The Jack Bull tells the story of Myrl Redding, a Wyoming horse trader who clashes with Henry Ballard, a fellow rancher, after Ballard abuses two of Myrl's horses and their Crow Indian caretaker, Billy. When Judge Wilkins throws out Myrl's complaint, the war he wages to force Ballard to nurse the emaciated animals back to health escalates into a vigilante manhunt, murder and the possible defeat of Wyoming's bid for statehood.
The Jack Bull is a 1999 American Western television film directed by John Badham and written by Dick Cusack, loosely inspired by Heinrich von Kleist's 1810 novel Michael Kohlhaas. It stars John Cusack, John Goodman, L. Q. Jones, Miranda Otto, and John C. McGinley, and aired on HBO on April 17, 1999. Much of the movie was filmed at the CL Ranch and the Heritage Park Historical Village in Calgary, Alberta.