Original subtitles

Let's get him.

Don't make this any tougher than it has to be.

Come on out with your hands up.

[ gunshot ]

Well, that was kinda close.

This guy must mean business.

Yeah, well, so do we.

I didn't mean to kill him.

I didn't even mean to fire.

It just happened, that's all.

He asked for it, Mort.

Just like he wanted it done.

Seventeen-year-old boys don't ask to die.

This one did when he pulled that two-bit robbery

and then tried to shoot it out with us.

I only wish I'd known how young he was.

All right, so he was young.

But he would have killed you just as fast

as some gunslinger twice his age. Maybe faster.

You don't know he was gonna shoot.

I sure didn't get this hole by no moth chewing on it.

You were just doing your job, Mort, protecting the law.

We all were. 'Cause sometimes it's our jobs too,

but any one of us might have done just what you did.

Maybe, only I'm the one wearing the badge.

It's up to me to call things right.

For this council to try to judge Sheriff Corey

without hearing from his friends

is as wrong as wrong can be.

Well, let me get this straight.

Are you accusing Mort of doing something wrong?

Let's just say that his contract

with the town runs out next month.

So we'd like to hear your slant

on how the Bramley boy was killed and why.

That's easy, the boy held up a store.

He tried to shoot it out with us when we went to arrest him.

That's not exactly the way we've heard it.

Now what Jess means is if Mort hadn't fired first,

the Bramley boy would've shot him.

Do you have any proof of that?

Did either one of you hear

Bramley threaten to shoot him?

Mister, when somebody's waving

a .30-30 under your nose, you don't stop to ask them

what they're gonna do with it.

Oh, yes. On more than one occasion,

Sheriff Corey has said the same thing.

And in the past 12 months,

we've had 14 shootings and nine fatalities.

I want you to understand

that we believe Corey is doing his best.

However, he wouldn't be the first man to be eaten up

by the badge he wears.

Would you feel better if we brought Mort slung

over that horse instead of the Bramley boy?

Why, we--

Who was out to kill him!

Now we all recognize Mort Corey as a brave man.

But if this town is to grow and prosper,

we're gonna need someone who thinks before he shoots.

Now it's just as simple as that.

There must be something we can do, Slim.

Till they name Mort's replacement,

I can't think of much we can do.

Well, it just don't seem fair.

Man gives his whole life to a town and just...

up and turn him out like that.

[ door slamming ]

Now wait, Jess.

We're gonna tell him, aren't we?

I've been thinking about it.

- I think we ought to sit on it for a while. - Why?

Well, first thing, we don't know

if the city council is gonna vote to replace him.

You got to wait till the dam breaks

before you know it's raining?

All right. What good is it gonna do to tell him?

Is that gonna change anything?

The way I figure, Mort's feeling bad enough

without dumping this mess into his lap.

Yeah, I guess you're right.

MOSE: Whoa!

Howdy, Mose.

- Hi, Slim. - How was the trip?

Well, the ruts is getting deeper

and the sun's getting hotter.

And that seat's getting harder every time out.

Look lively, folks.

This is your last chance to stretch your legs before we get to Laramie.

Hello.

Afternoon, ma'am.

Thank you very much.

My pleasure.

MOSE: You'd better be nice to him, Slim.

He's gonna be the new deputy sheriff in Laramie.

Everyone around here

share your dislike of deputy sheriffs?

Everybody shares my liking for Mort Corey.

He's a friend of mine, a good friend.

I'm hoping you get to be a good friend of mine too,

if that's not asking too much.

Well, that depends.

On what?

On whether it's before

or after you push him out of a job.

Now you better get aboard, ma'am.

Slim has the teams all hooked up.

We'll be pulling out any minute.

Now back, boy. Back.

- All set, Slim? - Yeah. All ready, Mose.

Right, take it away, Mose.

Mose!

Wait a minute, Mose! Mose!

Well, it's like they say, if you miss one,

there'll be another one along.

Who was he, Slim?

That was the new deputy sheriff of Laramie.

Mort's replacement.

His name, what was his name?

I think they said Halleck.

Halleck.

Paul Halleck.

Well, you know him?

Yeah.

Captain, U.S. Army.

Been six years since I seen him last.

I swore if I ever came face to face with him again,

one of us wouldn't walk away from it.

SLIM: Jess.

I wouldn't like it if you tried to stop me, Slim.

- You just don't up and kill a man, Jess. - This one's different.

You wait a minute and tell me why.

I'm going to town now,

or a minute from now or an hour from now.

It doesn't matter.

Just exactly what is he to you?

Six years ago, near the end of the war,

a patrol of mine was captured by the 7th Michigan.

They threw us in a Yankee prison camp.

How come you never told me about that?

Because I wanted to forget about it,

wanted to blot it out of my mind.

It was that kind of a prison camp

and Halleck was the man who ran it.

That's behind you, Jess.

Why rake it up again?

I thought I had it buried deep enough,

but I reckon I didn't.

Because as soon as I saw him again,

I could recall it like it was yesterday.

Right now, I can see

every log in that block house, every barb on that fence,

and every marker in that rotten graveyard.

And you think killing him is going to change all of that?

I don't know!

There's only one way to find out.

All right, I'm going with you.

No!

You've been on this ranch for three years, Jess,

you're as much a part of it as I am.

And I'm not letting you throw that away

and I'm not letting you go into town.,

I told you not to try and stop me.

What do you figure on doing?

Shooting me too?

I'm sorry, Slim.

I guess I'm kinda out of line.

Oh, Sharon, if I live to be 100,

I'll never learn to tie one of these.

Here, let me see.

Oh, you did fine.

Best turned-out sheriff west of the Mississippi.

Don't rush me, deputy sheriff.

Pa?

Now you stop worrying.

Look, after six years in the Dakotas,

this is the beginning of a new life.

Especially for you.

Especially for my little girl.

Now you stop worrying, you hear?

All that other stuff, everything else is behind us, right?

Well, just the same, be careful, please.

Good night, honey.

Good night.

Sheriff, I'm Halleck.

Glad to know you.

Mayor tells me you've had a lot of experience wearing a badge.

Some, up north.

I guess maybe you wanna take a look at these.

Decorated during the war, huh?

Yeah, too scared to run a couple of times.

I picked up some ribbon and hardware,

along with a few scars.

Well, we can get to the paperwork later.

Want me to show you around?

No, thanks, I'll manage.

I thought I'd take a tour of Front Street.

Sort of let them get used to me.

Halleck, this town is yours for tonight.

Take good care of it.

See you in the morning.

Yes, sir.

Everything under control?

Oh, about like always, we get used to it.

JESS: Hold it, deputy.

Relax, Sam, pour the deputy a drink.

Thanks, I never use it.

I don't make a habit of it myself.

This is a real special event.

Sort of a class reunion,

but we'll skip that for now.

Do I know you?

Take a good look, captain.

You know me.

Harper, wasn't it?

That's right.

You might say I'm here for a lot of others

who couldn't make it.

Six years.

That's a long time to carry

that much hatred around with you.

Well, I'm planning on getting rid of it right now.

All right,

but before you do anything you're liable to regret,

keep in mind I'm part of the law here now.

You draw on me, you're in trouble.

No matter how it turns out.

Do you think that's gonna stop me?

I don't know if anything's gonna stop you.

All I can do is try.

Halleck.

It's too late, Harper, the war's over.

You shoot me, it's gonna have to be in the back.

Stay where you are!

It's over, Jess.

Now let's bury it

where it should've been buried a long while ago.

It's time we're heading home.

Yeah.

I guess I made enough mistakes for one day.

Slim...

you know why I hit you, huh?

Yeah.

I wanted to keep you out of it.

No hard feelings.

Hold it, Slim.

Hello, Jess.

Duncan.

One and the same.

It's been a long time.

Last I heard of you, you were prospecting up north.

What brings you to this part of the country?

Oh, a little unfinished business, you might say.

Only I don't think it'll stay unfinished long

now that I've seen you.

Knute.

You remember my brother, don't you, Jess?

Sure, I do.

Howdy, Knute.

He was a mite younger then,

but you were good friends as I recall.

So, Jess, I'll wait up the street for you.

Oh, no such thing.

Friend of Jess' is a friend of mine and Knute.

This here is Slim Sherman.

He owns the ranch where I work.

Howdy.

You'll have to excuse my brother, Mr. Sherman.

Since the war, he's become a little quiet.

Well, how come?

What's wrong, Knute?

You were always good at understanding him, Jess.

I swear there were times I don't think

he'd have come out of that Yankee prison camp alive

if it hadn't been for you.

He was only 15.

In a war when he should've been in school.

Oh, he got his education, all right.

Ask him yourself, you'll see.

What is it, boy?

Something you wanna tell me?

What's wrong, Duncan?

He hasn't said a word in six years.

Why?

You shouldn't ask me, Jess. No.

Captain Halleck's the man you should ask.

He's the one that done it.

How?

Just like he did everything else.

Come on, Knute,

time we check in into the boardinghouse.

It's a long ride back to the ranch, Jess.

We better get going.

You go ahead, Slim, I'm staying in town.

Why?

Because of what Halleck apparently did to that boy?

Partly.

What's the rest of it?

The only reason Halleck walked out of that saloon

is because I wouldn't shoot him in the back.

Except for that, nothing's changed.

If that's the case, you're gonna be in trouble.

With you?

With me or anybody else who cares about law and order.

I don't care how you thought it looked to you.

I've known Jess Harper for years.

That boy wouldn't have drawn a gun

unless he had a good reason to.

And I'm telling you just exactly the way it happened.

Ask anybody who was there, they'll tell you.

I've already heard five different versions

of what happened in the saloon.

Only it seems that nobody saw it start.

Why don't we just drop it?

It's over and done with.

Over and done and with?

Your first night in town as my deputy,

and you come within an inch of having a shootout

with as good a friend as I've got.

Your friend was the one that drew, Corey, not me.

Just the same, you shouldn't have gone in

that saloon with a .30-30 under your arm.

A man wouldn't do that unless he was expecting trouble.

I want to know why.

When I was given this job, I was told to prevent

some of the kind of shootings

that had been going on around here.

I've already got a pretty good idea

why you were sent here.

What's that got to do with your carrying a .30-30?

Just this.

This is the best preventive I know.

A man doesn't argue with it if you leave him any way out.

Jess Harper was willing to argue with it.

There wasn't any real shooting.

Nobody was hurt.

I'll give you credit for that.

But you might not be so lucky the next time.

So from here on,

that Winchester stays in the rack

and you'll carry only a sidearm

just like any other lawman.

In that case, you tell your friend Harper

something for me.

Such as?

To stay out of my way.

If he braces me again, I'm gonna give him

exactly what he's asking for.

Look, miss, it's none of my business if you wanna follow me,

but that don't mean I have to talk to you.

Just because my name's Halleck?

If I was gonna hunt for reasons,

that would be a good start.

You know, you don't look like a killer.

Why are you working so hard at trying to talk like one?

Why don't you just go home?

Are you afraid to talk about my father?

Is that it?

Do you know what your father is?

Has anybody ever told you what he's done?

Yes, he did.

What could he say?

What could he possibly say to make it sound right?

The truth.

- I know the truth, I lived it! - So did he.

He lived at Chancellorsville, Shiloh

and he was decorated twice at Chickamauga.

And because they couldn't remove

all the grapeshot from his legs,

they put him in charge of a prison camp.

Was he decorated for that too?

Do you think it was easy for him keeping other men,

brave men, in a cage?

I wouldn't know.

He was just as good as you, even better, I think,

because what they ordered him to do made him

just as much a prisoner as any man there.

Was he told to starve southerners to death?

Was he told to shoot men

who didn't have guns to shoot back

and then let them rot and die of their wounds?

Was anyone shot who wouldn't have been

if your army hadn't held the guns?

Did anyone starve

because my father had too much to eat?

Did anyone die

because he locked up the medicine?

He gave everything he had.

He had nothing. They gave him nothing.

What more could he give, freedom?

No, he couldn't do that and you wouldn't have either.

For that, you wanna kill him.

He gave everything he could and now his life.

Howdy, Mort.

Morning.

What brings you out so early in the day?

Jess.

You got trouble?

I thought maybe you might tell me.

That should come from him, don't you think?

You were there, you could tell me.

I know what was said, and I know what was done.

But I don't know what goes on in his head.

I'd feel a lot better if I knew just

how far he'll go against Halleck.

I think he'll get over it.

I'm hoping it's gone as far as it will.

If it keeps on, you know where it'll end.

Give him a chance to think about it, Mort.

Let him boil things out for himself.

He'll be all right.

I can't be that wrong about him.

I don't want either one of us to be.

Halleck wears a badge and he wears it in my town.

Any man who challenges his, challenges mine.

Any man.

Even Jess.

MIKE: Slim.

Don't you have some chores to tend to?

Sure, I guess so.

Hey, Mike.

Come over here, Mike.

I'm sorry.

Don't pay any attention to me.

I-- I've had my boot in my mouth

ever since I woke up this morning.

Well, I was just gonna ask about Jess.

Doesn't he live here anymore?

Sure, he does.

He's just staying in town for a while.

Well, I don't understand.

Is it something I did to make him leave?

No, it's nothing like that.

Then why'd he go?

Well, he felt he had something

he had to do, I guess.

But he'll be back one of these days soon.

What will you have, Jess?

Nothing.

Mind if I sit down, Jess?

Help yourself.

Just a few days ago,

you told me to take time to think out of killing.

That everything would look better the next day.

It did.

I tried it, Mort.

And?

No good.

I guess I'm only good at giving advice.

Every time I try to take it,

things get more mixed up than ever.

He's a good lawman, Jess.

I think he's a good man all the way through.

I wish I could believe that.

I believe it.

You would too if you give yourself a chance.

What about your job, Mort?

You think you'll feel the same way

when he takes it?

Well, I don't know how I'll feel then.

But I do know that gunning a man

doesn't very often settle anything.

Depends on the reason, I guess.

I can't stop you from trying it, Jess.

That's for you to decide.

But I can stop you from killing him, and I will.

Whoa, you better take

something for your nerves, captain.

[ chuckles ]

Yeah.

Oh, allow me, captain.

Bottle and two.

Yes, sir.

Hello, Jess, have a drink.

You sure are pushing for it, aren't you?

And you've got a sharp edge. That's good.

It'll help when the time comes.

If it comes.

Six years, I've been waiting for it.

Six years of waiting for the right time,

the right place.

Maybe this isn't it.

Oh, this is it, all right.

The whole thing just like I wanted it to be.

I knew he couldn't stay buried forever.

Sometime he'd have to come crawling out of his hole.

And I'd be waiting for him.

What about the town?

You think they're just gonna let it happen?

Look around you.

Where are they?

Oh, they can smell it in the air.

But they're not here.

It's not their fight, they want no part of it.

Hello, Harper.

Hello.

I kinda made it my business to keep track of things

so we could all get together just one last time.

You got it all figured out, haven't you?

You haven't forgotten the pledge we made, have you, Jess?

When none of us knew

whether we'd live or die one more day?

Now it's his turn.

Knute.

Knute!

McDermott.

Harrison.

Harper.

Harper!

Not you!

Any of the rest of them maybe, but not you.

Take a look at him.

No, take a good look at him!

Can you let it pass?

Can you let it go when we're all here?

Let him go, Johnny.

That's supposed to be Halleck's death warrant.

All in one piece again and it'd be done!

Not one word has he spoke in six years.

This is what he done!

And it'll be on your head too!

Unless you keep your word.

Thanks, Daisy.

Mike still asleep?

Yes, I thought it best not to wake him.

Yeah, I guess you're right.

I don't understand what this is about,

so I can't explain it to him.

You worked in that field hospital during the war.

You know how it is when men get a knot of hate

so deep inside of 'em that nothing can reach it.

Do you think that's the way it is with Jess?

I think you know better than that.

I wanted to be sure you did.

But it's different for Johnny Duncan and his kind.

Men who have been torn up so badly by the war,

they'll never get well.

But that still doesn't explain

why Jess sees it the way they do.

It's hard to explain.

But for some crazy reason, they're part of him.

Part of what he was before he came here.

Isn't there something you can do?

Daisy, I've talked to him three times

in the last two days.

It's like talking to that wall.

He's still your friend even if he's wrong.

Be extra careful how you use that.

I'm hoping I don't have to use it at all.

[ knocking on door ]

Talking's done, Slim.

Not yet, it isn't.

What's left?

Just the wish that you'd pull out of this

while you still can.

That wouldn't change anything.

Not for Halleck anyway.

Mort Corey's liable to have something to say about that.

And me too.

I figured that.

Is it too late to stop?

It's too late to even try.

Why you, Jess?

After all these years and then this.

A man doesn't change that fast.

He can't.

Somewhere inside of him, he's got to be the same.

He's got to know when it's wrong.

It's because of Knute, Slim.

When I went up against Halleck that night in the saloon,

I knew I couldn't kill him.

I just wanted to forget it, wipe it out of my mind.

Then I saw Knute.

He was just a kid, Slim.

Fifteen years old, less maybe, full of life.

He couldn't fight,

he couldn't really do anything good.

But he was my friend.

I can forgive Halleck the graves,

and I can forgive him the dead,

but I can't forgive him the living.

And I can't forgive him Knute.

I can't live with it myself,

and I can't let him live with it either.

I guess I'm willing to die for that.

I hope you don't, Jess.

I hope we both don't.

This isn't your fight.

Good deputies are hard to find.

Haven't you heard?

I mean it, Mort.

I don't want to insist but that's the way it is.

Nobody insists around this office,

unless maybe it's me.

That doesn't change anything.

You don't know what you're getting into,

you don't know anything about me!

I know all I need to.

How is it?

Well, the street's still quiet.

I don't know how long it's gonna stay that way, though.

Before this goes any further,

there's something you better know.

As long as it isn't anything personal, go ahead.

I'm not the kinda lawman you think.

The only reason I put on the badge

in the first place was for protection,

to buy time to raise my daughter.

No crime against that.

The badge just isn't big enough to hide behind though.

Yeah, if it were, I'd have Mort send me out

a whole sackful a long time ago.

You want to worry about something,

come on, let's worry about this town.

It's beginning to look like it was hit by the plague.

Halleck just went up to the jail a few minutes ago.

How many are there with him?

Just two.

Town sure has emptied out a lot.

Word kinda gets around.

Especially if you help it out a little.

They're taking their time.

Yeah, nervous maybe.

And a little bit afraid like we are.

There's just a chance

they might call the whole thing off.

Not Johnny Duncan.

No, it's gone too far for him.

He's got to kill me or risk his neck trying.

Say, how does Knute figure into this?

That's the part that's a little hard to nail down.

Somehow Johnny has convinced everybody

it was me who hurt his brother so bad, he can't talk.

Well, I know that's what Jess believes.

The truth is something else.

There was a prison break one night in the camp.

The Duncans were in on it.

Knute's job was to strangle one of the guards.

- Only he couldn't go through with it. - So what happened?

When Johnny found out, he must have gone half crazy.

He clubbed Knute with a pick handle,

nearly killed him.

Afterwards he told everybody it was me who had done it.

And Knute's letting him get away with that?

The boy was laid up a long time.

Maybe he never knew

it was Johnny who had hit him.

Maybe he didn't want to know.

I've never been able to figure that part out.

Well, I guess we're all ready.

McDermott, Harrison.

Well, let's get started.

Let go of him!

What's he trying to tell me, Johnny?

He's trying to tell you

he hasn't got any stomach for this.

Just like in the war, needing you to get him out alive.

All these years I've taken care of him

weren't enough for him now.

Now he wants to say he's yellow.

Knute!

Let him go.

We'll do his killing for him.

Let's go.

They're coming.

Jess with them?

Looks like.

You don't have to be a part of this, Slim.

With Jess out there, Mort,

I am a part of it.

Well, there's just a chance.

If we all step outside, they might back down.

Let's go.

Move it!

Get out of here!

I beat you good once, coward.

This time I'll kill you!

[ gunshot ]

[ gunshots ]

Laramie can still use a good deputy.

Well, thanks, but I didn't outfit this wagon

for 1,000 miles to settle for a shorter trip.

You still got your heart set on going to Oregon, huh?

We both have.

Now you be sure and write when you get there, huh?

That's a promise.

Bye, Jess. Mort.

- Slim. - So long.

Have a nice trip. Bye.

I was kind of hoping it would work out like this.

Yeah, me too

Oh, Mort, about hiring that new deputy...

the folks in town seem to think

they've got all the sheriff they want.

- Oh? - Yeah.

They got a petition

signed by everybody in town that could write,

including the mayor.

Well, there sure are a lot of names on here.

I don't know what to say, except...

Except what?

Seems to me there's a couple of names missing.

Oh, if you mean Jess and me,

we thought it would be kind of--

Well, never mind what you thought.

Sign.

Right here.

I may be replaced someday.

It's not going to be by either one of you.