Law is imposed and upheld by force. When formalized, it is then used to dominate anyone who challenges its legal and political origins.
During the 19th century, this lawmaking process occurred throughout the American West — especially with the charting of its geography.
Costner provides one of the great gunfight scenes in the history of the Western: loud, sloppy, feverish, brutal, vicious — a shoot-out so good that an otherwise PG movie earned an R rating.
Unclaimed territory presented a unique opportunity, where anyone crafty enough — regardless of their social status — could assert themselves as new American gentry. All they had to do was conquer a wilderness full of hostiles of every type and species.
Trending: Military Court Sentences 3 Americans, 34 Others to Death
This journey across virgin
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