We prefer the myth, especially when William Goldman writes the script ("Who are those guys?" in the tracking scene), but our adventure heroes often turn out to be people who like mere adventure, without regard to the effect on others. Sensation-seeking is a Big Five trait, in itself neutral, and reckless courage is sometimes absolutely necessary or the tribe does not survive. But it is only a virtue in itself if you are trying to make a movie about it.
Strictly, recklessness is a vice according to virtue theory since the Nicomachean Ethics. It is distinguished from courage by being an excess, just as cowardice is distinct by being a privation.
ReplyDeleteThat said, the only person this exchange went badly for was the young man who enlisted into the police force of a wild port town. He died, leaving wife and children, and is only remembered for having been killed by the Sundance Kid. Joining a police force is surely an ordinary act of courage, not rashness — not usually.
As for Sundance, he got away. The article suggests some connection between this shooting and his eventual death, but that was three years later in another country. He had many more travels and adventures after this one.