The Western as a film genre is quintessentially American in its roots. The classic Westerns commonly depict the struggles of establishing settlements and the challenges people face while living in the wilderness and crossing the frontier. Despite what one would expect given their period and subject matter, many Westerns from the 1950s, including John Ford’s best movies and Robert Mitchum’s best Western movies, took a revisionist approach. They fought back against racial prejudices by exploring the immorality of the gunslingers’ behavior, especially towards Indigenous people.
