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The Wild West looms nowhere nearly sb large in the American imagination today as it did only a generation ago. Children whose parents were reared on Bat Masterson during the 1950s now dream of Masters of the Universe. On those rare occasions when Hollywood still deigns to put on spurs and six-shooters, it is more likely to deliver comic send-ups like Blazing Saddles and Silverado than heroic sagas like High Noon and The Magnificent Seven. The western myth was popular- ized by moviemakers,...