1895.

It was the great railroad building era

in America.

Settlers were pouring into the West,

particularly into the brand new state of Montana,

breaking its land for farming

and fencing its open range with barbed wire.

It was the beginning of the end

for that West that had belonged to the cowboy,

and the setting for...

[ horse whinnies ]

All right, Milligan, come on in here.

That sure ain't a very friendly way

to greet a body.

You came mighty close to getting yourself shot just now.

I thought you'd be glad to see me,

bringing you supplies and all.

Next time you come sneaking in here like that,

I'm going to smoke you for sure.

I wasn't sneaking. Just the way I walk.

What you fixing?

As long as you're here, you might as well eat.

Help yourself.

What's the news in town?

Oh, same old thing, you know.

No, I don't know.

They don't deliver newspapers up here anymore.

Well, Frank Cordineer got hisself gored by a bull.

Run a horn through him, killed him,

broke his glasses, and everything.

Oh. A bunch of political fellas

come out from Washington.

They got a new plan. They're going to help

the Blackfoot Indians.

Yeah, I'll bet they'll help them, all right.

Probably try to teach them how to eat straw.

[ chuckles ]

Oh, there's a lot of talk in town.

A lot of people come out from Ohio.

They're farmers.

They're going to settle up north of town there,

where Ed Hanson's been running his cows.

Sodbusters, eh?

Well, this whole country's getting too crowded,

if you ask me.

Sure is.

Oh, hey!

There's a--

There's a letter come for you.

Couldn't help but notice...

from New York.

Uh, you know somebody over there?

Nope.

What does it say?

Well, for one thing, it says you're taking over my job,

right now.

You can't do that.

I got 60 head of horses here.

I want you to keep them on pasture for another three weeks,

then push them down to ranch headquarter.

But--

Uh, you're going to get yourself fired.

They can't fire me.

I just quit.

[ glass breaking ]

This here's a cattle town.

If you sodbusters won't get out,

we'll throw you out!

You ain't throwing nobody out of no place!

We farmers got as much right here

as you cowmen.

We're going to run you sodbusters out of this town

on your hands and knees!

If you want trouble,

us farmers will give it to you.

What's a matter with you, cowman?

I got no personal quarrel with you, mister,

even if you are a sodbuster.

This here fight's far from finished.

You cowmen won't take the next round.

We'll be back!

Mangy cow herders think you own the whole state!

Your cows got more brains than you got!

I reckon we showed them, huh, Buck?

Maybe we should've showed them more.

Oh, I don't know. They seem pretty anxious

to get out of here.

MAN: Hey!

Kid!

Hello, Mag. Hello, Hank.

Well, I'll be hogtied and branded if it ain't The Kid.

Yeah, I reckon you guys

will never let me live that name down.

Why should we? I kind of like it.

At my age, it doesn't make sense.

Oh, Kid, you're a sight for sore eyes.

Let's have a drink. Come on.

Yeah, we'd heard the ornery, fun-loving Kid

had finally settled down.

Yeah, and rumors were that you'd quit punching cows,

and taken up drawing

and painting pictures for a living.

Yeah, I've been painting a little,

but I'm still earning most of my beans and coffee

as a wrangler.

Hey, houseman!

Look who we just drug in.

MAN: Wonderful. Bring him on over.

Drinks are on the house!

Hello, Hoffman. Been a long time.

It's still up there.

Not only the finest gift I ever received,

but signed by the artist himself.

I'm mighty proud of that picture of yours.

Hoffman wouldn't even take it down

for one of them "ooh-la-la" Frenchy paintings,

some whiskey drummer brung in here.

[ men laughing ] MAN: Yeah.

Hoffman kicked him out, and we had to hang the beauty

in Hank's woodshed.

[ all laugh ]

Well, that's the finest compliment

that's ever been paid me, Mr. Hoffman.

Yeah, that's your trouble, Kid.

If you hadn't made gifts of all your paintings and drawings,

them whipcord jeans would be full of money.

Well, he's welcome more than a millionaire

the way he is.

Here's to you.

May your stay be long in these parts.

Yeah, to the good old days when we rode together.

There's Montana dust in your eye, old friend.

Well, I'll tell you,

there's a lot of that Montana dust

between Great Falls and here.

[ all laugh ]

Let's wash it all out, good and proper.

Kid, what brought you back here to Cascade?

Well, it seems that a couple of my paintings

found their way back east,

and for some reason or other, the folks there liked them.

In fact, those soft-headed easterners

offered me cash money to paint some more of them.

Time somebody offered you something for them,

besides cheap liquor.

Oh.

[ men laughing ]

You fellas know what a maverick I've always been,

bouncing around from one noisy cow camp to another.

Anyway, I decided I needed some peace and quiet.

That's why I'm here.

Nobody's using the bunkhouse out at Ma and Pa Roberts' place,

and they offered it to me.

I might even do some more paintings.

Peace and quiet?

Mister, you're going to find little peace and quiet

around Cascade.

What, with the sodbusters causing trouble.

I don't think our trails have ever crossed,

but if any of my old cow punching buddies

are having trouble with the sodbusters,

I don't mind cutting myself a slice of it,

painting or no painting.

Hoffman, pour another round. This time, it's on me.

Keep your money in your pocket.

It's no good in here.

Kid, with you along, we could sure

show them sodbusters a thing or two.

We've handled a lot worse than sodbusters, in our day,

right, Hank?

Oh, will you look who's here?

Charlie!

[ laughs ]

Hello, ma!

You're a mighty glad sight for sure!

We've sure been looking for this day.

Oh, doggone, I'm glad to be here.

You two are looking better than I ever seen you

Ma, you're still prettier than any girl has a right to be.

Oh, honestly, you haven't changed a bit!

No, sir.Oh, yeah.

A few more miles. A few more miles.

Come on in the house and rest yourself.

Nancy...

Here he is.

The one we've been telling you about.

This here's Miss Nancy Cooper.

We knew her and her folks years ago,

way back in Kentucky.

Of course, she's grown up some

since then.

[ scoffs ] Oh, pa.

Yeah, she's been visiting a spell with us this summer.

Due to head back east in a day or two.

Miss Cooper.

I'm delighted to meet you, sir.

Supper's almost ready.

Just give you time enough to wash up.

Thank you.

I must say, I've been hearing

a great deal about you, Mr. Russell.

Not all bad, I hope.

[ chuckles ] No, not all.

But I must confess,

I have been warned about you.

Why, Nancy Cooper, I'm ashamed of you.

Why, if I've told you once, I've told a thousand times,

he's just like a son to us.

But a wayward son.

Now, pa.

He's got talent,

and he can make a decent living with it, if he'd try.

But I'd rather be a common cowhand.

I've got no ambition.

Hmm. Times are changing.

Montana's coming of age.

You'd do well to take heed of its progress.

What's your idea of progress, pa?

Kill the buffalo?

Keep the Indians on the reservation?

Fence in the open range? Plow under the grassland?

That's not my idea of progress.

Pa, can't you see that these things

are destroying the West?

This West, ourWest, is God's country.

We got to keep it that way.

I was a cowhand and a saddle maker

for a long time,

before I took to running the general store,

so I sympathize with your feelings,

but I don't hold with those of your friends',

who are always trying to stir up trouble

with sodbusters.

Cowhands and sodbusters just naturally got to be enemies.

That's Kid Russell talking,

not the man who's sitting in front of me.

I painted it for ma and pa, a few years back,

on their silver anniversary.

It's beautiful...

and the technique is excellent...

but the real power of your work

doesn't reside in technique.

It...

Well, it resides in the fact that you feel,

to the very depths of your being, that...

well, that an era is dying,

and that it means something to each of us.

I don't recall anybody ever saying it just that way before.

I mean...

nobody really understood my feelings.

There is much love in you, Mr. Russell...

for the West you know,

for its high, shining mountains,

rolling prairies,

and people of tower and strength, but...

Well, I fear that there is also much bitterness in you,

and that bitterness could become stronger than your love.

Morning.

Morning.

I've been knocking on the bunkhouse door.

I thought you were inside.No.

Not enough light. It's better out here.

The sun makes the colors more real.

Oh.

I brought you some coffee.

Oh, good, thanks.

Just put it right down here.

Well, we were worried about you.

When you didn't come in the house for breakfast.

Well, I was anxious to get started.

What's it going to be?

Buffalo grazing land.

I'm painting it from memory.

Last time, I saw it,

the sodbusters had plowed it under.

Uh, ma wanted to know

if you were comfortable in the bunkhouse.

[ chuckles ]

Too comfortable for an old trail hand like me.

Well, I'll be leaving in a day or so.

Well, then you can have my room in the house.

[ horse approaching ]

I'm sorry to bust in on you like this, Kid,

but we got new trouble.

Bad trouble?

Bad enough we'd sure be obliged

if you'd ride with us.

I'll meet you at Hoffman's.

I'll hurry.

Likely, the Roberts wouldn't try to stop you.

They probably, long ago, given up on any idea

of altering your reckless ways.

And likely, they'd say there's no use in my trying.

They'd be dead right.

Cowhands are my friends.

They're in trouble. They need my help.

It's as simple as that.

I often wear it.

All right, then.

Then you just go. I won't try to stop you,

blind though you are.

You know, last night,

I stood in the presence of something wonderful.

I saw the greatness of a man with a talent

to keep alive a dying era.

That man, he still exists,

but only in a few scattered canvasses.

And after today,

maybe that's all that'll ever be left of him.

I'm sorry, Nancy.

See you at supper.

Hey, Kid. We've been waiting for you.

Now, we can ride.

Morning, fellas.

What's this all about?

Pour that drink, Hoffman.

A little early in the day, isn't it?

Never mind that. He's going to need it.

Them sodbusters fenced a waterhole this morning.

That land ain't fit for farming.

It's too rocky.

Those plow-pushers did it for spite.

That's downright criminal.

Not really.

The waterhole's on land, set aside for homesteading.

In that case, I don't know what can be done about it.

We can ride out and show those hayseeds

they can't get away with it.

We got to have it out with them.

Kid, Buck, and Hank are right.

We got to show them.

Right, old friend?

Right, Hank.

So let's get going.

We'll show them what we cowmen are made of.

We'll bury them with their own plows.

Kid...

Don't ride with them.

They're wasting their time. The sodbusters are here to stay,

and maybe...

they're not altogether to blame for the trouble.

A man can't turn his back on his old trail friends, can he?

All right, pass them out.

Here.

That's a sodbuster's fence up ahead of us.

All right, men, keep your voices down.

All right, let's go, men.

I figured you for cowmen,

with grit and backbone,

not a bunch of yellow-bellied cowards.

I figured we were going to have this out

with the sodbusters, face to face,

otherwise, I wouldn't have come.

It looks like you're going to have it your way.

Look for yourself.

Sodbusters.Yeah.

When they get a little closer, throw a couple of shots at them.

With them rifles, we can take care of them from here.

Now, wait a minute!

I'm not going to hold still

for any lowdown, cold-blooded bushwhacking,

if that's what you got in mind.

I'll never side in with the sodbusters,

but it can't hurt us to talk things over with them.

That is, if they're willing to talk.

There's only one yellow-belly here,

and if he's scared,

he'd better get out of here

while there's still time.

I've ridden with every one of these other boys.

They know whether I'm scared or not.

That's a decision you're going to have to make for yourself.

Seems I overlooked there can be rattlesnakes

on both sides of the fence.

Sodbusters is getting close.

Yeah, here they come.

Two things here that don't fit together.

I got a feeling this fence didn't get here

just by accident.

You got any ideas what might've cause it?

I came out here to help my friends

defend their rights,

not to put a sack over my head

and start clipping wires.

Now, who's going to tell me the truth?

Buck...

we caused this trouble the other day.

We decided it'd be fun to run some cows

over the sodbusters' crops.

What you're saying is, you pretty much invited

the sodbusters to strike back.

They didn't have any other choice, did they?

Speaking for myself,

I'm for making my peace with the sodbusters.

Yeah, maybe we done wrong, Kid.

I'm willing to pay for damages.

I would, too.

What's your decision, Buck? Still for bushwhacking?

'Cause if you are, you'd better start with me, right now.

You're all crazy.

If you think I'm going to stand here

and let these sodbusters blow my head off, you--

you're loco!

Better get rid of those flour sacks

and wire cutters, boys.

It'll make talking to these farmers

a lot easier.

[ horse whinnies ]

Nancy told me that you'd ridden out

with some of your friends.

She didn't want to worry ma with it.

Poor girl had to tell somebody.

Was there...

serious trouble?

Almost.

I think everything's all right now.

Serious trouble came mighty close though.

See what they'll bring down at your store.

Might be enough for a start toward

all the canvas and oils and brushes

I'm going to need from now on.

[ door closes ]

You folks excuse me.

You look all right.

I'm fine.

Well, you must be starved.

If there's some of that breakfast coffee still left in the kitchen,

I might use a cup before I get back to my painting.

Oh, well, I can do better than that.

I'll brew you a fresh pot.

Nancy...

I learned something from what you said last night

and what I saw out there today.

I wanted the West to stay forever the way

I've always seen it.

Now, I know there's only one way that can be.

If you were staying here in Montana,

you...

you'd be able to see all those paintings

I'll be doing.

Might even have a few suggestions yourself.

Well, now...

that would be worth my staying to see.

Let's go inside.

We'll get started on that coffee.

Nancy Cooper stayed in Montana,

and the cowhand kept his word and stayed at his easel.

Less than a year later, in the Roberts' home in Cascade,

Nancy and Russell were married.

For better than a quarter of a century thereafter,

in more than 12 hundred oils and water colors

and many more pen-and-ink sketches

as well as several works of sculpture,

America's great cowboy artist,

Charles Marion Russell,

captured for all times, in matchless portrayal,

the West he had known and loved.