Backlash is a 1956 Technicolor Western film directed by John Sturges starring Richard Widmark and Donna Reed. It was directed by John Sturges (with whom Widmark would also make another western The Law and Jake Wade), and unfolds in the vein of the psychological Western (a subgenre that has yielded many films, e.g. those of Anthony Mann, with whose films this bears comparison). It delivers an unconventional story, written by Borden Chase, that sometimes crosses into film noir, as a colorful cast of supporting characters help or hinder the protagonist during the unfolding of its central mystery.