‘They’re Saved from the Blessings of Civilization’: Violence, Law, and Progress in the Westerns of John Ford

Abstract

This article examines the interrelated subjects of law, violence, progress, and civilization in three westerns from the American film director John Ford. Taken as a whole these three films, Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, equate civilization with the rule of law. Law is necessary to end the cycles of revenge and wanton violence depicted in the first two films. The final film is a meditation on the deliberate and violent elements of law, which must be combined in order to sustain a political community and provide the conditions for material, moral, and intellectual improvement.