Outlaw with a Heart of Gold
Both Dallas and Ringo fit into this category, as does Doc Boone to a certain extent. Ringo is the only outlaw, but it is established early on that he has a good heart and he is working for the good of society, rather than against it. Even though he has broken out and Curley must arrest him, Curley knows that the Ringo Kid is a good man and is just trying to get by. In this way, a compelling contrast is made between Ringo's less-than-respectable reputation and the morality of his actions, which are pure.
Dallas is not an outlaw, but she is also unwanted by society, a prostitute who is sent packing by the Law and Order League. While her profession as a sex worker has made her undesirable in the eyes of society, she is a good woman with a kind heart, demonstrated most explicitly by her care for Lucy's baby.
Doc Boone is another character whose reputation is marred by the fact that he is an alcoholic. Even though he is a drunk, however, he has a strong moral conviction and a sense of what is right. All three of these characters exemplify this central theme in the film: that one does not have to have a good and noble reputation in order to be a good person.
Class
The theme of class relates to the theme above. Indeed, a large part of Dallas' poor reputation is the fact that she is in a lower class than many of the other passengers on the stagecoach. Particularly, her lower-class position contrasts with Lucy Mallory's upper-class bearing and upbringing. While Dallas is open to being kind to Lucy on the trip, Lucy treats her coldly throughout much of the beginning of the journey, as though she might catch some of Dallas' coarseness if the two of them get too close. The gap of class difference is bridged when Lucy has her baby and Dallas steps in to take care of it. Lucy is appreciative and readily accepts her help, but when they get to Lordsburg, she returns to her society friends and the two women must go their separate ways. In showing the varying degrees of closeness between the two women, the film shows that class distinctions, and the ways that these distinctions cause us to treat one another, are arbitrary and maintained by social pressures more than anything else.
Adventure
The film is an adventure film as much as anything. At the start, the stakes are outlined: Geronimo is on the loose and is planning an attack. The fact of this danger in the territory and the fact that the stagecoach must cross a great distance to get from Tonto to Lordsburg creates an expectant sense of adventure in the narrative, and the viewer is left waiting to see what will happen. Danger is lurking just around every corner, and the passengers' ability to elude such danger is part of the thrill of the plot.
Civilization vs. Freedom
As we see in the dynamic between Lucy Mallory and Dallas, the film posits that many of the forces pushing people apart are arbitrary standards set forth by society and civilization. There is no way that Lucy and Dallas can possibly be friends in the town where they live, because they would face too much judgment from society. Similarly, the only hope that Ringo and Dallas have for having a quiet, happy, and undisturbed life is by escaping to his ranch across the border. Surely, an ex-convict and a former prostitute shacking up in town would face a great deal of judgment from the town's inhabitants. At the end of the film, as the unlikely couple rides off into the sunset together, Doc Boone says, "Well, they're saved from the blessings of civilization.” He uses "blessings" here sarcastically, suggesting that the duo was lucky enough to escape from the judgment of the world and find happiness and freedom.
Crime
The film explores the theme of crime from multiple perspectives. When it starts, we hear that the Ringo Kid has busted out of jail and that Luke Plummer is still loose in the territories. These two characters are traditional "criminals," outlaws on the loose from the authorities. As we come to realize over the course of the film, Ringo is a good man who simply wants to avenge the murder of his father and brother, and his moral justification redeems him in the viewer's eyes.
A character who commits an actual crime in the course of the film is Gatewood, the banker. Because he is a banker in town, he is perceived by those around him to be an upstanding man, but no one realizes that he's run off with embezzled funds. What's more, he makes a big to-do while riding in the stagecoach about the fact that the government should not get involved with banking, saying that a businessman would be best equipped to run the country. The hypocrisy of his deifying businessman while dealing in corruption shows the ways that crime isn't necessarily tied to respectability or status in society. In this way, Ringo and Gatewood are foils for one another, in that Gatewood, the allegedly honorable one, is, in fact, the real criminal.
Revenge
The reason that Ringo breaks out of jail is to avenge the murder of his brother and father by the Plummer brothers. He wants to travel to Lordsburg to confront them and kill them for the wrongs they have done him, and Curley is willing to let him do that. When Ringo meets Dallas, she tries to get him to just escape the law and run away to his ranch across the border, which he begins to do. When they notice an Apache war signal in the distance, Ringo decides to stay. A driving motivation for Ringo is his desire to enact revenge, and it is this conviction that drives much of the plot. Once the stagecoach successfully makes it through an attack by the Apaches, Ringo still has unfinished business, which leads to the climactic shootout. The positive outcome of Ringo's conflict is his murder of the brutish and evil Plummer brothers. In killing them, he is able to avenge and honor his family members' deaths.
Love and Acceptance
A major theme of the film is love and acceptance, particularly in the form of romantic love. When they meet, Ringo and Dallas feel an immediate affinity and attraction for each other, and embark on a rocky path to romance. Not long into the trip, Ringo feels certain that he wants to settle down with Dallas, and invites her to come and live with him at his ranch. She hesitates at his offer, even though she desires to go with him, because she fears that he will reject her when he learns of her past career as a prostitute. Ringo's affections for her become all the more trustworthy and touching when Dallas realizes that he doesn't hold her past against her, and he still wants to live with her. They ride off into the sunset together to pursue a life of married bliss at his ranch.
