(LEANING ON JESUS PLAYING)
What a fellowship
What a joy divine
Leaning on the everlasting arms
What a blessed peace
What a joy is mine
Leaning on the everlasting arms
Leaning on Jesus
CHARLEY: His funeral was on a blistering hot August afternoon
just outside the town of Deadwood.
I suppose there was a rough justice to it,
the way he met his end after sending so many others to early graves.
It didn't make the moment easier on any of his friends.
Leaning on the everlasting arms
I don't know why he never slept in my bed
since he come to Deadwood.
Only got interested once.
Leaning on the everlasting...
The timing was just wrong.
Too much had happened to him before he got here.
I was awful attached to him.
All of us were.
He had that kind of effect on people.
I got a feeling maybe in some ways you knew him best, Charley.
(PEOPLE CHATTERING)
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)
(CLEARS THROAT)
(GLASS SHATTERS)
(ALL CHEERING)
(LAUGHING)
Thank you.
Thank you. Appreciate that.
MAN: Nice shot.
Nice shot, Bill.
You know, I don't mind you shooting glasses off of my dog's head, Marshal,
but you fondling him like that,
you're going to ruin him for fighting.
That dog's bred for fighting.
You ought to understand that.
You've had more fights than anybody.
CHARLEY: He fashioned himself as just an ordinary man,
in no way special.
But, of course, that was a deception.
By luck or design,
it had fallen to him to play the hero's part,
and to the very end, he embraced his fate.
Two damn weeks,
ain't a damn sight of a buffalo.
Never thought it possible.
How's a man supposed to make a living?
(MAN CHANTING IN OTHER LANGUAGE)
That's a funeral platform.
Must be on some kind of vigil
for the dead injun next to him.
(SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGE)
JOE: Says he's a Sioux named "He Who Whistles."
He's a chief.
(CONTINUES SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGE)
That's his wife lying there next to him.
They had to leave a tribe.
They couldn't find no buffalo.
Figured since he failed his people
and he failed his wife,
he had to go off and find his own medicine.
Said he had a dream.
Had a fight with a white-eye
with long hair.
That looks to be you, Bill.
What the hell's this whistler want to fight me for?
JOE: His religion.
He wins, his people live.
He's gonna hang your scalp on a Iodgepole.
Tell him I'm sorry about his woman and his tribe.
(SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGE)
Tell him thanks and I'll be on my way.
(SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGE)
(EXCLAIMING)
(GRUNTS)
(NEIGH5)
WELLS)
He wants me to show some color.
Fine.
(HORSE WHINNYING)
JOE: Don't kill him, Bill!
Man knows what he wants!
Bad luck to kill an injun in a religious frame of mind!
He chose it!
(GUNS FIRING)
He must have got more than 20 hides out there.
Winter prime.
Them hides will fetch a dollar apiece in Omaha.
Let's run him off. What say you?
First fella shows up today gonna buy a drink,
and you gonna run him off.
You better...
(PANTING)
Whiskey.
It would be awfully neighborly
if you was to buy me a drink.
I generally only buy whiskey for my friends.
Don't see no reason why a man come in here and insult me.
MAN: Watch his gun!
Oh! Oh, I'm shot!
(MAN GROANING)
Ought to understand,
you don't ever touch another man's hat.
(THUNDER RUMBLING)
(PEOPLE CHATTERING)
Ma, ma, who's my pa?
Wild Bill Hickok. Haw, haw, haw!
Oh, please, Mr. Wild Bill, don't shoot me now.
I ain't done nothing wrong.
Don't shoot me, Mr. Wild Bill.
What's this about?
I kicked some drunk soldier's ass around about a week ago,
threw him in jail.
Figure these are his friends.
Maybe you ought to apologize for that kind of talk.
I don't apologize!
Not to you or anybody else. Not ever.
Shouldn't touch another man's hat.
I ain't wearing no pistols.
(GRUNTS)
(WOMAN SCREAMS)
(BOTH GRUNTING)
(SCREAMING)
(CROWD CLAMORING)
(WOMAN SCREAMS)
Stop him!
(GROANING)
(PANTING)
Take 'em, Bill! They're gonna kill you!
(WOMAN SCREAMS)
(GRUNTING)
MAN: Damn you! Kill him!
(PATRIOTIC MUSIC PLAYING)
(GUNS FIRING)
(HORSE NEIGHING)
Yee-haw! Yee-haw!
(ALL WHOOPING)
(LAUGHING)
Just funning, Marshal.
Where are you from?
Texas. 50 miles north of Waco.
I work for... (GRUNTS)
(GROANS)
I'm a Union man.
Fought four years against your kind.
You been firing that weapon, Phil?
Lots of fellas here been shooting...
I'm not talking to them. I'm talking to you.
Now, you got an explanation why you was firing that weapon,
breaking a city ordinance?
What's the matter, Bill?
You miss me?
That why you're mad at Phil here?
You best hand over the gun, Phil.
Otherwise I'm just going to have to step over there
and slap you around some.
Who else?
Bill!
MAN 1: He's dead! Shot your own deputy.
MAN 2: He shot Phil Coe, and he shot Mike Williams.
I'm gonna go get my shotgun.
Then I'm gonna go get my horse.
By the time I get back, I see one son of a bitch on the street,
I'll kill him.
(CRYING)
CHARLEY: After Abilene, Bill was at loose ends.
He drifted east and accepted the invitation of his friend,
Buffalo Bill Cody, to join his theatrical production,
Scouts of the Plains.
As a thespian, he was, by all reports,
simply dreadful.
And now, my friends, a true story of courage
as actually lived and fought
by my dear friend of many years, James Butler Hickok,
known throughout the west as Wild Bill.
(FANFARE)
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
I say, Wild Bill, where have you been?
I say, old pard, where have you been?
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
What has detained you so long?
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
I was riding my horse, Black Nell,
peacefully along the river, when I was corralled by a party of hostiles.
Hostiles? What kind of hostiles, Wild Bill?
Injuns.
Yes? What tribe of Indians, Wild Bill?
They were Sioux, Sioux lnjuns.
And who was their chief?
UP there!
Turn down the damn lights.
(AUDIENCE LAUGH)
Damn near blind a fella.
I say, Wild Bill, who was their chief?
MAN: Keep your eyes open.
You have glaucoma, Mr. Hickok.
It's often a result from too much proximity to, uh,
infected females.
Keep your eyes straight ahead. If you take my meaning, sir.
I had some trouble about 10 years back.
Cleared right up when the local doc stuck a hot wire up my privates.
Hmm.
How bad's it gonna get?
You are losing your eyesight, Mr. Hickok.
May take, uh,
two years, may take 10.
(SIGHS) Mmm.
Oh, I expect...
I just spent too much time staring at the prairie sun.
CHARLEY: By the summer of the nation's centennial,
Bill had become an idle drifter.
Like myself, he was addicted to whiskey, cards, and the wastrel's life.
My name is Charles Prince, English born and educated,
but for reasons of temperament,
America had become my adopted home.
As I much prefer to observe life in the raw,
I took myself west.
I was not disappointed.
Mighty interesting game, poker.
Can't tell you how many times in my life I've gone bust.
Yes, but it's not the same for you.
You don't know what real poverty is.
Everybody wants to buy the great Wild Bill dinner or drinks.
This pot is mine, three kings!
Mr. Hickok?
Mr. Hickok, there's a man in the street
gonna give me a dollar to come in here and tell you
that you're a coward and a wife-stealer,
and I can't say the rest, but it was much worse.
What did he say?
Bill Hickok!
I'm calling you out!
Hickok!
You gonna ride or hide?
(LAUGHS) What's the matter?
You ain't afraid of a cripply old man in a wheelchair
who can't even face you, are you?
What did he say?
He said that you were a horse molester.
(HORSE WHINNIES)
He say what horse?
(GLASS SHATTERS)
What, are you hiding?
Great Wild Bill Hickok is actually inside hiding?
(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)
Needless to say, Bill, all good fortune.
CHARLEY". I never saw a greater compliment to Bill
than that paid by the citizens of Cheyenne.
Their confidence in his marksmanship
was such that none of them ran for cover,
but lined up as if they were watching some athletic contest.
A whiskey, please. Neat.
You ain't gonna go outside and watch this?
(CHUCKLING) I don't think my friend needs my help.
I generally stay in the bar
when he gets involved with this sort of affair.
Well, you just help yourself because I ain't gonna miss it.
Here's to you, Bill.
CHARLEY: This dispute had begun two years before
when one Ed Plummer had called Bill out.
Some said the reason was a gambling debt.
Others claimed that it involved a woman.
Bill discovered that the Piummers regarded the affair as a family matter.
(GUN COCKING)
(GROANS)
(WHINNYING)
Oh, my leg! I can't move my leg!
(GROANING)
Damn you, Will Plummer. I already shot you once
when you tried to bushwhack me.
You hear that?
The man is accusing me!
Imagine that.
Have you forgotten, Mr. Hickok,
that I am the aggrieved party here?
You must be drunk or gone crazy, Will.
Now, if you got any sense left, you just head on home.
No, no! You're not gonna get off that easy.
You took the life from my brother,
and you left me a crippled old man in a wheelchair.
You, sir, will die!
(GROANS)
Mister, Wild Bill just shot Will Plummer dead.
(CHUCKLES) Then he told me to come ask you
if you'd mind getting the lead out of your ass.
(LAUGHS)
Sir, uh, come outside and help untie him.
Will Plummer, rest in peace.
We owe God a death.
CHARLEY". Bill chose to move on to the town that was the talk of the entire West.
Gold had been discovered a year before.
"Get rich quick," was in the air.
From raw wilderness suddenly up came this hell-roaring place
called Deadwood.
(HORSE WHINNIES)
(MAN EXCLAIMS)
(GRUNTING)
(EXCLAIMING)
(GRUNTING)
You haul our bags over to the tent city.
Tell them to find a room for Bill Hickok and a friend.
Yes, sir.
CHARLEY: How are the eyes, Bill?
There'll be a lot of strangers in this town.
Yeah, I can see okay straight ahead.
The sides is narrowing in, and it hurts.
Comes and goes, but it hurts like hell when it's on you.
This town...
I really think it's like something out of the Bible.
What part of the Bible?
The part right before God gets angry.
(PEOPLE CLAMORING)
(WHIP CRACKING)
(GROANS)
CHARLEY: Deadwood was a haven for cardsharps,
con men, thieves, killers, roughs,
drunks, pimps, and whores.
(EXCLAIMS)
Along with those arbiters of disputes.
Whip, fist, knife, and pistol.
(GRUNTS)
You two fellas must've caused some trouble.
No trouble. Just a couple of card cheats.
That's the worst kind of fella.
A man that cheats at cards ain't got no religion.
Howdy, Jane.
Howdy, Bill.
Boys, this here is James Butler Hickok!
(CROWD CHEERING)
Everybody to the bar! Drinks are on me!
(CHEERFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
Wild Bill, Carl Mann.
Pleased to meet you. This here's my place.
Mann's No. 10. You just make it your personal headquarters.
What kind of whiskey do you favor?
Well, Carl, I prefer it in a glass.
Other than that, it's all good.
(LAUGHS)
(PEOPLE CHATTERING)
That's the great Hickok?
Sure as hell is.
He'll buy you a drink, shake your hand, and you can tell your grandkids about it.
Charles Prince of London, New York, and parts West,
-friend of Wild Bill. - Oh.
I know you're Calamity Jane. He's spoken of you many times.
- Bill! - Joe!
Half a grand howdy, pard!
The whole town's crazy as hell.
Every polecat in the territory's here looking for gold.
They ain't even got a sheriff yet.
I figure I'll nominate you for the job.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Wild Bill?
What are you doing?
(BARMAID SCREAMS)
Wild Bill, I'm talking to you.
You better look out when you walk down the street in this town.
You listen careful to every sound.
I come here to kill you.
He's not wearing a gun, Bill.
The man that kills Wild Bill is gonna be awful famous.
(GRUNTS)
(CROWD LAUGHING)
(MEN CHATTERING)
You come here to kill me?
Let me give you some advice.
You have to shoot a man, you shoot him in the guts.
Might not kill him.
Sometimes they die slow,
but it'll paralyze his brain, and the fight's as good as over.
Why don't you shoot the little snot?
At least rough him up some.
(CROWD LAUGHING)
He's just a dumb-ass kid.
(YELLING INDISTINCTLY)
JOE: You son of a bitch!
JACK: You can't stop me! Damn it!
(SIGHS)
How you been, Bill?
Middling, just middling.
I ain't seen you in two, oh, maybe three years.
Well, I'm still here.
How you been?
Oh, I'm still here, too.
Lots of towns, lots of camps.
Good to see you, Jane.
I like seeing old friends.
Mmm. Ah!
It's just for old times' sake.
You wiping it off?
No! I'm rubbing it in.
You can see me about as much as you want.
I guess that's always been the case, ain't it?
I'm just a little too available.
I got to be available, too.
Awful lot of people want a piece of Wild Bill.
Let's have us a carol game and a drink.
Out of my way, boys.
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)
(GUN FIRES)
MAN ". 'lee-haw.!
(PEOPLE CHATTERING)
CHARLEY: As Bill played cards and drank whiskey on into the night,
Deadwood proceeded with its own forced levity
and bizarre behavior.
(EXCLAIMS)
CHARLEY: The Dakota Dance Hall was the preferred site for assignations.
This was no rude crib or flimsy shack.
It featured papered walls,
comfortable furniture, polished spittoons,
and a piano that was actually in tune.
You don't touch me. I saw what you were doing, and I don't like you.
Maybe you ought to.
Well, you picked the wrong one because I don't care.
(SCREAMING)
Ah! My ear!
(HOWLING IN PAIN)
(WOMAN GIGGLING)
(WHISPERING) Are they shaking?
My hands...
Are they shaking?
This your first time?
I'm showing you Wild Bill don't scare me none.
He's right over there in the No. 10.
How come you're after Wild Bill?
I got personal reasons.
What did you say your name is, anyhow?
Lurline.
Lurline Newcomb from Lawrence, Kansas, but I been all over.
I bet you have.
I kind of like that name, Lurline.
(PIANO PLAYING)
You were talking about Dave McCandless.
You were saying of McCandless, Bill?
He wasn't saying a goddamn thing about him.
Oh, you keep nosing that around,
along with Dave Tutt, and how he took Bill's watch,
and them soldiers beat him half to death in Hays City.
I heard you killed seven men, Bill.
Bill didn't have no reputation before that fight.
He just drove freight wagons to make a living.
It happened in Rock Creek Station.
Bill was very much taken with a woman
kept by the outlaw, the horse thief named McCandless.
Sarah, her name was Sarah.
Now, McCandless and his bunch, 10 men in all,
just the worst kind, they rode up looking to settle things.
Inside the station, Bill had seen, there was an old buffalo gun.
He wasn't sure if it would shoot.
There was an ax and several knives.
McCandless yelled out, "We know you're in there, Hickok,
"and you've breathed your last breath for messing with my girl!"
(GROANING)
Wild Bill was shot and cut bad when they laid on him,
but he met them shooting, stabbing, shouting, hacking.
He kicked and bit, kneed them down
till the air was blue with smoke
and the floor and the walls was wet with blood.
Ten men lay dead or dying at Bill's feet.
And Hickok's boots was filling with the blood
of 16 wounds from his own body.
He thanked God and walked out into the blinding light.
Took two sips from a dipper at the well before he fell over.
And that all happened July 12, 1861.
You can look it up.
I think it was maybe five killed.
Are you all right, Bill?
I'm fine, Charley.
I just need me some night air.
JANE: Now, what set him off?
Five men, Bill?
Well, hell, I thought it was seven!
The young kid stole a horse.
Somebody said the Chinaman looked the wrong way
at a white woman.
And the injun was in town trading
when we got the word about Custer.
We're gonna hang them all on Saturday.
CHARLEY". In the Chinese section of Deadwood,
there was generally available a remedy for the restless spirit.
Bill was susceptible to its application.
(SPEAKING IN CANTONESE)
Dog soldiers. Cheyenne.
(SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGE)
JOE: He says, "You saw a little dog?"
Uh, can't make much sense out of it.
But they followed your tracks.
(SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGE)
"Did the little dog speak to you?
"The little dog's special medicine, sacred."
No, it's mine!
I'll kill you!
(SCREAMING)
(HORSE WHINNYING)
(URGING HORSE)
Tell them I spoke to a little dog.
(SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGE)
Tell them, the little dog
took me to a holy place, and it disappeared.
(SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGE)
Then we went to the other world.
(SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGE)
Tell him the little dog told me that I was blessed.
I'd live a long life.
(SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGE)
(LAUGHING)
(SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGE)
Says you're a damn fine liar.
(SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGE)
Says you saved yourself and your friends for today.
(SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGE)
But if he catches you killing any more buffalo or taking hides,
the Cheyenne will kill you.
(SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGE)
(EXCLAIMS)
What'd he tell you, Joe?
He said the next time you saw the little dog,
you wouldn't live to see another moon.
(SOFT MUSIC TINKLING)
(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)
You okay, Bill?
I'm fine. No need to worry.
I damn well did get all concerned.
Nobody knew where you'd got to.
Had a hell of a time finding where you'd been.
Maybe I drank a little too much last night.
Had me some dreams.
Had too much on that Chinese pipe.
You're looking mighty peaked.
You want to tell me what you was dreaming about?
About me and California Joe.
Things we did when we come across some Indians
on a buffalo hunt six, seven years back.
What things'? Bad things?
You know, they say sometimes a dream might be a foretelling.
It wasn'tjust a dream. It was a fact.
Give me some room, Jane.
I got to clear my head.
You ain't the same, Bill.
How's that?
I don't know.
You just got kind of different than before is all.
Maybe. I don't know.
You got a bathhouse in this town?
You sure could use one.
Howdy.
What you doing here?
Maybe I'm just being friendly.
Well, it ain't that I don't appreciate it.
I just got a lot of things to do today.
What things?
Well, I got my methods.
I'm gonna stir up old Wild Bill.
Well, you better listen to me
because I know where your Mr. Wild Bill was last night.
One of them Chinese girls told an upstairs girl that told me
that he went down to Song Lew's and had himself a pipe.
Well, you tell your friend,
next time he goes in there, to tell me about it.
I'll make it worth her while.
Yours, too.
You know, you can move all your plunder into my room if you want.
It's the first room at the top of the stairs.
Maybe I better stay on out to the tent city.
Well, what's the problem?
No problem.
I just think... It might be best if, you know, I stay...
You got yourself some new gal?
Just ain't in the mood.
Well, you must have got yourself some new gal.
You know, I don't ever remember asking to be the only thing in your life,
or you in mine for that matter.
But what we had was kind of special now and then.
And I guess I don't see why we can't have it now.
So, I would just like some kind of goddamn explanation.
You owe me that much.
I don't owe nobody nothing.
I don't explain myself.
Not to you, not to some punk-ass kid!
Not to nobody!
Now, just run along and leave me be.
Sure thing.
And t0 hell with you, Mr. Wild Bill!
CHARLEY: In truth, Bill felt some remorse for his argument with Jane.
But it was the nature of their friendship
that feelings for one another go unstated.
Typical for a man of action,
Bill found romance the most perplexing aspect of his life.
Go on!
You're shooing me away. Who do you think you are?
I ain't a farm animal you can push around!
JOE: Bill, look what I got. This damn kid!
People said bring him. I bringed him!
(CROWD LAUGHING)
Well, look what we got here.
I'd stick him in the manure bin if I was you, Joe.
Take him around back and shoot him.
He's making all kinds of trouble, Bill.
Skunk stuff all of it.
Insulted some ladies, broke some china over at the store there.
He even claimed that you told him to do it.
Here.
You see to the damage.
What name do you go by?
Jack McCall.
Joe, cut his ropes.
Hear you've been misbehaving, Jack.
What's the problem between me and you?
I don't like the way you treated my ma.
You done whatever, then you left her.
She kept track of you.
She had lots of stories from newspapers and all them dime novels.
I told her she should write to you, she said you wouldn't answer no letters.
Who was she?
A decent lady.
Ms. Susannah Moore.
Greetings, Jack.
Charles Prince, friend of Bill's.
Could be that Wild Bill's made a few mistakes
here and there over the years,
but, well, it's understandable.
But past is past.
Shut up, Charley!
Yeah, shut up, Charley.
Now, I planned killing you from the time I found out
the man that ruined my ma was a great hero to the country.
I'm gonna give you a chance to your life, Jack.
I don't want to kill nobody so young and confused about things.
Joe, get him a horse, would you?
Put him on it. Point him east.
Yeah, east is where fellas like him ought to live,
but my recommendation's still to kill him.
(GRUNTS)
(CROWD CHEERING)
(MAN WHISTLING)
I liked your ma.
She was a good, fine woman. Awful pretty.
This here's been a real pleasure, Mr. Hickok.
Not a word to your mother.
I don't want to cause her no trouble.
She died, six months.
I been on your trail ever since.
Hey!
(THUNDER RUMBLING)
This is gonna take some stitches.
That's what you get for acting ornery.
Everybody in town's heard how the great Wild Bill knocked you around.
Hold still.
Now, you just don't worry about it none.
I accomplished my purposes.
CHARLEY". The rumor of Jack McCall's purpose
had spread through Deadwood.
The circumstances called for a killing
and there would be no shortage of killers to heed the summons.
You're Jack McCall?
Whatever it is, I ain't interested.
I'm Donnie. Donnie Lonigan.
I figure you and me got things to talk about.
That right? Where you from, Donnie?
New York. Came out here to find the gold.
I had a bad run of luck.
Who's your friend?
Jubal Pickett. Pleased to meet you.
I say just throw them out, Jack.
They just look to be street trash.
(CHUCKLES)
$5 whore is gonna tell me about street trash?
Oh, now, Donnie.
Let's be polite.
How can I help you fellas?
We heard you're gonna be paying to kill a man.
You heard wrong.
(THUNDER RUMBLING)
You gonna do it by yourself, Jack?
All alone?
I doubt you ever even shot a fella.
Bill Hickok.
He'd be at least $1,000.
He's a two-gun plainsman,
and in addition, carries a derringer in his vest pocket as a hide out.
He's killed at least 20 people.
That's not counting what he done in the war.
I got three more fellas that work for me.
They like to take chances for money.
Yeah. Well, I ain't there yet, Donnie,
but you boys stay in touch.
PREACHER: Well, hallelujah!
Let's lift up our hands tonight and praise the Lord!
(ALL MUMBLING)
Hallelujah! How I love the Lord!
I love him because he is able!
I love him because he reached down
and he pulled me right from the gutters of sin!
I love him
because when sin and sickness had me bound, he reached out!
He washed me in his precious blood.
Oh, hallelujah.
And I'm here to testify tonight
that it is my determination!
I will hold on!
I will hold on to the rock that is my salvation!
I will hold on to the word of God!
I will hold on to him.
Oh, yes, Satan, you can't touch me now!
Come on, you dirty devil! I said, "You can't touch me now!"
Oh, hallelujah. Lift up your hands.
MAN: Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.
Praise him.
Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus!
(CRYING) Thank you, Jesus.
Amen. Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you, Jesus.
(BLUEGRASS MUSIC PLAYING)
Who's that fella?
Yankee. Name of Bill Hickok.
He's awful dashing, ain't he?
They say he was spying around here during the war.
(LAUGHING) He's looking at you.
Look all he wants. Won't do no good.
I just bet he comes over here and asks you to dance.
I don't wanna dance with no Yankee.
No, I thought you was a loyal Union woman.
I am. My dead husband wasn't.
He'd be rolling in his grave if I was dancing with some Yankee fella.
Oh.
(WHOOPING)
I knew it. Here he comes.
Ain't gonna do no good.
I didn't come here to meet up with Yankee strangers.
You look to me like the prettiest girl around.
I was wondering if you want to dance.
Surely.
(BLUEGRASS MUSIC CONTINUES)
(ALL WHOOPING)
You coming with me?
(EXHALING)
I just think you're lying.
I ain't lying.
I'll take you on up to Springfield.
(LAUGHS)
You had your way, and you want to again, and you'll just say any old thing.
I'll take you on up to Springfield and that kid of yours, too.
I bet you have your way with lots of girls.
Bet you tell them all a whole pack of lies.
I ain't lying...
(CLICKING TONGUE)
But I would if I couldn't figure no other way with you.
(TRADITIONAL CHINESE MUSIC PLAYING)
(BOTH SPEAKING IN CANTONESE)
Wild Bill.
(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)
Howdy, Bill.
Dave.
What brings you back to these parts?
I spent the last six months scouting for the army.
Figure I'd come back here, see the sights, see my old friends.
I hope you ain't figuring on starting back up with Ms. Susannah Moore.
Got tired of waiting on you. Took up with somebody else.
Who'd that be, Dave?
That would be me, Bill.
She took up with me.
Be seeing you around.
(TICKING)
(SOFT MUSIC TINKLING)
SUSAN NAH: Dave?
TUTTI Hmm?
Where'd you get that watch?
God damn it. How many times I told you to stop bothering me about things?
I recognize it.
It's Bill's, ain't it?
His daddy give him this watch.
You sure never took it off him.
Yeah, well, I never said I did that neither, did I?
Then how'd you get it?
Card game last night.
You walk around town wearing this watch,
he'll kill you.
(URGING HORSE)
Come on! Get up!
Say, paw.!
You seen old Dave Tutt today?
I sure have.
He's right over across the way.
Tell me, friend. Is he wearing my watch?
(LAUGHS NERVOUSLY) I really couldn't say.
Well.
By God, Bill, I'm glad to see you could make it out today.
You know this ain't about no timepiece, Bill.
You know it,
and I know it.
(GASPS)
He called it.
Whole damn thing didn't have to happen.
(RAIN PATTERING)
(DOOR CREAKS OPEN)
I come here for Wild Bill,
and I don't want nobody interfering none.
(YELLING IN CANTONESE)
You ain't gonna slow me down none.
(YELLING IN CANTONESE)
(COCKING GUN)
This is your time, Wild Bill.
(GASPS)
Make your move, Jack.
We'll both go.
Huh!
(SPEAKING CANTONESE)
(BELL TOLLING)
JACK: You know, I've been thinking about you, Donnie.
I've been thinking that a man has to seize his opportunities
where he finds them.
I tried last night, but I fell short of my mark.
Now, you're a lot rougher fella than I am, ain't you, Donnie?
You and your boys here are real capable,
and you found your greatest opportunity right here in Deadwood.
Most famous gunfighter in the whole world.
He's getting old.
He is for a fact.
But the sight of him in the street, well... (SCOFFS)
It could make a young fella shake.
He don't make me shake.
How much money we talking?
You called it before, Donnie. $1,000.
(COINS JINGLING)
Here she is.
250 now, 250 when we meet tonight,
the other half when we's done.
Want it or not?
(SPEAKING CANTONESE)
I thank you for your kindness.
Wild Bill.
(SIGHING)
Maybe you can help me.
Where the hell did things go wrong?
This kid.
Ms. Jane, trouble with my eyes.
(SIGHING)
You don't understand a blessed word I'm saying, do you?
(SLURPING)
JACK: I had him.
I had him right there in front of me.
All I had to do was pull the trigger.
You ask yourself why you didn't?
I don't know.
Maybe I was enjoying the moment too much
(LAUGHS)
or maybe I ain't got the nerve.
Tie the knot right there, would you?
A bowknot or something that will slip real easy if I need it.
I guess this is fare-thee-well between you and me.
Come tonight, I either see him dead and be on the run,
or he'll kill me dead like all them others.
You've come this far.
That's already bucking the odds.
Maybe you'll just go all the way.
(SNORING)
Break the seal on that bottle there, would you, Carl?
Bill! Oh!
It's surely good to see you. Uh-huh.
Where you been, Bill?
I thought maybe that kid scared you out of town.
Carl, could you find that help of yours?
Tell him to go across to Jensen's barn and tell them to have a horse ready.
I'm heading out come dawn.
Yes, sir. I'll take care of it myself.
(CLEARS THROAT)
Did you eat your supper?
I wasn't hungry.
Now, that don't sound right to me.
Uh-uh.
You got to learn to take better care of yourself.
Where the hell did everybody go?
Not a damn person out there in the street.
Oh. There's a new gold strike 30 miles west of here.
A real gargantua.
The whole town rushed off this morning.
And you stayed?
Maybe I was worried about you, Bill.
Ain't damn likely.
Joe and Charley hung around, too.
Nobody knew where you'd been holed up.
If you're looking for them,
they're upstairs sleeping in the flop room.
Had me another bad dream on the Chinese pipe.
Things are coming back to haunt me.
I figured it was something like that.
You got to stay away from that stuff.
Stick with whiskey.
Go on, now. Drink that. It's real good for you.
- Mmm. - Oh.
Good, right?
Yeah, thanks.
(HORSE WHINNYING)
Now, I want you all to listen to me.
We're gonna ride out past the No. 10,
down to Jensen's barn.
I don't want anybody suspicious of our horses out front.
You okay, Jack?
Yeah. I'm fine.
I've been waiting for this for a real long time.
(CLICKING TONGUE)
CHARLEY: He had found the band of jackals he needed.
But as Jack McCall rode through the center of town,
he experienced the terrifying certainty
that a man faces when he is about to make his own name famous.
He lacked both a hero's calm and a coward's resolve
to survive at any price.
BILL: I have to admit
there's something about this kid that spooks me.
(SIGHING)
It must be his ma.
She was one hell of a damn fine woman.
She could talk good, drink, tear off a piece.
I had a lot of good times with Ms. Susannah Moore.
JANE: I'd like us to be in love like you and Susannah Moore.
She was the one, wasn't she?
The one you loved most of all.
That's why this kid's got a hold to you.
She was young and pretty,
and it was before you was the great Wild Bill.
And you loved her as close as you ever did anybody.
In an innocent kind of way.
Ain't that right?
Mmm, I suppose.
That's the way I'd like you to feel about me.
Ain't it a sweet thought?
I think it's a very sweet and fine thought.
I never come real good till I met you.
(LAUGHS)
Now, why do you think that is?
I don't know precisely.
I always reckoned I knew you better than them others.
You've been around lots.
(SIGHING)
This pain in my eye, that's all I think about.
It comes and goes.
(CLEARING THROAT) And your little charm, it distracts me.
You and me,
we had our time in Cheyenne, didn't we, hmm?
We had something kind of special for a while.
Yeah, listen to us, talking about our pleasures.
Mmm. As if they mattered a damn.
All this love talk, I got me a hard-on. You want to see?
Surely.
You know, I'm just an ordinary fella.
I don't want nobody thinking more than that.
It's all a bother to me.
This thing happens when I spend a night or two with no sleep,
too much whiskey, no food, I get easy.
Don't know that I should.
Oh, hush now, Bill.
Hmm?
Don't fight it none.
(PIANO PLAYING BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC)
(BOTH MOANING)
I love you, Bill.
Oh, right now, I love you, too, Jane.
Maybe we just better get on with it, hmm?
(BILL HUMMING)
His truth goes marching on
(BOTH GRUNTING)
(JACK EXCLAIMING)
(PANTING)
Move easy or I'll kill you both.
Now, get off her!
You inconsiderate bastard.
Get those guns in a tote sack and head upstairs.
See who's there.
Let's do it.
Let's shoot the son of a bitch.
I'm thinking. Don't hurry me none.
Excuse me whilst I pull up my pants.
- MAN: Upstairs. - Yeah.
Don't want no "back of the head" shot like Mr. Lincoln.
Give me that pocket gun you keep in there.
Hey! Would you mind averting your eyes?
I'm a little exposed here.
Donnie.
Goddamn, a negro!
Just a gunsharp. Don't mind my color.
I make a living.
You ungrateful son of a bitch.
I almost got my ass shot off 20 times trying to free your type during the war.
Boy, that was mighty white of you, Wild Bill.
(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)
Bill, my horses will be ready in...
Oh, shit.
Who the hell are you?
(JOE EXCLAIMING)
I don't think
these are the sort of gentlemen we should challenge, Joe.
They look a bit on the rough and boorish side,
possibly even dangerous.
(TICKING)
(SIGHING)
What are we waiting for? Let's get this done.
I told you I want to think things through.
I kind of enjoy the great man being captured like he is.
You lose your nerve?
We've been here long enough.
Well, play carols!
You reckon we really got to do this?
You deserted my ma
and left her unacknowledged.
Then you shot and killed
the only man that could have made her happy.
Your ma always knowed I might have to leave.
She enjoyed our little time together, just like I did.
Then how come you promised you were gonna be like a father to me?
That's a mighty evil thing to tell a young widow.
Now, you see, Jack,
that's the way it is with men and women.
Lots of times, men make some promises,
then take their pleasures and move on.
Jane, play carols!
JANE: Now, on the other side of the ledger,
you ought to understand
that when a woman finally surrenders to a man,
she's usually got him just about where she wants him.
I'd love to go do my toilette, s?! vous plait.
Sit back down!
Bill.
You can sit a minute.
I do believe I will.
Count me in, boys.
What if I could persuade Wild Bill
to let you go,
erase the shadow that he has cast over you,
apologize?
Go drown in crap, Charley.
I don't know why this matters to me,
except that I'd miss Bill's company,
but every time there is a death of a hero, we are all the less.
It drags down the morale.
People get anxious, depressed. They drink more.
They fight more, causing more killings,
till the general uncertainty destroys whatever useful or good remains.
Jack,
with luck and rough cunning,
you've got maybe 4O years to rid yourself of Wild Bill
and learn the value of simple things.
Fall in love with some pretty girl
and learn to cultivate your talents.
Is this your college education that makes you dribble on so?
Oh, come on, Bill.
You can let this kid go.
Apologize for wrongs, real and imagined.
Shake hands, have a drink.
You'll need all the friends you can get when your eyes get worse.
I don't apologize.
See, he figures, whatever he done, even if it wasn't perfect, was justifiable.
Well, you see, Jack,
even if Bill won't do anything but die restless
trying the patience of his friends,
maybe you could let him go.
Forgive him.
And move on.
He's the one captured here.
Well, I've said my piece.
You rotten bastard!
You okay, Charley? Come on, okay? Come on. I got you.
Charley had him some mighty interesting cards here.
Get up.
There you go. Come on, sugar.
Carl, give me a rag or something.
(BELL TOLLING)
There ain't even a Chinaman out there.
(WOMAN SCREAMING)
There isn't much change.
I expect she could see a visitor, though.
She has her screaming fits now and then,
but most times, she's normal.
I knew her family down in Arkansas.
Her mama's from Yell County.
Her boy's been boarded out.
He's rooming up the road there at the James' place.
Our women ain't very pretty, are they?
BILL: They look mostly hungry.
NURSE: Probably are.
State's had us on mush and molasses for months.
(WOMAN SOBBING)
Cows.
Rocking chair.
(LOCK CLANGING)
You shouldn't have come.
BILL: You got nothing to be ashamed about.
The woman, she says you're normal.
That's what she says, normal.
You act right, they'll let you out.
I'll make them do it.
No. I'll get out of here.
Don't you worry about that.
I just went through a bad time is all.
Lost my husband.
Lost you. Lost Dave.
You come into my life.
I thought you was
the dashing stranger that was gonna change everything,
make it all fine.
And you did.
It was all real fine for a while.
Best I ever knew about.
(LAUGHS) I even thought
you was gonna be a real good daddy to my son.
But then you went off and...
And when you come back,
it was gone.
The special feeling was gone.
Go on your way.
I got my boy.
He'll take care of me.
(SIGHING)
I'll get out of here, and he'll take care of me,
and I'll take care of him.
Go on your way now, Bill.
You gonna do it?
You gonna shoot Wild Bill?
I just got to get the time right in my head.
If you gonna finish Bill, you ought to just get to it.
I killed two men in my life.
I never made no goddamn circus out of it.
(EXHALES)
I didn't know no ladies killed.
I was defending myself against unnatural advances.
Well, pard, looks like you've come to a messy end.
No size to it. Don't seem right for the great Wild Bill,
but don't look like nothing can be done.
I been proud to know you, Bill.
Well, I figure, Jack, since all this makes no difference to Bill,
kill him quick, kill him and don't apologize.
You go to hell, Joe.
It would be a kindness to have your company,
but I'm just trying to get it over with.
Don't hold it against me, Bill.
Kill him.
Make sure you do it clean, though. Don't prolong it.
Just kill him! Let's get it done!
Everybody says kill you.
Ain't their concern. It's yours and mine.
Now, listen, I have here one hell of an idea.
You just give me the pistol,
one hard slug and then I'll quench all this.
I'll blow my own damn brains out, save you the trouble.
Yes, let him kill himself. He's been doing it all his life.
Give me the gun!
I left one slug in it.
I'm gonna stand back so you can fire when ready.
You want to say goodbye?
Sure.
Goodbye, Jack.
-(GUN CLICKS) -(ALL GASPING)
(SNICKERING)
Yeah, I got you that time, Wild Bill.
Now this is it.
I can't.
For Christ's sake.
I couldn't do it last night in the Chinese flophouse,
and I can't do it now.
Because I done it already.
Like the Bible says, I done it in my heart.
I killed you already.
How about I do it?
The man who kills Wild Bill will be very famous,
especially when he hangs for it.
Could you just jump over the bullshit?
Let's get out of here.
Be seeing you around, Wild Bill.
Maybe next time, I won't be working for no chicken-shit kid.
Come on. Let's go.
Well, at last I can do my toilette.
Now, we got your guns.
Anybody come outside before we're gone, there will be a killing.
Bill!
You all best stay in here.
Give me one of them Colts, Bill.
Can't do it, Joe.
I'm a better pistol shot than you with either hand.
How are the eyes, Bill?
Never can tell, Charley.
Comes and goes.
CHARLEY: The theater of Bill's life
had come to demand that he walk up the center of a muddy street
rather than use the boardwalk.
He had discovered
being Wild Bill was a profession in its own right.
(HORSE WHINNYING)
You ought to know better than to touch another man's hat.
Get him!
(SCREAMING)
(WHINNIES)
Come here, Jack.
Give me my pocket gun back.
I'm letting you live.
Sentimental gesture in honor of your mother.
Now, get on out of here.
Thank you, Mr. Hickok, sir.
Mind if I have me a drink before I leave?
No. I'll buy you one.
Whiskey's good for a man.
Helps you see things in perspective.
JOE: Whiskey and cards. The Lord does provide.
(SNARLING)
I was up here 20 minutes crying my eyes out,
and none of you bastards would come tell me what the hell happened!
Bill killed them all. Killed them all.
Now, I don't expect no decent treatment from Bill,
but I figured a gent like Charley would come upstairs and tell a lady!
My apologies, Jane.
But I knew if I told you that Bill was alive, you'd be mad at him again.
What's he doing here?
Bill's buying him a drink.
Uh-huh.
Now go on there and drink your drink, and then head on out of town,
else I'll be the one to put a bullet in you.
Yes, ma'am.
You ain't no kind of man at all.
You're just some kind of fool.
This whole thing's been too damn crazy, Bill!
You always been able to do whatever you want,
and we don't matter! None of us, ever!
Hush up, now. I'm concentrating on my cards.
I like this view over here better, boys.
And I'm gonna like you a whole lot better when you passed on!
That way I can just say I loved you, and I don't have to explain it none!
BILL: Oh, come on. Deal them up, Joe. My luck's running.
JOE: You remember them soldiers in Hays City, Bill?
CHARLEY: Sure he remembers.
He remembers every fight he was ever in.
He loves them all.
BILL: Goddamn soldiers.
Never liked them, any of them.
Never liked being one neither. I'm not cut out for the army life.
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)
I never liked them eastern bastards neither.
One time, Bill says to his deputy, Mike Williams, he says...
This is in Abilene.
Bill says to Mike, "I don't want you mixing in this
"because this is my affair.
"It ain't none of your regular peace-keeping job.
"It's just between me and this fella, Phil Coe
"who stole my watch."
Dave Tutt stole my watch.
JOE: Then Bill wades into this mob of drunks, sharps, whores, gold-panners,
mental oleficients, liquored soldiers,
all of them friends of the great Texas gunfighter, Phil...
Phil Coe!
Another one of them bullshit Texans.
Never much liked any of them.
Mean sons of bitches. Usually cheat at cards. Never take a bath.
JOE: Bill says,
"Phil Coe, I'm arresting you and I'm doing it
"because you went and committed a murder."
All of a sudden Phil Coe pulls a drop on Bill,
who was too quick for him
and gunned him down with two shots through the gut,
the second one breaking his spine.
The bastard deserved what he got, and that ain't the way it happened.
JOE: Then Bill hears footsteps running behind him.
He turned and fired and he accidentally kills dead through the heart
his own deputy Mike Williams.
Then he stops, tells the crowd to clear the streets,
which they done,
and he stands there and cries over the body.
Nothing like that ever happened.
It was windy. The dust got in my eyes.
JOE: Then there was the time Bill fought them soldiers in Hays City.
A whole platoon of bluecoats in the 7th Calvary took him on
over a chance remark about a woman Bill was seeing.
Bill's great fights always involved a woman, one way or another.
It was the only time the great Wild Bill made the mistake of taking off his guns.
Them soldiers damn near killed him with their fists and boots.
It was only the miracle of the bartender, one Tommy Drum,
who gave Bill back his firearms that saved the day.
I'm sending you home, Wild Bill.
No!
CHARLEY". Jack McCall was hanged March 1, 1877,
for the murder of James Butler Hickok,
known as Wild Bill.
Like a city in the old testament,
Deadwood had become a place of prophesy and visions.
Bill was 39-years-old when he died.
I'm proud to say I was his friend.
(LEANING ON JESUS PLAYING)
What a fellowship
What a joy divine
Leaning on the everlasting arms
What a blessed peace
What a joy is mine
Leaning on the everlasting arms
Leaning on Jesus
Safe and secure from all alarms
Leaning on Jesus
Leaning on the everlasting arms
Leaning on Jesus
Leaning on the everlasting arms