From The Armand Diaries
Saturday, June 18, 1949:
Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo in Colorado Territory - filmed not in color, in New Mexico's south west canyon country. Story of a train robber who decides to go straight, and how he is finally hunted down and killed, with his bride to be, by a heartless, callous posse, interested in the $20,000 reward.
His end comes into sweeping, deep canyon country, which is made to seem a part of the action. The westerns often fail to tie landscapes into the story, but this one does.
The story is old, but gives new touches to it. Obviously in The Treasure of Sierra Madre, there was just a hint of morality (or religious) play here, at least the hint of retribution for sins...Pretty well acted. One of those pictures that in a minor way leaves you sad and thoughtful on leaving.
Through years of conditioned training a movie goer has come to expect a happy ending in a western and even wants it. In fact, our "movie" morality is so low, we cheer for the crook-hero-a-victim of circumstances, etc. - though a killer and want him to escape with the $100,000 he's stolen from the train, to Mexico and marry his reformed dance hall girl and be happy.
Gets you to wondering just what the tragic ending does to you (beyond pointing a moral) - the Aristotelian katharsis, etc. I suppose, among other things, it makes you count your blessings, love your own wife, family, girl, etc., more (the girl of course you identify with girl in picture, the hero with yourself).
Does it purify you through vicarious suffering, a substitute for having to have it actually happen to you yourself? You do feel different in some way after wards. Or is it a desire for self torture, a mild form of masochism, that makes one want to experience a tragedy?
Note the picture's title. Most all movie westerns are named after a state, territory, or a city.