The Missouri Breaks (1976)

John McLiam: David Braxton

Photos 

Quotes 

• David Braxton : Honey, pull down "Tristram Shandy" again for me, will you?

• Tom Logan : I understand you had to hang someone here.

  David Braxton : I did that.

  Tom Logan : Ah, that's tough. What was this, some kind of desperado?

  David Braxton : No, he was a thief... with probably a million good reasons for being on hard times. The main thing is that we put him out of his misery.

• [first lines] 

  David Braxton : The first time I saw this country, it had buffalo grass and bluejoint up to the stirrups. By the second year, we had eight thousand Texas half-bred cattle and over three thousand five hundred volumes of English literature in my library.

  Pete Marker : Hell, we just cut out the unbranded stock and divided up even among outfits. There was no arguin' over mavericks like today.

  Sandy : You got it good today.

  David Braxton : Two percent annual loss then, now it's seven from rustling alone, not to mention winterkill, calving loss, miring down in the spring.

• David Braxton : This is my fourth frontier and I know how they run. I was in the California gold fields before I was eighteen, I was at the rush at Alder Gulch and I went with the grazing committee to South America. These long ropers in the Missouri Breaks are a mixed bag: barbers from Minneapolis, failed grangers, Scandinavian half-breeds, wolfers and woodcutters, dishonest apprentices, raftsmen, poisoners - you give them a chance and they'll waste everything!

• David Braxton : Damn it! I detest your impertinence. You stay out of my private life, you lilac-smellin' son of a bitch!