Applying Todorov's Theory of Equilibrium

1. The Protaganist: Lady – Young Woman arrives riding on a horse, as she rides past we see close ups of everyone’s reaction towards her. This loets us know she is a significant character.
The Antagonist: Villain - John Harrod Dictating ruler of the town Middle aged man in dark coat and hat walks into the bar and challenges Lady.
2.
At the start of the sequence, the establishing shot shows an over the shoulder long shot, showing us a female character as well as very western and desert landscape. The costume of the character and the setting immediately help us identify the western genre. We cut to a high angle close up of a ‘marshal’ badge lying in the dust, this suggests that the marshal is no longer in power. We learn to find that the equilibrium is a dictated town who live in fear of their leader. This is shown at the start of the film. The Close ups of characters and long shots show how they are trapped in their houses and living in fear. The town is empty and quiet and the clock. We also identify the woman as the protagonist due to the conventions of westerns usually depicting female characters as innocent however not usually heroes. She rides slowly and in control unlike the wild fast paced riding of most villains in these films. The equilibrium is also established by the blind character, he sort of narrates the opening sequence. He tells us how the John Harrod owns this town and we see his emotion when he sighs on the line ‘another gun in town’.

3. There is a short disequilibrium in the opening sequence however the major one comes later in the film. In this sequence it comes when the villain rides in to town wildly on a dark horse and storms into the pub before assaulting the barman. We see the barman ride away in fear but the villain without mercy skill fully shoots the man off his horse. This disrupts the quite town equilibrium. This then ends up in a shootout, which breaks the quiet state of the train station. Later on at the end of the sequence, we find out that it is a dream and that the protagonist is a retired detective. This implies that there will be a disruption that will cause him to come out of retirement to help out.

4. Mid way through the clip we are informed about some sort of contest and debate whether the Lady is going to enter. We learn that it is a shooting contest and would normally rule a female character out of this but ‘Lady’ has already broken generic conventions by challenging the barman. It is confirmed she will be entering the contest when she reveals the contents on her bag which includes guns and bullets.

5. At the end of the film, the Lady defeats the dictator in the final of a corrupt contest in which many contenders are hindered to John’s advantage. The new equilibrium is much more brighter, the Lady becomes the Sherif of the town and happiness is restored upon the town.