Who died and made Buck Wyatt God?
He makes up the rules, you violate them, and he kills you. Who gave him the right to just murder people who violate his rules?
shareWell, he was the wagonmaster so that made him the law where no other law existed. In conditions so bad, someone has to be in charge and sometimes that means killing the evil element, such as someone who rapes a woman even if she was a prostitute in her old life.
shareI missed the first fifteen minutes of this, so I don't know exactly when the time period was that this was set in, but they must have had some law in this area at the time.
This aspect of the movie disgusted me.
It was set in 1851 so I doubt there were constables along the trail between Chicago & the Southwest. They left from Independence, MO. and it truly was wild country back then. California was settled but the land in between was still Indian country.
shareThanks for the feedback.
Nomad
What was Buck supposed to do with the rapist, for example? Tie him up and keep him in a wagon for the rest of the trip? Someone would either set him free (one of the other drivers, perhaps) or kill him in his sleep (one of the women- Laurie, his victim, or Fifi Danon, her friend come to mind). Buck was chosen to lead the party through a vast area where there was absolutely no local law whatsoever. He was very up-front with his rules and requirements- the men could certainly not claim ignorance of what he required of them, and they would have signed articles of agreement prior to departing Independence, MO. If he had let the rapist off with a stern warning, how long do you think it would've been before another woman was raped? Not long, I'll bet.
Even if Buck had carried the rapist all the way to California, what lawman could arrest him? The crime was committed outside the jurisdiction of the California peace officers; they would be powerless to arrest or punish him. And yet the crime of rape was usually punishable by death in the Old West, and demanded swift action. Buck did exactly right in that situation, even if it offends your delicate, squeamish presuppositions. You are applying 21st Century sensibilities to a 19th Century situation- always a bad idea. If toughness and decisiveness bother you, you maybe better stick to films that are based on Jane Austin novels in the future. Or man up.
"It ain't dying I'm talking about, it's living!!!"
Augustus McCrae
And the women didn't seem to have a problem with Buck's enforcement of justice. Remember when the rapist's friend tries to kill Buckin retaliation for his friend's death, Maggie O'Malley calmly shoots the man down, blowing the smoke away from her pistol barrel when she's done.
Spin
He also warned them repeatedly that anyone messing with the women would have to leave....or get shot. The first guy he catches he just shoots in the hand. The rapist he kills, and in a land with no law within hundreds of miles, that's perfectly justified in my opinion. Buck acts from a number of motivations - to protect the women themselves, and to ensure that the men in California get "good" women as promised, and I think,to protect his men from entanglements. Buck's stern but you had to be to get across all that wilderness and obstacles. Our weak sisters, male and female, nowadays - including me - couldn't have done it. Love this movie!!!
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