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Broken Trail

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type
TVTItem
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label
Broken Trail
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page
BrokenTrail
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comment
Broken Trail is a made-for-TV movie/miniseries directed by Walter Hill and first broadcast in 2006 on AMC. It is, to a large extent, a vehicle for Robert Duvall, who gets to play his favorite role, that of the grizzled, world-weary but honorable cowboy. The film is thus considered part of Duvall's informal Western trilogy, whose first two instalments were Lonesome Dove and the Kevin Costner-directed feature movie Open Range.The story takes place in 1898. Duvall, as old rogue Print Ritter, and Thomas Haden Church, as his nephew Tom Harte, are driving Oregon ponies to Wyoming, where they are going to be sold to a horse trader working for the British army, who need mounts for the Boer War in South Africa and are paying top dollar. On their way, they come across five young Chinese women who have been sold into prostitution and are being taken to their new owner, a ruthless madam in a mining town. Ritter and Harte rescue the women from their sordid fate and decide to take them to safety.
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fetched
2023-08-17T16:30:08Z
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2023-08-17T16:30:08Z
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DBTropes
 Broken Trail / int_12dd1d4c
type
Rape as Drama
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comment
Rape as Drama
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 Broken Trail / int_17501df2
type
Cool Old Guy
 Broken Trail / int_17501df2
comment
Cool Old Guy: Print. Come on, he's Robert Duvall, after all.
 Broken Trail / int_17501df2
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 Broken Trail / int_1dfd19f9
type
Papa Wolf
 Broken Trail / int_1dfd19f9
comment
Papa Wolf: Prentice Ritter is a very nice guy, but don't ever threaten the people he cares about.
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 Broken Trail / int_1e8f4221
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Fingore
 Broken Trail / int_1e8f4221
comment
Fingore: Tom blows a rapist's thumbs off with his Colt Peacemaker.
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 Broken Trail / int_32da91b8
type
Out of Focus
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comment
Out of Focus: Novice cowhand Heck is doing some chores offscreen for quite a bit of the three-hour miniseries and probably has less than ten minutes' worth of dialogue (although he makes the most of a lot of the scenes he does have).
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 Broken Trail / int_33576bdb
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The Sheriff
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comment
The Sheriff: Once, in passing. He doesn't do much, mostly because he's hunting Ed Bywaters, but has no notion of where to look for him.
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 Broken Trail / int_3e99481a
type
Deadly Distant Finale
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comment
Deadly Distant Finale: The epilogue references the deaths of Prent, Nola, and the two youngest Chinese Girls. The first two die of natural causes, while the others die in the Cultural Revolution (although since that happens almost seventy years after the movie's events, they still lived long and fulfilling lives).
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 Broken Trail / int_471a505f
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Four Is Death
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comment
Four Is Death: Because the cowboys can't pronounce the women's real names, they name them "Number One" to "Number Five". When the women realize this, "Number Four" objects to being given an unlucky number for a name. One of the other women eventually accepts to be "Number Four", and she does so because she fully expects a tragic fate to befall her, which indeed it does.
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 Broken Trail / int_479d4e5a
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Would Hurt a Child
 Broken Trail / int_479d4e5a
comment
Would Hurt a Child: Ed "Big Ears" Bywaters is explicitly clear about exactly what he and his thugs intend to do to the girls. While Tom deals with the thugs, Print makes it even clearer that he will not let that happen.
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 Broken Trail / int_49d59be9
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Scenery Porn
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comment
Scenery Porn: The camera can't get enough of the American West's wide-open vistas.
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 Broken Trail / int_51300dbf
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Fat Bastard
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comment
Fat Bastard: "Big Rump" Kate provides a female example. Dear God, does she ever.
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 Broken Trail / int_6bda9a30
type
Meaningful Name
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comment
Meaningful Name: Likely unintentional. "Ritter," the main character's surname, is the German term for "knight."
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 Broken Trail / int_6d332aea
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Driven to Suicide
 Broken Trail / int_6d332aea
comment
Driven to Suicide: Number Four gets raped once too many.
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 Broken Trail / int_77063cd7
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Hooker with a Heart of Gold
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comment
Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Nola. Averted by "Big Rump" Kate, the ruthless head prostitute who originally bought the Chinese girls. A Chinese local assures the heroes it would be kinder to just go ahead and slit the girls' throats rather than leave them in the same town as Kate.
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 Broken Trail / int_79a80b74
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Fair for Its Day
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comment
Fair for Its Day: In-Universe Tom and Print's treatment of Lung Hay's scalp laceration. Their discussion of "how a Chinaman values his lid" would give the modern Political Correctness crowd a heart attack, but in context, it shows that they are genuinely sensitive to Chinese cultural values (at least the ones they know of) and want to make sure that he won't be left with a potentially-undignified scar. For that matter, Tom always addresses him as "Mister Lung Hay." It's clear that Lung is not used to being respectfully addressed by a white man.
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 Broken Trail / int_88cee6e2
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Abhorrent Admirer
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comment
Abhorrent Admirer: Bywaters has a thing for Nola, but not the kind of thing that might make her a Morality Pet. She's scarred physically and emotionally from his past abuses.
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Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil
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comment
Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: When a drunk severely beats Lung Hay and rapes Number Four, Tom leaves him crippled for life. Print later beats the Big Bad to death with a hammer for threatening to rape Nola (again) and the girls.
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 Broken Trail / int_8b823b6e
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Cattle Drive
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comment
Cattle Drive: With horses rather than cattle, but apart from that the trope is played straight.
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 Broken Trail / int_991d9e86
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Cowboy
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comment
Cowboy: Ritter and Harte.
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 Broken Trail / int_9d17b859
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Made of Iron
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comment
Made of Iron: Bywaters and his thugs beat Prentice Ritter savagely and are about to graduate from beating to Cold-Blooded Torture, while not being shy about what they plan to do to the girls. As soon as Tom gets their attention, Print picks up a blacksmith's hammer and turns Bywaters' skull inside-out with it.
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 Broken Trail / int_a8660c25
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Soft-Spoken Sadist
 Broken Trail / int_a8660c25
comment
Soft-Spoken Sadist: Bywaters is a psychotic murderer, rapist, and thief who never raises his voice.
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"Where Are They Now?" Epilogue
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"Where Are They Now?" Epilogue
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 Broken Trail / int_bc74ef27
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Berserk Button
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comment
Berserk Button: Neither Tom nor his Uncle Print take kindly to men who sexually assault women of any race.
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 Broken Trail / int_e0ecc959
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Changed My Mind, Kid
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comment
Changed My Mind, Kid: One of the villains plays with this trope in the climax, running away the instant the Bywaters gang is at a disadvantage but then returning to help his comrades several seconds later, only to make a failed attempt to flee again once all of his companions are dead.
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 Broken Trail / int_eb81c601
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Big Damn Heroes
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comment
Big Damn Heroes: A couple times. Thomas Church is in all of them, and on one occasion shoots off a man's thumbs.
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Chinese Launderer
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Chinese Launderer: Lung Hay.
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Broken Trail

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

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seeAlso
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hasFeature
Cattle Drive / int_9c233b77
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hasFeature
Changed My Mind, Kid / int_9c233b77
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hasFeature
Chinese Launderer / int_9c233b77
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hasFeature
Deadly Distant Finale / int_9c233b77
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Four Is Death / int_9c233b77
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Mighty Whitey and Mellow Yellow / int_9c233b77
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hasFeature
Out of Focus / int_9c233b77
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hasFeature
The Wild West / int_9c233b77