LAUSR

The conquest of the West is a piece of the United States’ history made of many episodes and stages, but the far West was the most documented of all. From Jamestown in 1607 to statehood for New Mexico and Arizona in 1902, three hundred years of history chronicled nation’s westward movement, settlement and development’ (Cooyne 1997, 2). However, it was between the 1840’s and the 1890’s that the process of colonization became more evident and thought vital to achieve high development in the country. The attainment of frontiers, the gold rush and the general rising dream of owning land intensified this fight. Unfortunately, historical scars still remain from the extermination of native indigenous peoples, slavery, racism and the Civil War. The character of the outlaw cowboy was born in this chaotic context, thus Billy the Kid, Wild Bill Hickock, Frank and Jesse James and Wyatt Earp went on to become legendary names of the American culture. The Cangaço was a cultural and historical phenomenon that occurred in the Northeast backlands of Brazil between 1870 and 1940. This type of social banditry was spread across a poor northeastern arid region known as the sert~ao, where the predominant vegetation, the caatinga, is particularly rough and low. The existing social differences were aggravated by the rise of immense rural properties and the exercise of a flawed legal system. The aforementioned factors influenced those moved by grief to assemble themselves in gangs, the cangaceiros, who looted towns to survive and provided justice with their own hands. Virgulino Ferreira (Lampi~ao), Maria Bonita, Corisco and Dad a, among others cangaceiros, were highlighted in the universe of mythology and remain part of the popular Northeast folklore to this day. Thus, when the cangaço was just beginning, the period known as the conquest of the Far West was coming to an end. Concurrently, the worldwide phenomenon of cinema was being established, an art that was able to