If you had ever imagined or hoped to watch a film where the protagonist of a western out for bloody revenge could end up making a complete fool of himself, this is it. Boetticher parodies his standard revenge plot by turning it on its head and actually gets away with it. At the same time, this isn't a comedy. One can sympathize with Scott's character Bart Allison at the end as he takes out his empty rage on bottles of whisky. As the doctor remarks at the end of the film, Allison helped Sundown by coming there that day but unfortunately no one can help Allison himself. This is a strange revisionist western that makes us ruminate over the psychology behind revenge and also introspect over our own personal follies before blaming someone else for theirs.
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