Stewart’s vulnerability is just one in a series of masculinities undergoing crisis. Man from Laramie traverses the same thematic ground of bad fathers found in Red River. Mr. Waggoman (played with forthright dignity by Donald Crisp) is physically and emotionally blind to what’s going on around him. He overvalues his son, Dave, and under appreciates his hired hand, Vic. He’s so oblivious to Vic that he fails to see that the figure who haunts his dreams lives under his roof.

Dave, too, has issues of masculinity to work through. He wants to be as strong as his father but isn’t, and after Lockhart bests him in a gunfight, he stupidly wants to give all of the repeating rifles to the Apaches so that they’ll kill Lockhart and everyone at the Half-Moon ranch. Dave doesn’t care that such action would place the people of Coronado in danger.

Vic does care about the people of Coronado and that caring brings about a series of events that precipitates his demise. In trying to stop Dave’s bloodlust, he has to kill him. Vic, as portrayed with earnest hardship by Arthur Kennedy, represents one of the most interesting bad-guys to appear in a Western. Kennedy possesses the charm and dynamism of King Lear’s Edmund, the bastard son of Gloucester. He is a man, who without a birthright, lacks a legacy and wants one; however in trying to acquire a stake in Waggoman’s Barb Ranch, he only brings about further tragedy for all.