MovieChat Forums > Jubal (1956) Discussion > Questions about the climax... (SPOILERS)

Questions about the climax... (SPOILERS)

posted 8 years ago by bcamphome
3 replies | jump to latest

When Ford gets into the shootout with Borgnine in the saloon, does he get shot at all? I didn't notice him getting shot, yet when Bronson accompanies him to the wagon train, he tells the people there that Ford is wounded and lost a lot of blood.

Next: why is there no lawman in town? The only authority figure in the posse is the town doctor. No sheriff? That seems weird. The lack of a lawman with arresting authority made the ending really awkward. The posse just kind of mills around after the big revelation about Pinky (Steiger) and then dissolves. What's needed is a lawman to make a determination right then and there about whether Ford would be charged or not. As a result, it seems kind of unresolved. There needed to be a figure to balance out Pinky's oddly outsized influence.

The ending is the only thing in the film that bothered me. Otherwise, it's pretty damned good.

[–] hobnob53 8 years ago

SPOILERS

1. Yes, Ford is shot but recovers.

2. It may seem strange that there's no lawman in town, but then this is the frontier and for a long time early settlers, especially in cattle ranges, were the law unto themselves. I think that's the case here. There would probably have been a U.S. Marshal somewhere but a long ride away. Settlements that were too sparsely populated or geographically isolated normally wouldn't have had a lawman, and anyway, even if they had a sheriff his jurisdiction would be limited to the town, not outside its limits. Not having a lawman was not unusual at all, either in the real West or in westerns. There was no sheriff or other lawman in Shane, for one example.

3. The posse doesn't just "dissolve" after the revelation about Pinky. They circle around him in an obviously threatening manner, and if you remember the camera then pans up to the hook at the top of the barn -- a clear indication that they're about to hang Pinky for murdering Mae. It's lynch-mob justice, which is odd in that Reb (Charles Bronson) and the others had been trying to prevent the mob from hanging Jubal (who was innocent but deserved a trial). However, that point does get pushed aside when it comes to Pinky. Of course he's guilty but you're right, ideally he should have been arrested by a lawman, tried and then hanged nice and legal-like. But in the absence of any formal law-enforcement figure (marshal, sheriff or judge) or mechanism a lynching will have to do.

In any case, the situation is definitely not "unresolved". The truth is established, Pinky's about to be hanged and Jubal rides off free as a bird.

[–] winomaster 7 years ago

In the West it was not unusual for there to be no local law. There may be an authority but it's miles away. Mining communities often had to set up their own law by agreement.
By having no local sherrif the story was able to maintain the conflict between Pinky and Jubal.

[–] winomaster 7 years ago

Mae was not dead when Jubal arrived which was just moments before the posse.