Ending?


I was watching this movie, got to the part where they're crossing the salt sea and Harry Carey Jr. had just collapsed and I have a suspicion about to die, and the electricity switched off. I wasn't really enjoying the movie (I've never really liked movies where one of the problems is a lack of water and food, especially when it leads to death and demise), so I didn't finish it after the lights came back on, but I'm rather curious over how it ends and how many of the godfathers make it through alive.

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The three godfathers, carrying the baby, make their way across the desert towards civilization. The Abilene Kid, played by Harry Carey, Jr., collapses, weak from lack of water and dies of thirst. He is given a Christian burial by Robert Marmaduke Hightower (John Wayne) and Pedro (Pedro Armendariz). Robert and Pedro continue on with the child, but Pedro breaks his leg in a fall. Knowing he is in the desert with little water, a broken leg, a very little chance of rescue, Pedro tells Robert to continue on with the child, and asks Robert to leave him a pistol to protect himself until "help" arrives. Robert gives Pedro a gun. He continues on and is only a short distance away when he hears a gunshot and realizes that Pedro has shot himself, that being quicker than dying of thirst and exposure. Robert forces himself onward, carrying the baby and taking comfort from his Bible. He travels through the night, seeming to follow the star that hangs above the settlement. On the point of death himself, he reaches the town. The baby is reunited with his aunt and uncle. Robert, who lives, is arrested for his crimes. However, in light of his heroic efforts to kept the child alive and return him to family, Robert is given a light sentence for his crimes.

Although it seems like a depressing movie, it is much more uplifting than one would think and worth seeing.

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Fantastic synopsis of the ending ljspin and thank you very much!

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Just a couple of corrections:

1) Bob and Pedro don't give the kid a christian burial. He died out on the salt flats where the ground is like concrete. Even if they had shovels (which they didn't), both of them were about done in themselves. They had to keep going to get the baby to safety. But Bob stops to pick up the Bible he had previously scoffed at.

2) When Pedro falls and breaks his leg, Bob offers to fashion a travois to drag him along, but Pedro convinces him to go on for the baby's sake. There is never any illusion that help will arrive, and Pedro asks him to leave him his pistol "for the coyotes, you know?" Bob says, "Yeah, sure Pete...coyotes." They both know what the gun is for. When the shot rings out, Bob stops momentarily, then without looking back, presses on.

When it appears Bob can go no further, the Bible is laying on the ground, and the pages are ruffling in the wind. He randomly stops the pages from blowing, and his hand falls onto Matthew 21:

And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, then sent Jesus two disciples, saying unto them, “Go into the village over against you, and straightaway ye shall find a donkey tied, and a colt by her: loose them and bring them unto me".

He gets agitated and throws away the Bible. He starts hallucinating that Pedro and the Kid are there, driving him on. All of the sudden, a donkey and it's colt appear. He staggers along leaning on the donkey, which leads him into New Jerusalem.

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Do yourself a big favor & watch the movie again. Enjoy the ending in context & I believe you'll find it a VERY satisfying experience.

"Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble & beautiful end of a Human Being"

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Just watch the movie yourself and find out. Like other John Ford or classic films, it's far better than most other things you could be doing these days.

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