The single individual who most shaped our understanding of what the frontier was and of what it meant was Frederick Jackson Turner (1861-1932). Many historians believe that the paper he gave at the American HistoricalAssociation's conference in 1893, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," ranks as a uniquely significant piece of historical scholarship. Turner argued that the West needed to be taken seriously. It was a point of view that was to be endorsed by future Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, both of whom were keenly interested in the study of history.

The basis of the Turner Thesis was the idea that the phenomenon of a moving frontier, where one stage of development gives way to the next, explained what made America unique. The distinctive American national character, Turner said, was the result of the erosion of the influence of European culture as Whites encountered the raw, elemental nature of the frontier. Even American democracy, he said, was the product of the frontier.

Rather than seeing the opening of the West as solely the result of the work of certain heroic individuals, Turner conceived of American history in much broader social terms. He understood the enormous challenge of survival the Western environment posed. Turner made clear the significance of the physical realities of the West in determining history. His influence can be seen in the work of filmmakers like John Ford, Sam Peckinpah, and Don Siegel. Many of these directors' films reflect a real sense of the immenseness, loneliness, and hardship that was the real West.

Historians no longer completely accept the Turner Thesis. For example, he failed to satisfactorily explain the role of Indians and minorities in the West. His conception of one stage of development giving away to another has also been shown to have only partial validity.

But two undisputed Turner concerns have continued to influence the cinematic portrayal of the West. First, films like Shane (1952), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and Heaven's Gate (1980) reflect Turner's understanding that the West was a place of uneasy social development and ongoing conflict. Secondly, some films, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, speak to the problems Turner elaborated when he referred to the change the "end of the West" posed. Films such as Monte Walsh ( 1970) and many of Sam Peckinpah's films, like Ride the High Country ( 1962), The Wild Bunch ( 1969), and The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), speak directly to this concern.

At the time of the publication of Turner's work, America was entering a period of intense self-evaluation. It was also becoming a major power and world influence. The popularity of movie Westerns gave America an opportunity to examine its past and the events which shaped the nation.

Phillip French, in Westerns, suggests that the Western provided a means for American society to comment upon itself during the period in which it was the center of the world's interest. For some critics the "end of the West" as a theme in the 1960s and 1970s, the end of the Western as a popular film genre, and the apparent end of America's ability to dominate world politics seem to be somehow related.

In Shane, director George Stevens uses the violent, all-made cattlemen to represent the forces of nature. The sodbusters, who bring law, churches, and families to the West, represent the forces of civilization. Each side is given an opportunity to present its case, not so much as good versus evil but as an affirmation of the painful struggles that are brought about by change. It is this understanding of history that too few Hollywood Westerns reflect.