Before the United States was ever a glimmer in a Puritan’s eye, there existed the legend of the Good Bad Man. He came from 12th century England’s Sherwood Forest, and his name was Robin Hood. Through several centuries this archetype changed from the leader of “merry men” to an isolated loner, wandering the West with only his horse, six-gun, and often his desire for revenge. He can be identified, in part by his activities; he breaks the law, uses violence, and seeks revenge. The Good Bad Man shares some characteristics with the “Pure” western hero including competence, and self-reliance. His origins can be found in American history and culture as well as in literature.

One of the most important aspects of the Good Bad Man is that he operates, above and outside the law. For him the law is something trivial, a rule that was “made to be broken.” Importantly, while he does commit crimes, he doesn’t commit them against ordinary citizens, homesteaders, or the poor. Like Robin Hood he robs from the rich and kills the evil, but unlike his predecessor he does not necessarily “give to the poor.” Additionally his crimes are inherently violent in nature. In The Gray Fox the protagonist sees nothing wrong with using an idea he gleamed from seeing The Great Train Robbery, holding up trains for money. For him it is just another way to make money. In Stagecoach the first time that we see The Ringo Kid (John Wayne) is after he has broken out of jail. While the specifics of why he is in jail are not mentioned it assuredly has something to with the fact that he is a notorious outlaw. His goal in breaking out of jail wasn’t to make amends for his crimes either, it was to take the law into his own hands and avenge the deaths of his father and brother. Here Wayne’s character is operating outside and above the law. In The Searchers, Wayne’s character, Ethan is an unrequitent Confederate soldier. He is still swearing his allegiance to the South. Not only that, but the Preacher/Texas Ranger alludes to the fact that Wayne might be wanted for other crimes. The Preacher doesn’t take him in, because he needs Wayne’s superior skills. Later in the film Ethan shoots three men in the back. They were trying to kill him and Marty, but whether it was necessary to kill all of them is debatable. In Unforgiven, Clint Eastwood plays Bill Munny, a reformed gunslinger, murderer, and thief. He decides to do one more job, killing two cowboys that the law didn’t adequately punish for their crime of mutilating a whore. Munny is operating outside and above the law; he is killing for money in an act of vigilante justice.

The Good Bad Man is usually driven by either of two things, money, or revenge. In The Grey Fox the aged hero breaks the law for financial gain. His robbing of trains, and even rustling cattle goes beyond what motivates the classic “Good Bad Man.” Normally being called a thief would be grounds for a gunfight. The other Good Bad Men are motivated by revenge. In Stagecoach, the Ringo Kid breaks out of jail to track down the Plummers, who killed his father and brother. It doesn’t matter if he goes back to jail, or is killed by them. He has to avenge his family, or die trying. In The Searchers the entire story is motivated by revenge. The search is to find the Indians that killed Ethan’s brother, sister-in-law and son. The same Indians, who abducted the two girls, raped and killed one, and held the other captive. Ethan and Marty aren’t seeking merely to rescue Debbie, they are also seeking to kill Scar (and any other Comanche that they can) to avenge their murdered relatives. At the same time, Scar’s initial attack was motivated by revenge. The story in Unforgiven is likewise motivated by revenge. First the prostitutes want revenge for the damage done to one of their fellow whores. So they put a bounty out on the life of the two cowboys responsible for her scaring. This brings Will, Ned and the Shofield Kid, to the town of Big Whiskey. After Ned is captured and tortured to death by Little Bill, Eastwood’s character embarks on a suicide mission to avenge his friends death. But he doesn’t die. Out of practice in his old age, he is still better than all those who try and stand against him.

This is another important part of the Good Bad Man. He is superior to anyone he might meet. He is a competence, self-reliant, natural man. (Rickman) He can “draw his gun a little faster and shoot it a little straighter than anyone…”(Warshow) In both Stagecoach and The Searchers we see Wayne’s character dispatch three men at one time. In the first film he meets the Plummers on the street and with his superior gun fighting skill kills them all. In The Searchers, Ethan uses his superior cunning to outsmart the treacherous trading post owner who comes in the night to kill Ethan and Marty. In Unforgiven Will faces off a room full of hostile men and emerges unscathed. He “keep[s] his countenance in the face of death” (Warshow) and doesn’t let the fact that his 12-gauge jammed stop his killing of Little Bill. He is faster than all the deputies and a better shot. As a gunfighter he is more competent than all of those men combined.

Competence is an important part of the other Western hero, the “Pure” hero. Once again, he needs to be better than anyone he might have to face. Like Wyatt Earp in My Darling Clementine, who is able to shoot the gun out of Doc Holiday's hand and latter best the Clatons. Like the Good Bad man he is self-reliant and a natural man. He doesn't need civilization in order to survive. He also is intent on defending his good name, "when you call me that, smile."

The differences between the Pure Hero and the Good Bad Man arise from how they deal with their problems. The Pure Hero is reluctant to use extreme violence, at least he would rather find another way. An example of this is when Wyatt Earp kicks the Indian out of town. He sneaks into the hotel and uses a rock, where the other man might have gone in six-guns-blazing and killed the drunk. The way that the two go about seeking vengeance is also different. From the examples given earlier, we can see that the Good Bad Man goes outside the law when seeking revenge. However, the Pure Hero stays within the means of the law. In My Darling Clementine, the Earps, while they know who was responsible for the death of their brother do not act until they have the legal proof needed to arrest the Clatons.(Rickman)

The Good Bad man and the Pure Hero have another thing in common. They both have their roots in American literature. While Robin Hood is technically an English legend, it is still relevant. The Robin Hood legend tells of a man who leads a band of “merry men” to steal from the rich and give to the poor. Many a western hero fought on the side of the poor homesteader against the evil banker. Robin Hood also worked outside and above the law. We can see echoes of the evil Sherif of Nottinham in characters like Little Bill of Unforgiven. In the film, the outlaw, Eastwood, must work to correct the wrongs of the law. (Interestingly enough, a search of “Robin Hood” turned up the names “Jesse James and Billy the Kid”surfaced.)

The Robin Hood legend is just one part of the literary roots of the western hero. He also comes from the “Leatherstocking Tales which began to emerge in the 1820’s.” (Kitses) Gradually this character changed from stories of seasoned woodsman to tales of a younger, “morally ambiguous figure with a dark past…finally redeemed by a woman’s love”(Kitses) This character continued to evolve “reaching its current form in Cooper’s The oak Opening. (Williams) Continuing until the “influential” The Virginian by Owen Wister. This protagonist of this story is essentially the model for the Pure Hero. He defends his good image. Famously with the “smile when you say that” line. He follows the code of the west to such extremes that he hangs his best friend. After which, The Virginian goes to get the villain Trampas, to avenge his friend’s death.

Literature is not the only source of the Good Bad Man, his roots can also be found in American Culture and History. From before the beginning of the United States its founders were already heading “west.” Their journey was from England west to North America. Then the colonists pushed “west” to the Mississippi, and finally west to “The West.”(Kitses) These first Americans (Anglo-Saxon) were Puritans and their mindset and thinking has had a tremendous influence on our culture since then, including the Western.

Like the Puritan, the Good Bad Man’s natural state is solitude (Durgnat and Simmon) He is “lonely” and “to some degree melancholy” (Warshow) A good example of this trait is John Wayne’s character in The Searchers. First, he has spent about three years wandering, away from his family. Second Ethan is constantly trying to get rid of Marty and continue the quest alone. He is distant and removed from everyone he encounters, not wanting to become attached to them. The final shot of the movie shows the door of society closing on him and he is left to wander forever.

Another similarity between the Puritan and both types of Western Hero is concerns how they interact with their environment. The “measure [of] a Puritan is how he copes with this depraved world.” (Durgnat and Simmon) The measure of the Cowboy is how well he deals with his depraved world. How competent is he? (Thumin). Is he able to ride better, draw faster, and shoot straighter than anyone he might meet? If he can, then like the Puritan who can keep to the straight and narrow path in their depraved world, the Western’s Hero will be saved.

As Kitses writes in his essay Authorship and Genre; Notes on the Western, the “western is American history.” The Good Bad man exists in the time of mining camps, the building of railways, Indian Wars, Cattle drives, the end of Civil War, and the outlaws. These allowed for his ambiguous past and his ability to wander, like Ethan in The Searchers. It also enabled him to encounter hostile Indians and run up against other outlaws. Examples of this are Hart’s character in The Return of Draw Egan and Wayne’s character in Stagecoach. The former, a reformed outlaw in the end has to gun down a fellow outlaw, is attacked by Indians, and then fights 3 other outlaws in the street. This time in American history, roughly 1865 to 1890 was the setting that allowed these events to take place. The events enabled certain actions, which are part of what makes the Good Bad man. There were also real men who lived in the west and became mythical characters. Daniel Boone, Kit Carson, and Billy the Kid all lived and did some of the things that the Good Bad Man and Pure Hero did. Through Pulp literature they became legends.