frontier expansion

His iconic westerns like 'The Searchers' and 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' explore the moral complexities and human cost of westward expansion.

His spaghetti westerns deconstruct the myth of frontier expansion, presenting it as violent and morally ambiguous rather than heroic.

Films like 'Aguirre, the Wrath of God' and 'Fitzcarraldo' examine frontier obsession and colonial expansion's madness and futility.