Robert Ryan's execution


The Sawbwa's preferred means of execution seems to be beheading. At one point he says about the Robert Ryan character: "I want that head to roll in my courtyard." Yet when Ryan is brought as a prisoner before the Sawbwa, he's condemned to a whipping. Am I correct in assuming that the Sawbwa wanted Ryan to bleed and suffer pain before the quick death by beheading? Thus he ordered a whipping to take place as a build-up to the actual execution? If this is the case, then bits of dialog have been edited out of the final print, leaving one the impression that Sawbwa intends Ryan to be whipped to death.

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