More than the answers to all of life’s riddles can be found in the movies.
The Missouri Breaks was a western with a cast that could not be ignored. Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando and a good many others whose faces, if not names, you would know. It was great. However the few people I talked to, that also saw it, hated it. Cross examination of their opinion clearly revealed that it was not the movie they loathed but the character Marlon Brando played- Robert E. Lee Clayton. And he was law enforcement.
Tom (Nicholson) was the co-leader of a gang of horse thieves pretending to be start-up ranchers. Jane, the daughter of the local horse baron, pursued Tom romantically and eventually over came his amusing coyness.
One afternoon, riding face to face on the same horse (Fully clothed, the PG rating came from Robert Lee’s ‘methodologies’.) Jane, who was pretty sure that Tom, et al. were up to things other than they affirmed, attempts to get a handle on how long her new beau is likely to last.
Jane: Are you an outlaw?
Tom: No, why do you ask?
Jane: You have all those guns.
Tom: I’m a sportsman.
Jane: A sawed-off shotgun!?
Tom: I’m a sawed off sportsman.
I knew as soon as he said it…that’s it, that’s what we’ve been doing, sawed-off sportsmanship. No, not stealing horses, you can have my share. And no, not using sawed-off shotguns; it’s against the law. Rule One of the “Sawed-off Sportsman’s Code” is never break the law. In fact, one worthy of the label is generally a deep student of the fish and game laws…at the time and place. However, bonus points accrue to activities causing new law to be written.
ML
1/18/07
