Winchester '73 4K 1950

A marksmanship contest like the one shown in “The Quick and the Dead” was always in demand. Not every time, however, the best marksmen from all over the Wild West came to shoot at each other. Sometimes it was enough to hit a simple target, and it was necessary to hit it, when at stake was such a miracle - the Winchester of 1873 - a very valuable collector's rifle, whose circulation was strictly limited, and for the right to possess it everyone from small to large - bandit, not bandit: everyone dreamed of getting the steel beauty in their pockets - but the chance to carve their name on its butt fell only to the chosen ones: the President of the United States, by the way, is one of them.

Needless to say, as soon as the town of Dodge City decided to raffle off one of these Winchesters, a string of the most accurate ganfighters from all over the area traveled to the Kansas prairie in hopes of snagging the prized prize. And despite the fact that James Stewart, as befits James Stewart, beat them all in the end - the rifle was stolen. The misunderstanding would have remained a misunderstanding, if the winner himself had not expressed his desire to go in pursuit of the stolen trophy: so begins one of the most exciting stories ever known to cowboy annals, where, as it is supposed to movies with such a plot, it is absolutely impossible to predict who will be the next owner of the pedigree rifle - the whole point is that there are a lot of them here: even the Indians, and those will not stay aside, looking at which, by the way, and would not think that in forty cinematic years they will so easily communicate with Kevin Costner - the redskins in the movie are absolute savages. But what is curious is that among all this motley crew only two of them are really interested in Winchester - for the others he is just an excuse to demonstrate their superiority over someone weaker - in fact, the main intrigue of the movie is built around their confrontation. For ethical reasons I will not inform you who these two are to each other, but I will only say that the film clearly hints at the biblical story of Cain and Abel.

Anthony Mann, all the way shooting mostly westerns - and, it must be said, very good westerns: “Winchester 73” is proof of that - to match another colleague - John Ford, could easily introduce himself to the world in no other way than: “My name is Anthony Mann. I shoot westerns.” He had no less right, by the way.