"The Guitar" (1x35) is a truly unique episode of Gunsmoke and perhaps one of its most daring forays.
While Marshal Matt Dillon is absent from Dodge, a guitar player is relentlessly persecuted and harassed by two troublemakers from Texas. In an attempt to protect the guitar player, Chester and others intervene on his behalf. Undaunted, the troublemakers capture the guitar player during the night and, ostensibly, hang him.
What happens next occurs off-screen, but the outcome is both shocking and bizarre: The citizens of Dodge catch and lynch the two troublemakers. Confronted with their dangling corpses, Matt Dillon offers a rebuke of the lynching, but seems unperturbed by the heinous act committed by the town citizens.
More disturbing is the subtle yet unmistakable hints that Chester, Sam the bartender, and other leading citizens of Dodge have participated in the impromptu hanging.
This unvarnished depiction of frontier justice -- a lynch-mob justice which Dillon was too late to stop but grudgingly understands -- is a truly rare occurrence in television history. After viewing the episode, I was morally sickened, but I could not deny the gritty, undeniable realism of such a powerful ending.
This episode is yet another example why the early years of Gunsmoke are truly unique.
While Marshal Matt Dillon is absent from Dodge, a guitar player is relentlessly persecuted and harassed by two troublemakers from Texas. In an attempt to protect the guitar player, Chester and others intervene on his behalf. Undaunted, the troublemakers capture the guitar player during the night and, ostensibly, hang him.
What happens next occurs off-screen, but the outcome is both shocking and bizarre: The citizens of Dodge catch and lynch the two troublemakers. Confronted with their dangling corpses, Matt Dillon offers a rebuke of the lynching, but seems unperturbed by the heinous act committed by the town citizens.
More disturbing is the subtle yet unmistakable hints that Chester, Sam the bartender, and other leading citizens of Dodge have participated in the impromptu hanging.
This unvarnished depiction of frontier justice -- a lynch-mob justice which Dillon was too late to stop but grudgingly understands -- is a truly rare occurrence in television history. After viewing the episode, I was morally sickened, but I could not deny the gritty, undeniable realism of such a powerful ending.
This episode is yet another example why the early years of Gunsmoke are truly unique.