The rifle's journey. A narrative analysis of editing in the cinema of Anthony Mann

Abstract

This study analyses the narrative aspects of the editing of Winchester ’73 (1950), a film directed by Anthony Mann that stands as a key work of the classic western. Released during the second half of the last century, Winchester ’73 was a milestone in the evolution of the western, introducing a psychological and narrative complexity that would lay the foundations of the modern western. The film tells the story of Lin McAdam’s (James Stewart) recovery of a repeating rifle, a symbol of power and greed, which passes successively through different hands, interweaving individual stories with the main plot. This approach allows for the exploration of themes such as violence, greed and redemption, and Mann employs alternate editing to maintain narrative tension, resulting in a panopticon of scenes that reflect both the epic landscape of the Old West and the internal conflicts of the characters, moving away from the stereotypes of the genre.