Surprised I had never seen it? Me too.
I thought it was fantastic. Definitely some odd events that made no sense.... but that's old westerns. One particular goofy thing right at the end... I won't give it away.
As for the ending in general... not the best... I suppose I get it but no matter... it was the telling, the flow of the movie... the scenery.... and the plot was, well, different but fascinating.... based on real events. The acting was superb.
The Dialogue... this fascinated me. I'm not learned enough in the way they spoke in those days to say this movie was accurate... it's certainly not how we speak today or even in the '40's when this movie was made. I kept going back and forth thinking it was disjointed to thinking it was brilliant.
Definitely a thumbs up for me but too bad for you young whipper-snappers...it's in B&W.