The Tragic Arc:

A tragic hero’s past acts as their fatal flaw and condemns them to a tragic end. Often in a film’s famous last shot, the hero rides away into the sunset, signaling the end of his quest. But a tragic hero haunted by their violent past or misdeeds along the way must face the consequences despite their heroic efforts.

In The Unforgiven, William Munny (Clint Eastwood) is a retired outlaw and gunman. He gives up his violent past and settles down with a family to live as a farmer. A group of prostitutes recruit him to help them avenge their friend, mutilated by a client. Despite being a changed man, he resorts to his violent ways in order to track down and punish the man who disfigured the prostitute.

In Fort Apache, Colonel Thursday’s pride, his fatal flaw, causes him to break an agreement for peace with a renegade Native American Chief. He cannot humble himself in order to negotiate peace. There is no glory in peace. Instead, he dooms himself and his men to death in a Custard-style massacre.

The Shootist presents a slightly less heroic quest for our protagonist, J. B. Books. Books arrives in Carson City, NV as an old man dying of cancer. He is a relic of a passing age. A tired-out gun fighter in a time of progress with the dawn of the 20th century and all the technological advances already being promised. But the West isn’t dead yet, and neither is J. B. Books. His arrival sparks a challenge for any seeking to become a legend by killing the famous gunman. Books would rather die in peace. But challenge after challenge prompts him to call for one last shoot out. He faces down several aggressors. All meet a grizzly end. It is the son of the inn keep and his hostess who fires the last shot and brings the violence to an end. Books does not survive his injuries dying as he lived.

In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Tom Doniphan begins as the loner living just on the outskirts of the town who comes into town from time to time to spend time among the people of Shinbone. He lives by the code of “out here a man settles his own problems.” He brandishes a pistol to demonstrate his meaning. Because he straddles both worlds, Doniphan is the one person who Valance backs down from. When Valance harasses the people at the local restaurant, no one else stands up to him or poses a threat. The outlaw even harasses Stoddard. Doniphan stands up to him. The two have a tense standoff, before Valances rides off, firing his pistol into buildings and creating general havoc. After about an hour’s worth of plot and character development, Stoddard and Doniphan trying to convince themselves and each other that their point of view is the right one—Stoddard that law will prevail and Doniphan that the gun wins peace, comes the final showdown. Stoddard, despite having a clear shot at Valance, cannot pull the trigger, so Doniphan does from the shadows. For all involved, it would appear that Stoddard used violence to bring peace. This is a lie. The lie becomes the legend that people need to believe. Controlled violence of the gun slinger brought an end to the uncontrolled violence of the outlaw and ushered in a new world for the town of Shinbone and for their unnamed territory. Yet for the legend to live, Doniphan no longer has a place in the new world. He returns to his ranch outside of town and lives out his life alone.