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No genre is more central to the American imagination, and none has been more tirelessly scrutinized and revised, than the Western. For over a century, the Western has served as the primary cinematic arena where the nation has fought its battles over identity, morality, and history. It is a genre built on a foundation of stark dualities: civilization versus wilderness, the settler versus the “savage,” the individual versus the community, law versus justice. Yet, to view the Western as a static, monolithic myth is to misunderstand its dynamic and deeply contested history. The story of the Western on film is…