Drawn-out standoffs were almost non-existent, as were single gunslingers choosing to fight multiple opponents single-handed unless they absolutely had to. Many didn’t favor the pistol as their primary weapon.
They didn’t wear the standard ‘gunfighter’s rig’ of a low-slung hip holster tied to their thigh for a faster draw. Gunslingers weren’t even called gunslingers during the ‘Wild West’ period. This portrayal is, frankly, grossly inaccurate.
The ‘good guy’ lets the ‘bad guy’ draw first but still wins, naturally. He’ll probably indulge in a drawn-out, climactic gunfight, standing opposite his opponent in the middle of a street for several minutes, each waiting for the other to make the first move. Pop culture’s image is often a slow-talking, fast-drawing lone gunman riding into town, taking on several men at once while wearing one or two pistols in low-slung hip holsters and, naturally, letting them draw first before instantly killing all of them.
This black-and-white idea doesn’t reflect reality. Hollywood would have us believe that hired guns were either all good (like Gary Cooper’s portrayal in the classic film ‘High Noon’) or all bad (like Michael Biehn’s portrayal of Johnny Ringo in ‘Tombstone’). The popular image of gunslingers comes from cheap novels and films and it is far more fiction than fact.
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