Jimmy Stewart plays the good brother whose sharp shootin' wins him the eponymous, and often fetishised, rifle in a riveting contest. The episodic story that follows tracks the rifle as it changes hands, from brother to brother, arms trader to Indian warrior, encouraging the viewer to realise that the true star of the film (and indeed the battle for the West) is the rifle. The actors, including a young Rock Hudson, seem to play their characters in the knowledge that they are very much in the background. The cruel situation that Native Americans found themselves in is fudged a little at the end but the sentiments remain subtly critical of the brutality that such weaponry facilitated.
An impressive effort to cover ground later explored to greater depth by Sam Peckinpah in his Westerns.