Foil

Character Role Analysis

Taggart/Sheriff Bart

Bart is a clever dude who knows the importance of giving people a chance and treating everyone with respect, which is more than we can say about anyone else in this movie.

Taggart is a clumsy railroad boss who puts no value on human life and will pretty much do anything he's told for the right price.

Put them in the same room and you're bound to walk away rooting for Bart. That being said, there is something kind of endearing about Taggart's clumsiness, since it makes us laugh from time to time. Plus Slim Pickens is bound to get a lot of good will from people who've watched him riding a bomb in one of the coolest movie scenes ever.

But in the end, it's a lot more fun watching Taggart fail and Bart succeed than the other way around.