All language subtitles for E21 - American Primitive

Well, Mr. Paladin,
it's early you've returned!

Maggie, it's 3:00 a.m.

Well, I said it was early.

Hmm.

Maggie?

Have you noticed that
the city seems overcrowded?

Well, not with men
to suit my taste, it isn't.

People are less polite.

I think I'm beginning to yearn
for things pastoral.

Trees, tall and green,

that scrape the sky
when the wind blows,

and clouds, white and fat.

Well, for that,
I could qualify myself.

Open spaces...

vast, empty,

untouched.

Are you tired of people,
Mr. Paladin, sir?

Most of them, Maggie.

Ah! Here it is.

Hey Boy says,
"Maggie, to give it

to Mr. Paladin
the minute he came in."

And I says to Hey Boy, I says,

- "What will that darlin' man
think of me -Yeah.

"pouncing on him like a...

like a man-hungry leech
the minute he saunters in here?"

Thank you very much, Maggie.

Mm.

Oh, it isn't bad news,
is it, dearie?

No. As a matter of fact,
it's very good news.

It's an invitation
to a breath of mountain air

and peace and quiet
and serenity.

All that on only one sheet
of paper?

Listen to this.

"Orrville, Texas.

"Dear Paladin,
spring is here.

"There are trout in the stream
and deer in the mountains.

"My mouth is watering
for fried trout and venison.

"Can you come down
for some fishing or hunting?

Your friend, Ernie Backwater."

Ernie Backwater.

Yeah.

Blue skies and wide spaces.

Clouds like your letter said.

Not many trees, though.

How are you, Ernie?

Go ahead and get it over with.

Get what over with?

It's an old joke and a bad one.

I shot a man once
for asking it,

but you ain't gonna be happy
until you do,

so go ahead
and get it over with.

I might not be as forbearing
tomorrow or the next day.

Your name Ernie Backwater?

That's right.

That mean you back water?

Not while I'm alive.

How about you? Have you grown
soft in two years?

Why?

What's this?

Fishing pole.

Fancy. What's it for?

Fishing.

Trout, you said.

I'm going hunting.

For what?

A man... who killed five people,

killed one of my posse,
got sentenced to hang,

broke my jail, burned it down,
killed my deputy,

shot me in the belly,
and left me for dead.

It's a miracle
I'm still alive.

You want to come?

Now, Ernie,
you knew about this

when you wrote me that letter
about the six-pound trout

and the 400-pound bucks.

I don't ask favors,
and I'm not now.

I wrote you the trout
was biting, and they are.

That it was a good deer season,
and it is.

I'm going hunting
for something else, that's all.

Ernie.

Most men lie to themselves
about something...

that they're stronger than they
are or faster than they are.

Well, I lie about standing
on my own two feet.

I never asked another man's
help, or ever will.

You want to come?

My pleasure.

I thank you for that,
but it won't be a pleasure.

He'll probably kill us both.

He's like a storm
or pestilence or drought.

A force of nature, huh?

Like a force of nature.

Savage, fearsome.

The Comanches have a name
for the kind of Texas man

who took this part of the
country away from the Mexicans,

drove the Apaches
into the Chiricahuas

and the Comanches
into the state plains.

You know what it is?

- Ammantophori.
- "Savage American."

"Savage American."

That's not really
a good translation, Ernie.

It's more like...

It's more like
"American primitive."

Pays three dollars a day.

Raise your right hand.

- No badge, Ernie.
- Why not?

Well, I always have
to consider the possibility

that some fool won't be able
to resist the temptation

of using it for a target.

How long?

20 minutes.

He do sleep sound, don't he?

That's a rag doll down there.

He's out in the brush.

That's right.

Or up there,
looking down our throats.

Three months for my belly
to heal enough to go after him.

Almost a month
on the trail with you.

Hard to believe
we've really found him.

I'm going out in the brush.
You're good here.

No. My eyes are going on me.

And the light's bad here.

I won't trust a rifle.

I'll get a little closer.

Ernie...

...don't break a leg.

You mean don't make any noise.

I'm not that old.

Don't do that.

That last shot,
you could have killed me.

That's right.

But I put one in your shoulder,
so you put two in mine.

That's right.

I wouldn't have done that.
I would have killed you.

Me, too.

You gonna cauterize
my shoulder, Ernie?

Yes.

That gonna hurt?

Like nothing ever hurt before.

Him, too.

Twice.

What's the matter, Ernie?

You afraid
I'd chew through them?

No. Just that you might
get desperate

and tear the tree up
by the roots

or break the chain in half.

Ernie?

Did they all die?

Two of them were still alive
when I left.

They all died.

Why, Will?

Would you have hated to be hung
for just three of them?

That's a fact.

There's one place
for you cripples:

a way station between us
and a trip back without water.

You ain't gonna
lose that arm on me

before we get there, are you?

Not if I can help it.

You're feverish?

A little.

Well, go to sleep.
You need your rest.

Yeah.

- Ernie?
- Yeah?

Ernie, you don't want
to hang him, do you?

I never want to hang a man.

No, I mean,
some less than others.

No, they're all the same to me.

I bring them in,
the court tries them,

the jury brings in a verdict,
the judge sentences them.

I got to get some sleep.

Ernie?

Yes?

Ernie...

you say his... it was his son?

That's right.

He was murdered by five men?

That's right.

For a ten-dollar gold piece

his pa gave him...
his 15th birthday.

And he hangs for that?

For revenging his son? No.

He killed the wrong men,
Paladin.

How?

With a shotgun, mostly.

Not in their sleep, though.

He woke them up,
and he killed them.

Does he know?

No.

We tried him for killing
one of my posse,

not for those saddle tramps.

We thought they'd done it, too.

You got to understand
the facts of life.

No jury in the world was gonna
bring a verdict against him.

Only thing is
he did kill one of my posse,

then my deputy in escaping.

A month later, the five men
who had killed his son

were taken in Sonora for murder.

They were gonna hang anyway,
so they told what they'd done.

Ernie.

Yes?

You're not gonna tell him?

For what purpose?

He shot you.

Why didn't you kill him,
Paladin?

I told you.

No. You didn't tell me.

Not really.

Get your sleep, Ernie.

Ernie?

Yes?

I want my boots.

I told you, no.

That was yesterday.

That was for the last 13 days.

We gonna reach town tomorrow?

I hope so.

Well, then you're gonna
have to shoot me,

because I am not gonna ride
into town without my boots.

I could make you walk,
tied to my horse's tail.

Ernie, you do that,
and I might lose my temper.

And when I lose my temper,
I sometimes act like a fool.

I don't want to do that
so close to dying.

I'll give you your boots
just before we get into town.

You heal slow, gunfighter.

All right, Will.

Well, you took yours off...

yesterday.

I didn't holler as loud
as you did either

when Ernie put the iron to me.

That's just because
you were making so much noise

you couldn't hear yourself.

Ernie, who hollered the loudest?

You was both as brave
as pussycats.

Now, let's get riding.

Could you spare another
of those fancy cigars, Paladin?

Thanks.

When, Ernie?

Tomorrow morning.

That's right.
No sense in wasting time.

Now I wish you'd have shot
a little more on target.

All right, let's go.

Where to, Ernie?

Or have they rebuilt
your jail already?

No, the council hasn't even
voted the funds for it yet.

I thought maybe the schoolhouse.

- No.
- Why not?

The children, Ernie.

They'll be leaving
in ten minutes.

Tomorrow's Saturday.

And they'll be back Monday.

You don't want to hang a man
out of a schoolhouse.

Find someplace else.

Cellar, hotel room.

All right, the hotel.

But first, we'll get
a barbershop bath.

We need it.

Thanks.

You know, I keep wondering if I
could take you in a fair fight.

I keep thinking about it.

Does it bother you?

Some.

Ah, there's nothing
like a barbershop bath.

Nothing in the world.

I almost feel like a new man.

You smell better, too.

Well, downwind, you weren't
exactly a rose garden, Ernie.

Aw, come on, Ernie.

Um, shave first, sir?

Uh-huh.

You got something to read?

Uh, yes, sir.

It was, uh, due last week,
but it just came out today.

All fresh news.

Uh, I-I haven't had a chance
to see it myself yet.

I making you nervous, Sim?

Yes, sir.

I won't bite.

All for nothing.

What's that, Mr. Tybee?

Oh. How's your wife, Sim?

Oh, fine.

How many children
do you have now?

Oh, four, sir.

If you mean to use that shotgun,
Ernie, get on with it.

But you'll use that razor?

I've killed seven men
since Christmas.

Two of them were men I liked.

Now, you put that shotgun over
here and unlock those chains,

because one more
doesn't matter at all.

Now, put your handgun
down at my feet.

Sim, tell Mr. Paladin
how many children you got.

- He didn't hear you.
- Oh, please, sir.

Now put your gun over here
with Ernie's.

Stop thinking, Paladin.

Because no matter how fast
you get that bullet off,

my reflex will make
his children orphans.

Now back against the wall,
your hands high.

Uh-uh.

I like to see a man's face.

Now, Sim, you and I
are gonna kneel together.

Careful like.

You're gonna pick up
Mr. Paladin's gun

and put it in my left hand.

Real careful like.

Now, Sim, take off
the sheriffts boots.

You've got a sense of humor.

I always did admire that
in you, Will.

I truly hope you don't try
something foolish.

Well, I guess it's this.

He is a murderer.

Yeah.

Will!

You know, I expected you to
come up with something, Paladin.

That ain't much of a gun
for this kind of thing.

It doesn't have to be
this way, Will.

You better not shoot fancy
this time, friend.

You're not that good.

I know. I'll shoot straight.

Why, Paladin?

Those men are murderers.

Even the newspaper says so.

What about the seven men
you killed

who weren't murderers, Will?
What about them?

I still have to try.

Go on. Get away from him.

Go on home.

Well, let's get him
to the undertaker.

And I'll buy a beer.

Ernie, whiskey.

Then you pay.

He was a man.

Ammantophori.

American primitive.

"Have gun will travel,"
reads the card of a man

A knight without armor
in a savage land

His fast gun for hire
heeds the calling wind

Paladin, Paladin,
where do you roam?