I’m new to Westerns. I watched my first, A Fistful of Dollars, this past August and I’ve been hooked ever since. One of the things I love about the genre is that it can tell an entire story in just a few lines of dialogue. Take this exchange from The Magnificent Seven, when Chris (Yul Brynner) finds Lee (Robert Vaughn) sitting in his room, looking to join the crew he’s putting together:

Chris: Thought you were looking for the Johnson brothers?

Lee: I found them.

In just those three words, Lee is established as a badass, we’re clued into his background and his motivations for joining up when the pay is so paltry (he’s on the run).

We’re spared the overwrought exposition because the genre has the legendary status of its characters built into it. How do you not love that?