Rooster Cogburn

It's the law, Pecos!

We want you for the robbery of the Katy Flyer, murder of the engineer.

Now, get your hands on top of your heads...

You bastard! You bastards!

Rooster J. Cogburn, please step forward.

Are you Rooster J. Cogburn, Deputy Marshal for the U.S. District Court

for the western district of Arkansas,

having criminal jurisdiction over the Indian Nation?

You know I am.

Rooster, any deputy who shoots and kills

64 suspects in eight years

is breaking the law, not aiding and abetting it.

Now, let's get this straight, Judge. Only 60 of 'em died.

None was shot but in the line of duty

or in defense of my person or fleein' justice.

You have been in the service of this court for almost two lustrums.

You're a strong man, and you're a brave man, Rooster.

And you have, at times, executed your duties faithfully and well.

But all too often you have acted with excessive zeal...

What is a "lustrum," Judge?

Five years. Don't interrupt me while I'm talking. Yes, sir.

Pay attention to me. Yes, sir!

This is not another formal reprimand. Yes, sir!

People with money to invest go where they're

protected by the law, not shot by it!

Is that the kind of law my deputy got yesterday?

I was proud to tell his wife I shot his killers.

It seems you cannot serve the papers of this court and effect arrests

without breaking heads and spraying bullets about.

The West is changing, and you haven't changed with it.

I want your badge.

Well, Judge, out there in the territory,

they don't know about all these newfangled laws.

We know, but they don't. They're still shootin' in the same direction, at me.

Your badge, Cogburn.

You've let yourself go, Rooster.

Look at your belly. You can't even close your coat over it.

You drink too much.

I ain't had a drink since breakfast,

and I only wear this coat in your court.

It was always good enough when you needed what was in it.

You've gone to seed, Rooster. Gone to seed.

Next case.

Whoa!

Lieutenant, the road's out ahead. Rockslide.

Can we get around it? No, sir.

But, uh, there's a shallow downriver. Get the wagon across.

Column right, ho!

Whoa!

Breed, we can't move nitro over those logs.

It's just deadwood, sir. It's easy to move.

Shipley, Grimm, dismount. Start movin' those logs!

Rawlins, Bryant, get the ropes. Help 'em!

The war is over.

The U.S. Cavalry lost again.

Just like I told you.

Give me my money.

Don't you trust me?

Pay up, Hawk. You'll try takin' the gold without me.

Don't tempt me. Any fool can blow nitro.

The last fool that thought that blowed himself up provin' it.

All right, move, fast.

We got four days hard ridin'. That gold shipment won't wait.

Gone to seed, have I?

Gone to seed! A man does his job, defends the code.

What does he get out of it?

Disgrace and abuse!

Judge say you abuse justice.

I abuse justice?

There ain't no justice in the West no more.

Men with sand in their craws being pushed aside by

duded-up Yankee lawyers who won spellin' bees back home!

That ain't St. Louis beer.

Kansas City.

Well, I don't like it. Neither does Sterling.

Too sweet, ain't it, General?

Well, gimme my jug.

Judge Parker say lock it up.

Who's payin' the rent around here, him or me?

You can't lock up a man's whiskey!

You light that joss stick holder over there.

Give you one minute to get my whiskey. Don't shoot! Don't shoot!

I'll get it for you!

Don't shoot until you've heard what I've come to say.

You have said enough, Judge.

None of it to my credit nor likin'.

May I sit and take a drink with you and General Sterling Price?

If you don't mind such seedy company.

Rooster,

you were once the best marshal I had, and you could be again.

That account is long overdrawn, Judge.

Come now, old friend, let's let bygones be bygones.

I have a most important assignment for you.

You seem to forget, Judge. You hung up my guns, remember?

I am retired,

relieved, and rejoicin'!

I painted her I painted her.

Up her belly and down her back.

In every crack.

Chen Lee, turn off the light.

No doubt you've heard of Hawk's latest outrage.

Now, the Army believes that nitro was taken to commit another robbery.

Now, the time's short.

You know the territory, and you know the scout who set up the ambush.

Breed? He run with Hawk now? Mmm. Mmm-hmm.

Well, he's the best scout I ever had. Good friend, too.

He never done a wrong thing till he killed that Wells Fargo agent

and run away with the payroll we were guardin'.

We need a man with grit, Cogburn.

The government'll be mighty grateful if you bring Hawk in.

How grateful?

For the return of the dynamite, $500.

For Hawk, $1,500.

Now, that is information more to my liking.

I thought it would be.

Now, I want him alive. I want him to answer to me, not to you.

Then we'll see about your badge.

Well, I may have to charge you my retirement rates.

That is double salary, double expenses. Can you afford me?

Rates are noted and accepted.

A group of my deputies will act as your posse,

but it's going to take a while to get organized.

Take a while? It'll take a miracle!

Them lily-live red law bookers ain't gonna risk their necks,

or you wouldn't be here. You'll need this.

Do the job and it's yours again, permanently.

Well, it goes against my grain, but...

I'll ride at first light.

Drunken cat.

That's right, Judge, in spite of the fact that you locked up our whiskey!

You tell them deputies to meet me at Bagby's, if you can find any.

Well, see who they have to come to when they got a real job to be done?

The old rat killer. Well, I'll be in fine feather tomorrow.

Probably got another lustrum in me.

What is lustrum?

Five years, you Chinaman. That's the worst of you people.

You come over here, we give you all the help we can.

You won't even learn our language.

Maybe you're right.

Whoa!

You gonna unhook 'em?

Here you are, sweet lady. How you doin', little darlin'?

I, in my Savior am happy and blessed.

Watching and waiting Looking above.

Come, come. Quickly, quickly!

Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!

Go as fast as you can.

Wolf. Wolf. Watch. Go. Go.

They're settlers passing through, no doubt.

No, they're not settlers passing through.

Come, child. Come. Come.

Welcome to Fort Ruby.

I am the Reverend George Goodnight,

and this is my daughter, Eula.

We offer you the hospitality of our settlement. We are God's servants here.

We must ask you not to sell ardent spirits

or guns to the Indians.

It is against the civil law and against the laws of God.

This is the law we go by, sister,

so don't waste your preachin' tryin' to convert us.

Please do not strip these people of their dignity with liquor

and your worldly ways.

We beg you.

Here, something for your collection plate.

Now, you leave us be.

We're gonna camp here, rest our horses, take our pleasures as we please

with no more preachin' from God's servants.

A brand from the burning.

What's that you say?

Our work, sir, is to pluck brands from the burning.

If you wouldn't be plucked yourself, you can at least show us common courtesy.

I do believe you're better at cluckin' than you are at pluckin'.

You're an unpleasant sort of fellow.

I'm the boldest sinner on the Arkansas River, little lady.

I do just as I please, and I make people remember me.

Only evil can come of your presence, sir.

Temptation is the spawn of the devil.

You callin' me devil, mister? You do the devil's work.

I'd shoot a man of the cloth or a lady just that easy, so don't provoke me.

I'm not afraid. I wear God's armor.

I do not fear what man can do to me.

I do not fear a skunk. I simply do not care for his odor.

I'm warnin' you.

You have ridden the Hoot Owl Trail and tasted the fruits of evil,

but justice will catch up with you to demand payment.

The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.

He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul.

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil

for Thou art with me.

I've had enough of your Sunday school lessons!

Out of my sight, both of you! Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.

My cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord.

She put the fear of God in you, Hawk?

Rooster, welcome. Bagby.