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Man of the West (1958), Director: Anthony Mann,
rated Approved
Man of the
Lean Jaw and Hard Fist... Man of the Notched Gun and Fast
Draw...
  Starring:
Gary Cooper, Julie London, Lee J. Cobb, Arthur O'Connell, Jack
Lord, Royal Dano, John Dehner, Robert J. Wilke, Tina Menard
DML Rating:
★★★★★★★★☆☆
- great
"Link, I never met a
man like you before. Men I meet, all think they have a right to
put their hands on me, like it comes with the introduction. All
those lonely ones, looking for some kind of special thrill. I
know what they are going to say before they say it. Funny part
is, inside me, I'm just as lonely as they are."
- Billie Ellis
Why watch this?
Cooper finally makes a neo-Western and it's a bloody affair.
Plot Summary:
A reformed, middle-aged man, called Link, is traveling on a
train thru Texas to secure a teacher for his town. He finds
himself stranded in the wilderness after a robbery, forced to
seek shelter with two other passengers. He is compelled to take
them to a nearby, isolated farmhouse, which he discovers is
currently occupied by the ruthless outlaw gang he left behind
years ago. To protect himself and his companions from his
sadistic former leader and uncle, he must pretend to return to
his violent, criminal ways.
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Dad's Preview: Director
Anthony Mann took the heroic James Stewart and toughened
up his image with films like
Winchester '73 (1950).
Here Mann takes perhaps Western's most iconic legend,
Gary Cooper, and makes him a complicated man trying to
move on from his sordid past. This film is one of the
grittiest revisionist Westerns of the late '50s.
Opposite Cooper is Lee J. Cobb, portraying a terror of a
man, who rules his gang of cut-throats with an iron
fist. He orders his men to kill for him to prove their
loyalty. They rape women. This film portrays the
outlaws, not as film trope villains, but as broken men
who destroy everything around them and have lost all
humanity. I feel this is Cooper's best career
performance - there's a weariness to him. He would die
four years later from cancer in 1961. |
|
Walter Mirisch;
Uniited Artists |
