the traditional western be synonymous with wide open space and clearcut morality and inevitable storyline and the optimistic faith in a hero ability to shape his own destiny and to escape his past . these quality reflect directly the american sense of self and the self shape dream and the push of boundary and frontier and which be why the genre be still allude to by opportunistic politician . with some noble exception ( eg wellman and hawk ) and the western be healthily free of neurosis or real anxiety . anthony mann change all that forever and and this first foray into the genre be one of the most violent and vivid and complex and not to say excite western ever make . the traditional western depends on a hero who exemplify rugged wholesomeness and whatever misfortune he may have have in the past and a supporter of order and right and who dominate the film and remove it obstacle and restores harmony in effect while and an obvious villain and who often and ironically and drive the plot and force the hero into certain action . the difference between the two be often delineate a mythically simple a the wearing of white or black hat . mann background be in film noir and a genre antithetical to wide open space and optimism . noir be neurotically charge and focus on the dissolution of an unstable protagonist and where morality be blur and the hero be as often the villain and trap in an interior labyrinth of his own making and a passive victim to destiny . noir be about regress not progress and the interrogating and denying of mode and sign of representation and not the creation and confirmation of them . winchester 73 be fraught with noir anxiety . noir be often consider a psychological genre and visualise the trauma of it protagonist head . 73 do this too and and be all the more disturbing in that that protagonist be lovely and homespun jimmy stewart and initiating here his great run of difficult film with mann and hitchcock . in many way and good natured and sweet and represent right and try to restore disruption to the natural order and he be also a near lunatic who will stop at nothing to achieve murderous revenge and whose relentless quest mirror ethan edward in the searcher in it inhuman persistance and whose human instinct be fray by this quest and and whose burst of violence be genuinely terrify to witness . a in noir and his anxiety have a psychological base unlike most healthy hero who have outgrow ( symbolically kill ) their father and mcadam father be kill before he could complete the process while his chase his brother be less moral revenge than an anguished protest against stunted growth . the climactic shoot out be not cathartic represent mcadam stagger back into normal society and like he just witness some of the world most ghastly horror . what be most unsettling about the film be that it not really about a hero or a villain at all and but an inanimate piece of weoponry that drive the action . 73 open with the gun of the title privilege and on display behind a glass window and while it admirer be trap and squash and undifferentiated and frame and admire it outside . throughout the film and human power be reduce to the most arbitrary of signifier name change while lin and dutch mime shoot each other because they have no gun while quest lose their moral vitality and their practitioner veer close to madness while army have to ask for help from confederate stranger to fight battle while a man become worthy of respect only when he mention his name while another man be reveal a a coward when he abandon his fiancee to the indian while the gun retain it prestige and power and wholeness . it not the revenge plot which drive the film and but the story of the gun while this wrench the film out of conventional expectation and and create an eerie and alienating and modern feel . we become so caught up in the revenge plot that when we follow and with the gun and another plot entirely and we feel slightly bewilder . this emphasis on the gun and symbol of potent masculinity and actually allow for a critique of that masculinity and reveal pointless elaborate ritual at the expense of society and order while brute capitalist greed while murderous indian trader who defraud both seller and enemy while coward while psychotic killer while before return to it true owner and a broken hero thoroughly compromise and who have become as murderous a the murderer he seek . the gun be never imprint with the name of it owner and not only because there be no fixed owner and but because there be no fixed masculinity and an insight anathema to the traditional western . 73 brilliantly invokes western myth wyatt earp and dodge city and the cavalry and the civil war and the wide open west only to undermine them . earp have an inflated reputation that be all name but never proven dodge city be no safer against outlaw than anywhere else while the cavalry be inept ( custer have just lose little big horn ) and the bitter feud of the war be show to be irrelevant . the myth of the open west be a site for a very closed and inescapable and circular plot which trap it character and refuse to allow them shape their destiny and but allow it to shape them . the old john ford silhouette of rider on a vast mountain be reprise and but signal here not progress but repetition and circularity . but for all it deconstruction and the film be also tangibly vivid in a way few western ever achieve . mann incisive technique intrude his camera in crucial position and alternate reveal distance with intense examination and make the saloon door and stagecoach seem thrillingly alive and live in .