Dennis Beard

I've always liked this movie. It's not just a western where the hero or even anti-hero rides into town to wreck havoc on the local bully or land grabber. This is a western on a grand scale where we see varying personalities, ideas, judgments, emotions, and perhaps even social theories come into conflict. We see various kinds of conflicts reaching resolution, and we are left wondering how the new resolution of the final action will work out. What unforeseen problems will arise. This is a fitting ending to a movie so loaded with complications, and so unusual for a western. Who in this movie is the ideal American man? The answer to that question is far more complicated than in a more simple, and pleasing, film like "Stagecoach."