By the early 1960s, the western movie - long a staple of the film industry, was pretty much worn out. This was so partly because most of the old western stars were now well past their prime and the old plotlines had been told and retold so many times they were beyond stale. But it was also because the emerging counterculture had no interest in (and indeed was turned off by) not only the themes of conflict and violence that permeated most westerns but also the traditional values these films championed.

The four films in this series do not try to resurrect or reinvent the old western. Instead, they seek to make a statement about the genre's passage from our culture by elegizing it or by de-romanticizing it or through some combination of the two approaches.

Each of the four films is unique, yet they all have much in common. They are acutely conscious of the changes that have occurred in Western (with a capital "W") society. They know that life is about making choices, and that choices have consequences. And they know that the business of making choices is especially difficult in cultures that have lost their moral compass.

Sam Peckinpah, the director of the series' first two films, said Ride the High Country was ultimately about loneliness and salvation. The same can be said about all the films in our series. The loneliness of all the principal characters in all the films is palpable. And all of the principal characters are at least mindful of the importance of salvation, even if they consider themselves beyond its reach. That is what gives these films their staying power.