- 0:30:26 Life in Wyoming
- Cully: I’ll tell you somethin’, Jim. I’ll tell you somethin’. If the rich could hire others to do their dying for’em, the poor could make a wonderful living.
- 0:41:10 Meeting of the Stock Growers Association
- Canton: Unenforced law is an invitation to anarchy. Consequently, the Stock Growers Association will now and publicly wipe out these thieves and anarchists. We are employing fifty men on the basis of five dollars a day and fifty dollars for every cattle thief shot or hung. We will go to Johnson County; we will depose the incompetent civil authority there, and we will keep possession of the town until we can take charge of the courts. We have placed one hundred and twenty-five names on a “death list.â€
- 0:47:52 In principle…
- Irvine: A hundred names…or thereabouts. On a list. It’s…some of these emigrants that they’re going to…kill off.
Averill: Even they can’t get away with a thing like that.
Irvine: Well…in principle, everything can be done. In principle.
Averill: What’ll you do Billy?
Irvine: I’m a victim of our class, James.
- 0:50:40 Class issues
- Canton: You offset every effort we make to protect our property and that of members of your own class.
Averill: You’re not in my class, Canton. You never will be. You’d have to die first and be born again.
- 0:56:38 Champion, S.G.A. hired hand
- Young Immigrant: You look like one of us. You work for them?
Champion: I’ll decide what I am. I’m not gonna kill a kid that still pisses in his pants, now get on out of here.
Young Immigrant: Goddamn traitor!
- 1:01:55 …everything can be done
- Averill: The Association’s declared war, J.B. They want to get rid of all this. Fifty dollars for every citizen on a list shot or hung.
J.B.: Tell me when you want to get serious.
Averill: I am serious. There’s a hundred and twenty-five names on a death list.
J.B.: My God. That’s almost everybody in the county. How can people declare war on a whole county?
Averill: I guess on principle everything can be done.
J.B.: Goddamn. It’s getting dangerous to be poor in this country…isn’t it?
Averill: It always was.
- 1:35:38 Ella won’t listen
- Champion: The situation out back is looking very prosperous. You’re getting’ too greedy, Ella.
Ella: You never waste time do you?
Champion: I’d awfully appreciate it if you stopped taking steers as pay from these people.
Ella: Just like that?
Champion: Yes ma’am.
- 1:50:19 Nate defends Ella
- Arapaho: I had a year of this. Dusk to dawn, dusk to dawn. There’s gettin’ to be too many of them. Too many people and not enough cattle. We break our backs out here…and Ella breaks her back on these hunky mudfuckers. (Nate punches him) What the hell was that for?
Averill: You just shut your big mouth, shitpoke.
Arapaho: Well, kiss my ass.
Averill: You son of a bitch. You get on out o’ here. Right now.
Arapaho: Ella ain’t your friend. She ain’t nobody’s friend.
- 1:52:39 The “Death Listâ€
- Eggleston: Captain, an army of mercenaries is about to invade Johnson County. As president of the Chamber of Commerce, I demand that you put Company C of the National Guard on alert in Johnson County.
Capt. Minardi: Mr. Eggleston, I have a standing order to resist all commands other than those directly from the Governor, himself.
Averill: How long have you had that, Frank?
Minardi: A week’s time now.
Eggleston: A week?
Minardi: I’ve been expecting you.
Averill: You know, Frank, those men are gobblin’ up the whole state.
Minardi: I still can’t help you, Jim. It’s not me…you understand? It’s the rules.
Averill: Do you have the death list? It seems balls are gettin’ as scarce as hens’ teeth in the army.
Minardi: You know what I really dislike about you, Jim? You’re a rich man, with a good name. You only pretend to be poor. (Hands him the list)
Averill: This is damn near everyone in the county. Ella Watson, what the hell’s she doin’ on this thing?
Minardi: It uh…says she takes stolen cattle in payment for carnal pleasures. I guess some of these new citizens would rather get laid than feed their families. It’s all gonna be legalized, Jim. What’ll you do?
Averill: My job.
Minardi: You knew what you were getting yourself into. You can’t force salvation on people, Jimâ€"it doesn’t work.
- 2:05:58 The S.G.A. plans an attack
- Canton: You’re late!
Mjr. Wolcott: The Governor himself came to see us off, Frank.
Man 1: How much time do you estimate here, Canton?
Canton: Forty minutes!
Man 2: Telegraph’s cut!
Irvine: Have the proper warrants been issued?
Wolcott: The President himself asked for these men to go, Billy.
- 2:18:14 Town meeting
- Averill: There’s an armed mob of paid men about to invade your county, with the open threat to destroy the lives and property of your friends. The Stock Growers Association has the names of some of you people on a list. A hundred and twenty-five names.
Woman: What are the names on the list?
(Averill begins to read)
- 2:28:14 After Ella’s rape
- Averill: Maybe you understand better the kind of people you’re working for now. The tragedy, Nate, is that you people were in the right, legally. But they just threw that away.
- 2:30:01 Canton vs. Champion
- Canton: I have nothing to say to you.
Champion: You’d better have a guaranteed warrant for every name on that list. Show me one for the man outside right now. Major?
Irvine: When fix is equal, then justice must prevail…
Canton: Shut up, Billy.
Champion: You people make me sick.
Canton: Let’s not have any last minute sentimentalism about the killing of a few thieves and anarchists.
Champion: You ever kill a man yourself, Canton?
Canton: Mr. Champion, my grandfather was the secretary of war to Harrison, his brother was a governor of the state of New York, my brother-in-law is the Secretary of State, and to you, I represent the full authority of the government of the United States and the President.
Champion: Fuck him too.
Irvine: Bravo, sir.
Canton: I’ve had enough of your shit too, Billy, you silly son of a bitch! You were hired to enforce the law. We are the law!
Irvine: Son of a bitch has always been a favorite expression in this country.
- 2:33:46 Jim wants Ella to leave
- Averill: Today was just the beginnin’. Do you think they’d have tried what they did if it wasn’t? If something bigger wasn’t coming?
Ella: Everything I have in the world is here. I can’t just walk out and leave it.
Averill: This? This junk? Jesus Christ, Ella, these are just things! The world’s full of things. I can buy you all the things you want.
Ella: You’ll never understand.
Averill: Spare me that will you. Christ, the piety of a whore.
Ella: What does piety mean?
Averill: A dumb whore.
Ella: Those are my books. Bylined to the penny.
Averill: I don’t care about that now.
Ella: I do.
- 2:43:28 Just turn them in
- Averill: Is everybody here?
Mayor Lezak: Yeahâ€"all except for the idiots who want to fight. We’re not all anarchists and criminals here Averill. We’re storekeepers, merchants…
Averill: Why’d you come here?
Lezak: We want you to talk to them, to offer to help turn in the people on the list. They have the law on their side. The National Guard can’t help us. It’s your job!
- 2:54:20 Preparing for battle
- Citizen 1: They are opposed to anything that would settle and improve things in this country…or try to make it something more than…cow pasture…for eastern speculators. They advance the idea that poor people have nothing to say in the affairs of this country.
Ella: They’re here! They’re here. They’re already here.
Citizen 2: We’re going to shoot all the sons of bitches!...And even the army won’t save them!
- 3:04:42 Billy’s reasoning
- Irvine: Too many of them Wolcott. Not like the Indians…you can’t just kill ‘em all.
- 3:15:27 The moving shield
- Wolcott: Those Goddamn Romans. Averill, you son of a bitch, we’re gonna hang you.
- 3:22:45 Arrival of the Cavalry
- Minardi: These men are under arrest, by military authority. You can all go home now.
Averill: Frank, you know these men are under the jurisdiction of civil authorities.
Canton: Well, I have here a telegram from the Governor, stating in the most positive terms, that only immediate and drastic action on the part of authorities outside and above county officials can reduce the current state of almost-anarchy in Johnson County.
Averill: Almost anarchy.
Minardi: Jim, you can let me take them out of here peacefully, or you can get shot for insurrection.
Averill: Rescuing ‘em is what you’re doin’.
Minardi: I told you, Jim, it’s not me that’s doin’ it to ya. It’s the rules.
- 3:29:10 Final attack and Ella’s murder
- Canton: Damn you!
Averill: Ella! Ella! Oh Ella, don’t die!
