This 98-Year-Old Western Movie Was Groundbreaking For The Genre (In 2 Big Ways)

Even nearly 100 years later, there’s a silent Western movie that was not only groundbreaking for the genre in 1925, but remains so even to this day, for two reasons in particular. At the time it was made in Pre-Code Hollywood, Westerns, like gangster films and other genres, were creatively daring and different from anything that was made after the Production Code Administration was established in 1934. This Western established two components that would become focal points in the legendary John Ford movies starring John Wayne, one for being an established filming location and the other for its contentiousness in Westerns that came after it.