Movies: Sticking to Their Guns

The American affection for weaponry is the subject of several new films, foreign and domestic

In the Old West -- anyway in the old westerns--morality and mechanics went gun-in-hand. Any showdown ended with the good guy proving his superiority over the bad guy via a double blast of dexterity and firepower. Few questioned why the better man should automatically be a faster, more accurate shot or why disputes had to be resolved by gunplay. That was just the way that, in national and movie mythology, the West was won.

Today, when the western reposes in the Boot Hill of movie genres, and the acquisition of the West can be seen as a century-long act of aggression, serious...

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