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Wild West Rivalries: The Thrill of Conflict in Western Movies

By John McGran

Key Takeaways

  • You’ll get a healthy dose of rivalries every Friday in November
  • Few families ever truly outgrow a fierce sibling rivalry
  • Red Sun rounds out a spectacular rivals month

 

There’s something about rivalries, real or reel, that spark emotions and get the adrenaline flowing. Psychologists will tell you it’s because most of us can relate to a number of rivalries on a personal level.

Our all-time favorite Westerns often feature a red-hot rivalry that brings out the best—and the worst—in characters competing for the same objective. Whether that coveted prize is an eye-popping shipment of gold, a stunningly beautiful woman or even an amazing new rifle, you just know there’s going to be plenty of one-upmanship, plot twists and heart-pounding action unfolding onscreen.

So, if it’s rivalries you want, it’s rivalries you’ll get every Friday in November as we roll out a quintet of classics: Bandolero!, Seminole, The War Wagon, Winchester ’73 and Red Sun.

As one of seven children, I can relate to sibling rivalries—as well as the accompanying taunts, tattles and occasional smacks shared by brothers and sisters competing for the approval of mom and dad.

If, like me, you cut your TV-viewing teeth on 70s sitcoms like The Brady Bunch, you’ll recall Jan’s ongoing struggle with her uber popular big sister Marcia.

Brotherly love often took a backseat to braggadocio on Bonanza where Ben Cartwright’s boys—Adam, Hoss and Joe—frequently jockeyed for favored son status.

Few ever truly outgrow a sibling rivalry. There are those times however when sibling rivalries take a back seat to romantic rivalries. All-star examples include Sam Malone and Dr. Frasier Crane on Cheers, and Krystal Carrington and Alexis Carrington on Dynasty.

Other recognized rivalries include political, sports and corporate. Any of these rivalries can catapult a calm and collected person into a heated argument, discussion or discourse that just might result in the loss of respect, civility and maybe even a few friends.

Movies that feature any or all of these intense rivalries allow us to root for a character we best identify with—and we can do it from the comfort of our couch.

While everybody loves somebody sometime, film fans can’t help but fall hopelessly in love with a film that features Hollywood legends Dean Martin, Jimmy Stewart and Raquel Welch. Few films can rival Bandolero! and its iconic cast, lush settings and edge-of-your-seat storyline that has brothers Dee and Mace Bishop (Martin and Stewart) on the run following a failed bank heist and—gulp!—a near-hanging! Bullets fly and blood flows before the brothers and their stunning hostage Maria Stoner (Welch) hightail it for Mexico in an ill-fated attempt to elude a posse headed by love-smitten Sheriff July Johnson (George Kennedy).

Outlaws and lawmen form an uneasy alliance to fend off a bloodthirsty bunch of bandoleros. All we can say without spoiling the plot is that many a good man—and quite a few bad ones—will meet their maker before the final credits roll and the brother-vs-brother and brothers-vs-sheriff rivalries are resolved.

There’s plenty of deadly serious shoot ’em up action yet the characters find enough screen time for love and laughs too.

Seminole, a Western with a bit of a woke theme, offers a star-studded cast that features Rock Hudson, Barbara Hale and Anthony Quinn.

Rivalries arise when Lt. Lance Caldwell (Hudson) is assigned to Fort King in the Florida Everglades where he clashes with Maj. Harlan Degan (Richard Carlson), a cold and calculating commander who wants to wipe out the native Seminole Indians. But that approach is dead on arrival for the idealistic cavalryman who had been a childhood friend and romantic rival of Seminole Chief Osceola (Quinn).

The plot majorly thickens when Caldwell faces court martial and execution after being framed for the murder of a fellow soldier. Meanwhile, a peace-seeking Chief Osceola is beaten nearly to death and imprisoned for life after coming to the fort while waving a white flag of truce and seeking a powwow.

Truth and justice are trampled during Caldwell’s trial but his life is spared by a last-minute confession from the actual killer. Osceola never gets a chance at a fair trial or freedom.

The War Wagon thunders onto the screen with larger-than-life tough guys and lots and lots of gold.

John Wayne is former rancher Taw Jackson, a man who, after being shot, robbed and wrongfully imprisoned, launches a plan to exact revenge on the man who done him wrong—corrupt businessman Frank Pierce played to perfection by Bruce Cabot. Jackson is out to hit Pierce where it really hurts—his wallet.

But to do so he must embrace the man Cabot had hired to do him in. Lomax is the steely eyed and chiseled chin gunslinger played by Kirk Douglas. There’s only one not-so-little hitch with Jackson’s plan to steal a large gold shipment from Pierce. The gold is being transported in a heavily armored stagecoach topped by a Gatling gun and ringed by heavily armed mounted guards.

The War Wagon hit theaters in 1968 and marked the third and final time Wayne and Douglas would co-star in a major motion picture. While scandal sheets at the time would have fans believe there was a real-life rift between these box office behemoths, Wayne and Douglas were actually able to overlook their disagreements and vastly different political ideologies to share mutual respect and admiration. The caustic chemistry, however, plays well in The War Wagon.

A super supporting cast that includes Bruce Dern and Howard Keel adds character-driven depth to The War Wagon and its haul of action and humor.

It’s not every day that a gun shares top billing with megastars like James Stewart, Rock Hudson, Dan Duryea, Shelley Winters and Will Geer. But that’s what happens—and deservedly so—in Winchester ’73.

Stewart returns to rivals month as Lin McAdam, an amazing sharpshooter who wins, then quickly loses and doggedly pursues a Winchester ’73. The action builds to a final showdown and shoot-out on a rocky mountain precipice as the legendary repeating rifle repeatedly changes hands. The movie opens with McAdam searching for a man with whom he has a personal score to settle. Finding himself in Dodge City with time to kill, McAdam enters a shooting contest that triggers a remarkable chain of events involving the prized rifle.

At the time of its 1950 release, the Winchester ’73 plot was novel enough to earn ink from the New York Times.

“They’ve got a new angle for Westerns. It’s no longer cowboy loves horse nor even cowboy loves girl, a motivation which is widely frowned upon as sissy stuff. This new dramatic angulation might be labeled cowboy loves gun, and it provides quite as much inspiration as any cowboy-horse romance,” wrote reviewer Bosley Crowther.

“A raw and rangy frontiersman, whom Jimmy Stewart plays, falls in love, with a new Winchester rifle, which is the wonder and envy of the plains. In a Dodge City marksmanship contest, he wins the beauteous shooting iron and is about to start housekeeping with it when it is stolen by his mortal enemy. In short—to continue the formula— cowboy loses gun. And then begins the pursual.”

Rounding out rivals month is Red Sun, an Asian-infused Western that’s truly a horse of a different color.

A gunman and a samurai (Charles Bronson and Toshiro Mifune) must lay their differences aside and work together after a gang robs a train carrying Japanese diplomats and makes off with $400,000 and an ornate Japanese sword meant as a gift for the U.S. president.

This exciting mash-up of samurai and Western genres also features Ursula Andress as the prostitute love interest used to bait gang leader Gauche (Alain Delon) into a pulse-pounding square off with the men tasked to retrieve money and sword.

The action is made dicier with subplots involving honor-driven suicide (harakiri) and vengeful Commanches.

 About John McGran 

Veteran author and web content creator John McGran has spent the past 40 years blazing trails in the fields of news, food and sports. The guy who grew up binge-watching black-and-white Westerns like The Rifleman, Gunsmoke and Bonanza has joined the posse of INSP writers to provide a colorful new look at the characters, shows and movies you know and love. 

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