Lawmen: Bass Reeves

* MTV

* dramatic music

Come on out, Webb! Law won't ever stop!

Excuse me, you need to get to the back of the line.

Sally.

Shouldn't talk to my sister like that.

You're awfully tough when it's

-four of y'all and two of us. -

Think it's okay to let them wander on their own?

Black folks been disappearing up and down

the Territory.

You are to deliver the prisoner

Jackson Cole to the Red River,

turn him over to the Rangers.

I ain't been home for 41 days.

You ride out tomorrow.

Mighty strange, this feeling.

Riding to my death.

We both Negroes.

We know the world in the same ways.

You asked if you had the grit to be a deputy marshal.

You don't.

You giving up on me?

I never give up, Billy.

Where you taking that creature?

Reintroducing the beast to a rightful home.

No animal belong in a box.

That is the truth.

She won't be in there long.

Did you make a home for yourself?

Marry, have a family?

I have.

And what would you do now to protect it?

To hold on to it?

I'd wager you'd kill a thousand.

And no man would fault you.

I surely would not.

These badges we wear on our chest,

made from different materials.

Yours a tin star,

mine a star cut from a cinco peso piece.

Just raw materials.

But the power they give--

The real power lie beneath.

In the heart.

You honor the badge, Bass.

But even with it, a man like you

couldn't arrest a man like me once we cross that river.

You touch that other bank, it's a whole other law.

I have no mind to arrest you.

No, by those angry eyes,

I'd reckon you'd just as soon kill me.

My prisoner a good man.

I trust you'll see he get a fair trial?

Well, he's my prisoner now.

My prisoners always get what they deserve.

This one tell you what he did?

I know he killed a man.

He told me why he did it.

Might've even had just cause.

But did he tell you how he killed old James Neblett?

He kidnapped and rode that man blubbering and praying

all the way from Austin to Neblett's property in Columbia.

Then he chained him to the one pecan tree

Neblett hadn't burned down

and he shot him in his blubbering, praying mouth.

No man deserves to die that way.

Not even a Yankee.

But I don't need to tell you about killing Yanks.

As I recall, you're something of an expert on the subject.

Saddle up.

You're in my prayers.

Ah, don't bother the big man about me.

We need to ride.

Billy, bring that mule.

We can't have this man walk all the way to Fort Worth.

He won't.

On that, you have my word.

Bass.

Where I built my ranch,

the land is littered with ancient bones of giants.

Monsters.

Thigh bones as big as a man.

Locals call 'em huesos de ángeles.

Angel bones.

But I know a monster when I see one, Bass Reeves.

Moving out!

Come pay me a visit one day.

You'll feel right at home.

* ominous music

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* soaring, triumphant music

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* intriguing music

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Sara?

It's Bass.

Place don't smell right.

You ride ahead. I'll catch up.

Come on.

***

How much longer we gonna ride, Bass?

These horses need rest.

Shoot, we need to rest.

I'm tired.

We're all tired.

We've been riding straight for days.

Look at Pistol.

Hardly hold his head up.

Tell you what.

We'll stop the night in Checotah

if you stop flapping your gums till we get there.

You took your time.

Sally, I'm leaving.

I should be gone already.

What are you talking about?

I can't stay here. They'll have my neck.

They was just kids being stupid.

You got nothing to worry about.

Maybe you don't, but my last name ain't Reeves.

Arthur Mayberry, I never took you for no chicken.

And I never took you for a fool.

You don't understand.

I'm asking you to come with me.

We can visit Paris and...

you can write poems by the "Seene."

Seine.

And Reeves don't run.

I'll wait there for you.

By the Seine.

I'll send you a poem every day.

* dramatic music

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* dramatic music

***

We don't want any trouble here tonight, Deputy.

Just payday in Checotah.

Whiskey.

You too shy to go inside?

I'm just waiting for you to come out.

I see you got yourself into some trouble.

All in a day's work.

Mm.

Bought this for you in Fort Smith.

Thought you might not get the latest out here.

Thank you, Billy Crow.

You're welcome.

My feet shot out of them stirrups

and I flew off of that horse like I'd been plugged.

Damn nearly was.

I landed upright in time

to hear the report of a Winchester.

I dove into that sagebrush and when I came up,

I saw that man hoofing it faster than a stuck deer.

Whoa.

Mind you don't fall, partner.

Mind you keep your voice down

while the rest of us try to think.

Barkeep,

I reckon my friend here has had his fill.

Barkeep.

I reckon we all had enough of this cowboy's ballyhoo.

I reckon people on the far side of the Territory

about had enough of it, too.

You got too many teeth.

Outside, fellas.

You sure you want to do this?

Sure am.

Then I guess we'd better be getting on with it, then.

Deputy Marshal Reeves.

Braxton Sawyer, Texas Ranger.

I'm mighty honored to meet you, sir.

Let me buy you a drink.

My daddy had a good outfit not far off the Shawnee Trail.

I loved riding that range with him, moving herd.

We got into some trouble after the war

when drovers started bringing their longhorns up.

My daddy already lost one herd

and he wasn't about to do it again.

So we mounted up and we turned those longhorns

and their cowboys right around.

But, you know, not without a scrap.

Daddy got lead in the belly

and was dead before the marshals showed up.

I mean, they would've hung my daddy anyway,

if he was still alive to hang.

And...

well, for assault with intent to kill,

they gave me 18 months at the Detroit House of Corrections.

That was my first time out of the Territory.