Why Yellowstone's Danny Huston Believes Taylor Sheridan Uses Violence To Tell The Story

Taylor Sheridan-penned stories tend to have their fair share of violence. Whether it's shootouts at the U.S. Mexico border in "Sicario" or Jeremy Renner pistol-whipping Russian gangsters on "Mayor of Kingstown," Sheridan prefers seeing what happens when characters are thrown into extreme circumstances demanding extreme measures to survive.

Even "Yellowstone," a modern Western set in Montana and focusing on a ranching family, is littered with violence. Violence is more a necessity than anything when telling the stories that interest Sheridan. On "Yellowstone," the Dutton family, led by John Dutton (Kevin Costner), have plenty of old-school morals they stick to, but owning as much land as they do guarantees a constant fight, one that can still turn deadly in the modern world, as John is always so ready to tell his children.

One of the more shocking bits of early violence in the series came at the end of "Yellowstone" Season 1 when Dutton has Dan Jenkins (Danny Huston) hanged from a tree by rope, except Jenkins is saved at the last minute and gets a stern warning from Dutton about what land belongs to whom. Huston discussed the relationship between violence and "Yellowstone" while discussing the series and gave his own reason for why Sheridan uses such extremes to tell his story.

In "Yellowstone" Season 2, it's revealed that Dan Jenkins remained in Montana, sporting a rope burn around his neck, a constant reminder from John Dutton (Kevin Costner) about who the biggest fish in the pond is. Jenkins has been just one of several adversaries for Dutton.

Speaking to TV Insider in July 2019, Huston theorized the story of "Yellowstone" and the constant battles over land and resistance to change is closely related to the birth of major turning points in American history, the most drastic of which often turned bloody. Jenkins represented the more civilized future, while John was the past. Yet both are so rigid in their ways that neither is capable of all that much progress.

"It's, in a way, a story about America and how the country has been born. A lot of birth in America is through violence and there's nobody better than Taylor Sheridan to write that subject, the subject of the birth of America. The character of Dan Jenkins is a more civilized America, but will that civilized quality in Dan Jenkins survive the violence that is brought upon it?" Huston said.