 "The Naked Spur" (1953), "Thunder Bay" (1953), and "The Far Country" (1954) were all successful with audiences and developed Stewart's screen persona into a more mature, ambiguous, and edgier presence.The films featured him as a troubled cowboy seeking redemption while facing corrupt cattlemen, ranchers and outlaws; a man who knows violence first hand and struggles to control it.The Stewart–Mann collaborations laid the foundation for many of the Westerns of the 1950s and remain popular today for their grittier, more realistic depiction of the classic movie genre.