You might be wondering why I talk about and review films decades of years old. I’ll tell you. It’s because they’re good and worth talking about. They’re worth remembering. The Gunfighter from 1950 reminds me of The Twilight Zone. It is almost like an extended episode. You have the black and white, dramatically lit scenery. You have the moral characters facing circumstances which force them to choose between right and wrong, as best as they can work that out. You have the “be careful what you wish for, for you just may get it” ending which was such a regular feature of The Twilight Zone. I sure do wish we could get back to simpler times and simpler films like The Gunfighter again. No fancy effects or gimmicks. Just good character-based storytelling with a moral. The Big Country, from eight years later, has much of the same feel. Restraint as power is something many of us alive today would do well to cultivate.

The Gunfighter

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