For one, the righteous end goal in Bend of the River pertains more to community values than to a lone man with a gun. Look no further than the brief role 1866 Portland plays in the film. A hub of opportunity and promise for the Oregon Trailers at first blush, the boomtown devolves into an unrecognizable pit of price gouging and class division once gold is discovered nearby. Here lies the insightfulness of a Western that may appear formulaic on the surface: The frontier is an American dream just barely outpacing the American reality the settlers are fleeing. They're looking for refuge from the very wave that brought them.