* MTV *
[Bass] You suppose I did something to make
the Almighty angry?
He's just teaching you that it's hard and takes patience.
Patience ain't gonna put money in our pocket.
How many mouths you got to feed with no harvest?
What's your offer?
Sign you up as a posse man.
Welcome to the Dead Line.
Out here, there ain't no laws, only outlaws.
[grunts]
Watch the legs now. She a precious thing.
What's your name?
Arthur Mayberry, ma'am.
Come on out with your hands up.
[screams]
What the hell did you do?
-[screaming] -[gunshot]
-I hit another white man. -Not that deputy?
I took some of your earnestness to Judge Parker.
And he wants to make you a goddamn Deputy U.S. Marshal.
* slow, wistful music *
***
Mm.
Don't you go meeting everybody without me now.
Make us proud, you hear?
***
[chains jingling]
[distant, indistinct chatter]
You help me?
I was just hungry.
Mr. Yeager came after me.
[crying] I tried to push him away, but then he...
* slow, somber music *
***
There was so much blood.
[door opens]
[Parker] Bass.
Sit, please.
I suppose today is momentous.
You'll have to forgive me if I move faster
than the dignity of the occasion requires,
but I have a full docket,
and I try to save what dignity I still possess
for the courtroom.
[laughs softly]
I was encouraged to hire you
for the color of your skin.
Because the Indians would listen to someone like you.
May be true,
but that's not why I called you in.
I need a man with a good gun and a straight spine.
You up for the task?
I wouldn't be sitting here in my Sunday best if I wasn't.
It's hard work,
it exacts a toll.
Few men survive long enough to be good at it.
And those that do end up like Sherrill Lynn.
I ain't ever gonna be Sherrill Lynn.
Well, let's make it official. May I?
[chuckles] Oh.
Your Good Book's got some stories of its own.
-That it does. -Well, you'll have
to enlighten me one of these days.
Repeat after me.
I, Bass Reeves,
do solemnly swear...
I, Bass Reeves, do solemnly swear...
...that I will faithfully execute...
...all lawful precepts
directed to the Marshal of the United States...
...all lawful precepts
directed to the Marshal of the United States...
...for the Western District of Arkansas...
...for the Western District
of Arkansas...
...without malice or partiality...
...and without malice or partiality...
...perform the duties of Deputy Marshal...
...and take only my lawful fees...
...take only my lawful fees...
...so help me God.
* slow, plaintive music *
***
You've got miles to ride.
Godspeed the horses.
Thank you.
Judge Parker, if I may.
The boy waiting outside.
He need help.
That boy needs a lawyer.
Yes, sir.
[Parker] Winston,
bring the boy in.
[chains jingling]
* dramatic music *
***
[grunting]
* slow, tense music *
***
[groans softly]
[with German accent] You needing help?
Don't you know it.
If I had another set of hands...
Sir, we ought to--
Andreas Wagner. I'm helping you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Fogner.
-Billy Crow, in your debt. -You're welcome.
[with Irish accent] Good afternoon, gentlemen.
[Huff whistles]
Hands up.
Mouths shut.
Nein. Bitte.
Nein, nein, nein.
-[Marta] No! No! -[grunts]
-[Marta gasps] -[Andreas grunts]
This one just came in.
That ought to be a good one for your first outing.
Any tips for a first-timer?
[chuckles] Oh, hon.
All you need to know is that I run this circus.
Listen to Florence, and you'll do just fine.
Ma'am.
[distant, overlapping chatter]
You mind?
I might.
Depends who's asking.
Garrett Montgomery.
Never heard of him.
Oh, I'm all right.
You just ask Florence in there.
"Billy Crow.
Wanted in connection with a stagecoach robbery."
I can help you with that, Deputy Reeves.
You got a posse man yet?
Suppose you're a posse man?
Rode with Heck Thomas,
Bud Ledbetter.
Put in my fair share of miles
and know this country like the back of my hand.
Three dollars there, three dollars back.
Be the best six dollars you'd ever spend.
Gonna hold you to that.
Yes, sir.
* wistful music *
***
I ain't one to talk a donkey's hind leg off or anything,
but a little conversation goes a long way, especially out here.
Got any children, Garrett?
Oh, yes, sir. Boy and a girl, another on the way.
You?
Got four of my own
and number five due any day.
Planning on doing this for a spell.
All goes well, you got a job with me.
You'll be saving my hide with this ongoing employment, Deputy.
Like I say,
all goes well.
* slow, gentle music *
***
Fold those nice and even.
All right.
Real soon, I'm gonna need you
to shoulder a lot more responsibility.
Once the little ones are fed
in the afternoon and napping,
you'll need to start in on supper.
And after they eat, you'll need to tidy up.
And I don't want no dirty pots
-and pans in my kitchen. -All right.
Time for you to start teaching Harriet now, too. [chuckles]
She'll be a good little helper.
Ooh!
Oh.
-Mama. -Hmm?
[Jennie] Oh. [laughing]
[Sally] Oh.
Stop!
* slow, plaintive music *
***
Pay no mind.
Wouldn't be doing our job right
if we didn't rub a few malefactors the wrong way.
Ask me, hundred to one,
the Underwood Gang's behind that stagecoach robbery.
You know something I don't?
Female outlaw
the hoopleheads described in their complaint?
I've come across before.
Woman's pure venom.
Runs with Huff Underwood.
Two hundred to one,
somebody in the hotel know where they're conducting business.
You know more than you let on.
That ought to scare you.
"H-O...
-T--" -I know what it say.
This a-way.
Don't you step another foot toward them tables, Garrett.
Easy, amigo.
I'm just introducing my friend here to your fine establishment.
Unless your friend wants to pony up the tin
that you owe this establishment, then I want you out.
You have a debt here?
Man's got a debt everywhere.
I love them cards like I love women.
Just the difference is cards don't love back.
Better off tending horses than hustling.
-Barkeep. -[door opens]
Sherrill Lynn come by yesterday.
-[door closes] -Drank up all my whiskey.
Broke three of my chairs.
Tell me you didn't come for my gin.
How 'bout you quench my thirst another way?
Looking for a Billy Crow.
Ain't nested here,
far as I know.
How about the Underwood Gang?
[man] Well, goddamn.
If that don't beat the Dutch.
That's two pair. You can take that one.
Seat taken?
Ain't never seen you around here.
More than happy to take a lawman's salary.
[chair slides out]
* tense music *
***
* tense music *
***
You are crooked as a hare's hind leg.
[poker chip clatters]
[whistles]
Knew you were holding back on me.
I'll call you.
[dealing cards]
I ain't falling for your fooling no more.
I'm all in.
Call.
Two pair.
You Black son of a bitch!
Didn't come to take your money.
How about I return that pot
in exchange for information.
How about we just kill you instead?
[Bass] Could try.
But you'd be going after a Deputy U.S. Marshal,
and there's a half a dozen more outside.
[Roland] Hell.
He's bluffing again, Big Al.
Want to wager on that?
[indistinct crowd chatter]
In that rig past the corral.
* slow, dramatic music *
***
Go around the other side.
You Billy Crow?
Well, uh, sorry to disappoint you, sir.
I was told I'd find a Billy Crow around here.
Beautiful coach you got here.
Are you under obligation to keep banking hours
with a rig like this?
Sure as hell got no obligation to answer to the likes of you.
Minute your boy sings,
we'll have a writ for you.
Your pal Huff, too.
Why don't you bring that old Judge Parker
around here next time?
I could introduce him and that noose of his
to the underside of my carriage.
Come to think of it, uh, name's familiar.
Is a bit of a looker, this Billy Crow, ain't he?
I think I saw him packing up a wagon this morning.
Wouldn't be surprised if he was halfway to Muskogee by now.
Got to admit,
certain likeness, wouldn't you agree?
[Billy chuckles]
[Billy groans]
[women gasp]
Mind my hat. Shoot.
* dramatic music *
Shoot.
* gentle, wistful music *
***
[Arthur] Sally.
Piano I delivered,
that was for your mother?
Mm-hmm.
She fell in love with music when it was all she had.
Looks like y'all got a nice big family now.
[chuckles] I'd like it better if
I didn't have to be chasing Alice and Newland
all over creation.
And now, with a new one on the way,
I'm really in for it.
What would you rather be doing? Besides walking with me.
* gentle music *
***
Mrs. Green got me this new book of poems.
Barely had a chance to crack the spine.
I bet your parents don't bother you with chores
'cause you a working man already.
I'm an orphan.
It's all right.
You didn't have any way to know.
I'm sorry.
Mama passed when...
I was five, and...
my daddy died in the war.
You're blessed with a lot of love in your life.
Keep hold of it.
[Bass] Just tell Parker what you know.
He a fair man.
[scoffs] Fair man?
He hung 12 men on his first day in court.
Just ain't no winning.
I name names to Parker, they'll kill me.
If I keep my trap shut, I'll rot in Hell on the Border.
That's if they don't kill me
before y'all get me to Fort Smith.
Oh, I'm getting you to Fort Smith.
I'm a dead man.
Y'all looking at a ghost.
You don't come at Huff Underwood with nothing.
You don't rat him out.
And you don't force his one-time,
reluctant, low-ranking employee to rat him out, either.
[animal howling]
Hey.
How about I get a quick fire going?
And give up our location?
Hadn't thought of that.
[blows air]
[Garrett] Three dollars here and three dollars back
to freeze my nuts.
Rather be losing my shirt at a card table.
Least I'd be able to feel my hands and feet.
Ain't that cold.
[Garrett] Hell, once, I had this pot-bellied stove,
forged in Massachusetts for them northern winters.
Sat right in the heart of my beautiful home,
just outside Fort Smith.
You get that thing going during the middle of a cold snap,
practically warmed the neighbor's house, too.
What happened to it?
Had to sell it.
Along with lots of other things.
You got enough luck to survive all this, kid,
you stay away from the cards.
I know where they hid the money they took from that stagecoach.
I hear you clucking, but there ain't no nest, Billy Crow.
No, there-there's jewelry there, too.
Huff didn't want to pawn it off too quick.
Avoid suspicion and all.
I'm telling the God's honest truth here.
Not really in a position to lie.
You been sitting on that all night?
We might investigate this, Bass.
No.
Could split the money and whatever else there is.
Nobody would ever know.
We say Billy Crow flew away.
Oh, oh, oh, you'll never hear from me again.
I'll bound a rail to California.
You both talk too much.
[Garrett] You don't understand, Bass.
I got a wife and kids
sleeping in a bed more suitable for pigs.
Our job is to take this boy alive to Fort Smith.
That's what we're gonna do. Took an oath.
I didn't.
I ain't asking.
I'm telling.
* tense, dramatic music *
***
Whoa.
Whoa, fellas.
You think another white posse man's
gonna ride out with you?
Help you like I have?
And now you gonna shoot me?
No.
But they will.
[gunshot]
-[gunfire] -[groaning]
[cries out]
[Billy whimpering]
Hope your feet as fast as your mouth.
[gunfire continues]
[Huff] Billy Crow.
Where you at?
We ain't gonna hurt you.
Give us sign of that lawman so we can end this.
Mother of God.
-I told you I was gonna die. -Not today.
Stay here.
* energetic, dramatic music *
***
[cries out]
* slow, tense music *
***
[birds cawing]
[flies buzzing]
Keep your current path,
this your fate, Billy Crow.
Empty boots
strung up on a lawman's saddle.
Thank you, Deputy.
[bleating]
Oh, oh. Oh...
Oh...
Sally!
[door opens]
I'll go fetch Miss Bennett.
This one coming faster than lightning in a storm.
Help me to the kitchen.
[labored breathing]
[sighs]
Go fetch some water for the stove and get the linen.
-We'll make do. -Yes, Mama.
[exhales]
* slow, gentle music *
***
How the hell did you learn to shoot like that?
You mean for a Black man?
No, I mean,
how the hell did you learn to shoot like that?
How about you do us both a favor
and never speak on this ever again.
[door closes]
* tense music *
***
[whimpering softly]
***
Billy Crow. Prisoner.
Your prisoner. Your manacles.
Now, keep your head down and your mouth shut.
Hey,
I make it out of here, how do I get to do what you do?
[chuckles]
Was you telling the truth about the money?
Eagle Pass.
There's a pair of sister oaks, roots entwined.
-It's buried at the base. -[chair scrapes floor]
[keys jingling]
[Parker] Isham Saunders,
after a fair trial and an able defense,
this jury of your countrymen
has found you guilty
of a most foul and aggravated murder.
You are hereby sentenced to be hanged by the neck
until you are dead.
[gallery murmuring]
* slow, somber music *
Myson Davis.
I have heard your tale of misfortune.
I understand what hunger and deprivation
can drive a person to do,
but it's no different
from the plight of all the other men
who stand before me on any given day.
In this chamber,
I must serve
as an instrument of the law.
You have taken a human life.
You have sent a human soul
unprepared to its maker
and made agony for his family,
whom you have rendered husbandless
and fatherless.
For the crime of murder,
this court finds you guilty.
[crying]
[Parker] You are hereby sentenced
to be hanged by the neck
until you are dead.
***
[gavel bangs]
[door opens]
Okay, Deputy, go on in.
Sit down, please.
You had a bit of a time out there?
Well, sir, um...
Posse man Montgomery
died heroically in the line of duty.
They ambushed us to free my prisoner.
About that Billy Crow...
He not a bad soul, just confused.
Confusion isn't much of a defense.
No, sir,
but he told me
where the German man's money buried.
Noted.
* gentle music *
***
[sighs]
You all right?
Are you?
I am now.
***
[baby fussing]
***
Ole Mister Sundown.
Now he was a slave catcher.
Some say
he roam the dark even now.
Finding fresh slaves.
When you see ole Mister Sundown,
you never see the sun come up again.
[Ramsey] You ain't no law here.
This here's Hell.
Until God say otherwise,
I'm the only law there is.
***