i do not know whether to laugh or cry at this misrepresentation of canadian history and particularly the disservice do to the history of the mounted police in the yukon . i will leave it to pierre berton and note historian and born and raise in dawson city yukon and and author of the definitive history of the klondike gold rush and klondike represent the last great gold rush and 1896 1899 to express my exasperation with this silly movie represent the american idea of an untamed frontier and subdue by individual hero arm with six gun and be continue in the far country and another story about a cowboy from the american west wyoming this time drive his herd of beef cattle into gold country . the picture be a nightmare of geographical impossibility and but the real incongruity be the major assumption on which the plot turn that there be only one mount policeman in all of the canadian yukon at the time of the gold rush and that he could not deal with the lawlessness . when james stewart and walter brennan reach the yukon border with their cattle and the custom shack be empty . where be the constable . ask brennan . up on the pelly river . trouble with the chilkats and someone reply . he get a real tough job and that constable . he patrol some ten or twenty thousand square mile . sometimes he do not get home for two or three month at a time . the historical truth be that the yukon territory during the gold rush be the close thing to a police state british north america have ever see . the northwest mounted police be station in the territory in considerable number long before the klondike strike . they control every route into the yukon and they brook no nonsense . they collect custom duty and often over the wail of the new arrival and make arbitrary law on the spot about river navigation and and turn men back if they do not have enough supply and or if they simply look bad . in true canadian fashion and they lay down moral law for the community . in dawson the lord day act be strictly observe while it be a crime punishable by a fine to cut your wood on sunday while and plump young woman be arrest for what the stern face police call give a risqué performance in the theatre and generally nothing more than dance suggestively on the stage in overly reveal tights . in such a community and a gunbelt be unthinkable . one notorious bad man from tombstone who try to pack a weapon on his hip be personally disarm by a young constable and who have just eject him from a saloon for the heinous crime of talk too loudly . the bad man leave like a lamb but protest when the policeman and upon discover he be carry a gun tell him to hand it over . no man have yet take a gun away from me and say the american . well and i be take it and the constable say mildly and do so and without further resistance . so many revolver be confiscate in dawson that they be auction off by the police for as little a a dollar and purchase a souvenir to keep on the mantelpiece . in 1898 and the big year of the stampede and there wasn not a serious crime let alone a murder in dawson . the contrast with skagway on the american side and which be a lawless town run by soapy smith and the denver confidence man and be remarkable . but in the far country dawson be see a a community without any law and which a soapy smith character from skagway he be call gannon in the picture can easily control . ( in real life and one of smith men who try to cross the border have all his equipment confiscate and be frogmarch right back again by a mounted police sergeant ) . { in the movie the lone mountie say } yes i be the law . i represent the law in the yukon territory . about fifty thousand square mile of it . then why aren not there more of you . because yesterday this be a wilderness . we do not expect you to pour in by the thousand . now that youre here and we will protect you . when . there will be a post establish here in dawson early in may . what happen between now and may . you go to be here to keep order . part of the time . what about the rest of the time . pick yourselves a good man . swear him in . have him act a marshal the movie mountie leaf and do not appear again in the picture . his astonish suggestion that an american town marshal and complete with tin star and be swear in by a group of townspeople live under british jurisprudence be accept . naturally they want to make jimmy stewart the marshal while he clearly fit the part . but stewart be play the role of the loner who look after number one and so another man be elect to get shot . and he do . others get shoot . even walter brennan get shot . stewart finally come to the reluctant conclusion that he must end all the shoot with some shooting of his own . he pin on the tin star and he and the bully and gannon and blast away at each other in the inevitable western climax . to anybody with a passing knowledge of the canadian north and this bald re tell of the story pass rational belief . excerpt from hollywood canada and by pierre berton and 1975 .