The evolution of the main character is amazing as the movie progresses : in the first sequences ,he's a good father whose pregnant wife dies because of the unseemly intervention of people from this Yankee town ,we do feel for him and we do not expect the unenviable fate in store for his fellow men ; this once victim is driven by two rancours : the lost Civil War and mainly ,the death of his beloved wife for 1.87 measly dollars ;Alan Ladd is all the more threatening since he remains straight-faced nay meek ;his hatred for the Yankees extends to the other human beings ,to his own accomplices ,even to Julie ,the saloon gal, "a slut who could not compare with his late beloved Ellie "; in the end ,one wonders whether the 100,000 $ matter that much to him;the more the inhabitants of the town try to undo the harm they made to him (they make him their sheriff,they give him his own house) ,the more it increases his hatred .This is a cruel movie anyway: see the way they recruit a sharp shooter !and the way the sheriff does away with him!
On the other hand ,Don Murray (a personal favorite,who recently died) ,as an alcoholic ex-confederate whose land his parents sweat blood for and which was burned down by the Yankees ,has a more predictable role and he 's in it to secure a happy end ;but anyway the barfly falling with the girl with a racy past (my father used me to make money),it makes sense.
On the other hand ,Don Murray (a personal favorite,who recently died) ,as an alcoholic ex-confederate whose land his parents sweat blood for and which was burned down by the Yankees ,has a more predictable role and he 's in it to secure a happy end ;but anyway the barfly falling with the girl with a racy past (my father used me to make money),it makes sense.