Additional Information
Here’s how the screenplay opens:
EXTERIOR. NIGHT. THE GREAT PLAINS.
A riderless horse in a lightning-driven stampede. Yellow-slickered cowboys crane their necks, stand in the saddle, and yell, searching for their lost comrade, but they have the herd, their own horses, and their own skins to look out for. It couldn’t be louder, wetter, darker, or more dangerous. And the chances that their friend has survived dwindle with each long second between the flash of the bolt and the crash of thunder…
And the movie rolls from there. All the greats painted or sculpted this scene: Remington, Russell, Johnson, Leigh, Jackson. Classic.