Jimmy Stewart's most violent Western?
*WARNING*! This post contains spoilers. I do believe this is the most violent of all the Westerns in which Jimmy Stewart appeared. Consider the body count. First, McLyntock (Stewart) and Cole (Kennedy) dispatch five Indians who have attacked the wagon train. In Portland, Cole kills a gambler caught cheating. Later, when McLyntock returns to claim supplies the settlers have paid for, a fight breaks out in the casino and three of merchant Tom Hendricks’ men are killed. The fight continues at the riverboat dock, where three more fall. That makes the body count 12. Hendricks chases after his supplies, but McLintock lays a trap for him in a box canyon. There Hendricks and seven of his men die in the ensuing shootout. After Cole hijacks the wagons on the mountain, McLintock tracks down three of Coles’ men and Cole kills another who questions his order. Finally, at the riverbank, five miners are shot off their horses and Cole dies at the hands of McLintock as they grapple in the river. That makes of a total of nearly 30 dead, three quarters of those coming as the result of a fight over some wagons and cattle. One wonders if maybe a better way could have been found to settle that dispute. Had I been one of those delivering the cattle and wagons to the settlement, I wouldn’t have been smiling when I got there, thinking about all the carnage.
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