cattle rustling

Ford's Westerns like 'The Searchers' and 'My Darling Clementine' explore cattle rustling and frontier justice as central conflicts in the Old West.

Hawks' 'Red River' presents cattle rustling and cattle drives as the dramatic core of a story about ambition, morality, and frontier economics.

Leone's Spaghetti Westerns frequently feature cattle theft and rustling as plot drivers that reveal character and create moral ambiguity in lawless landscapes.