Customer Reviews

The Westerner

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of the most unusual and delightful Westerns ever made. What sets it apart is the relative lack of action, the way that director William Wyler shifts most of the interest onto the relationship and interpersonal interplay between Cole Hardin (Gary Cooper, in one of his finest Western roles) and Judge Roy Bean (Walter Brennan). The way the two move from instant enemies, to unexpected friends, to uneasy opponents, to reluctant enemies, and finally back to sympathetic friends is masterfully portrayed. As fine as Cooper is, much of the credit lies with Brennan, who became the first person to win three acting Oscars by picking up his third Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Unlike his other Oscar wins, this role was essentially a lead role. Although many actors have portrayed Judge Roy Bean over the years, Brennan's is the definitive one, despite being the least historically accurate. If his version isn't the most faithful, it is the most compelling. He manages to be utterly absurd, dangerously unpredictable, and utterly likable at the same time.

The story essentially falls into two halves. The first involves Gary Cooper's accidental identification in Judge Bean's saloon as a horse thief, his trial and conviction, and clever manipulation of the Judge to gain a reprieve. The second half concerns Cooper's taking sides in a range war, siding with a lone female farmer against cattlemen. Both halves are brought together nicely in Cooper and Brennan's final struggle that ends the film.

Along with Walter Brennan and Gary Cooper, the real star of this film is Gregg Toland, whose cinematography rivets the viewer's attention on the screen from beginning to end. Toland, who died tragically young in 1948 at the age of 44, is universally regarded as one of the very greatest cinematographers of all time, and THE WESTERNER was one of his finest efforts in a very, very great streak of films over a relatively short period of time. In the period running from 1939-41, Toland was responsible for filming such extraordinary classics as WUTHERING HEIGHTS, THE GRAPES OF WRATH, THE WESTERNER, and CITIZEN KANE. Has any cinematographer ever had a two-year period matching this one? I saw THE WESTERNER years before I knew who Gregg Toland was, but I long retained the memory of several of the amazing shots Toland framed. He was a favorite of director William Wyler, who would employ him often during Toland's tragically short career.

Toland's photography manages to give this film an epic feel and scope, while the tensions in the relationship between Cooper and Brennan make it a highly intimate film. This is easily one of the most unique Westerns in the history of Holly, and one of the best.

I'm not going to review this dead bang CLASSIC...Gary Cooper at his prime, William Wyler at his....nuff said. What I am going to inform everybody is I just viewed the new MGM 2008 DVD against my long out of print HBO copy that I paid a fortune for and the differences are striking...I thought the original DVD was very good for its age...a bit grainy but with some good contrast and bite...but this new DVD looks like a print right off the original negative!!!! I can't believe they are not touting the amazing improvement but the first DVD was early in the DVD era and was obviously in retrospect a transfer from an inferior source. the verdict..If you are a classic film or western fan or a fan of Gary Coopers...this WILL be the best $10 you EVER spent!!! Yee Haaa!

The Westerner is simply one of the best westerns ever made. It starts of course with Gregg Toland's incredible cinematography. "The Westerner" has all of the classic elements of the genre, the lonesome drifter (Cooper), the half-evil judge (Brennan as Judge Roy Bean), the "searching-for-a-real-man" woman, the gang of thug rustlers (played by a gang of various thugs), the wimpy farmers (played by a bunch of wimpy farmers), the raunchy bar-room singer (played by a lock of golden hair), and the climatic shoot-out (Cooper versus Brennan). The scenes that steal the movie are those in which Cooper kindly agress to gently crack Judge Roy Beans stiff neck with a quick twist. You can hear the pops and also feel the relief as you watch.

It's a very good film but I knock the score down for the shoddy quality of the DVD. Graininess is apparent throughout. There are also some bad scars on the film that show up. Most annoying was a frequent change in contrast. The film would jump to a faded condition, sometimes in the middle of the scene. This movie would be a real prize with a restored print on DVD. Let's hope they get around to it.

Take a real life Western character (the notorious Western judge Judge Roy Bean), add one of the genre's sturdiest heroes (Gary Cooper), and you have the makings of a Western movie classic.

"The Westerner," starring Cooper and his good friend and frequent co-star Walter Brennan as Judge Bean, does what Hollywood does so well - take a pinch of truth, a heap for fiction, and mixes them for a pleasing theatrical stew. Cooper plays a wandering cowpoke who runs afoul of Bean's kangaroo court, and gets accused of horsestealing (a hanging offense in most courts, but definitely in Judge Bean's horse thieves). The cowpoke gets off by convincing the judge he knows famous actress and Lilly Langtry, who the judge desperately wants to meet. Cooper strings Bean along to keep himself out of trouble, but gets back into trouble when he sees that Bean and the townspeople are trying to run a group of homesteaders out of the country. Cooper decides to help the homesteaders, putting himself on a collision course with Bean.

Brennan won one of three Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor for this film, and it's no mystery why he won. Both charming and contemptible, his Judge Roy Bean is quaintly naive and corruptibly sinster. His interaction with Cooper throughout the film is masterful in its complexity and psychology. Cooper is his usually solid, quiet hero who says a lot with few words. Backed by solid Western supporting stars like Chill Wills and Forrest Tucker, "The Westerner" is a wonderful Western, and great to see it rereleased on DVD.

The Coop is fine as a lawman who goes undercover to capture Judge Bean. I think this movie shows fine acting, especially Walter Brennan, and writing. I have this movie and watch it about twice a year. I think it is a nice movie to watch with a male buddy who likes westerns. Curl up with a carton of popcorn and a soda and lose yourself in the old west.

I just viewed this movie on a HD Panasonic 42 inch TV upscaled to HD and the picture is a good 50 times better than the the current Asian import version I own. The picture is prestine and one of the rare cases where MGM must have done a complete restoration on a Samuel Goldwyn title. There is virtually no scratches or dust on the picture. It is also reasonably sharp and has perfect brightness and contrast. I would compare it to Image's restored original twilight zone's for picture quality. I have compared it to the asian import in upscale HD mode and the asian import version was very dark, blurry and had a great deal of ghosting around people's faces and pretty much was horrible in all areas. This is the version to get for sure.

Among the better Western movies, with Walter Brennan as Judge Roy Bean and Gary Cooper as the saddle bum who becomes Bean's friend and then turns against him when Bean harasses the homesteaders. Cooper is brought before Bean for horse stealing, but Coop gets off by inventing a story about Lily Langtry, Brennan's fantasy love, who falls for it. He keeps stringing Brennan along with the made-up story throughout the picture, which becomes a bit trying at times. Cooper's stiff "Yups" can drive you crazy after a while, too.

But Brennan is excellent (he deservedly won an Oscar), and the shoot-out ending in the empty theatre between Coop and him, where Brennan gets to meet his Langtry backstage just before dying, is well done. The music (by Alfred Newman, who went uncredited) is a bit on the "HEAVY" side and over-emphatic, as if to make sure we get the point and have the right reactions. But the Gregg Toland photography is marvelous, and William Wyler's direction is superb. Definitely worth a watch.

One of the greatest of American directors, William Wyler is known for such classic films as MRS MINIVER, ROMAN HOLIDAY, and BEN-HUR. It is less well known that Wyler began his career directing a long list of cheap westerns for Universal Pictures in the 1920s. After establishing his reputation as a major film director in the 1930s (with such films as DEAD END, JEZEBEL, and WUTHERING HEIGHTS), Wyler returned to the western genre in 1940 intent on making the finest western to date. The successful result of this endeavor was THE WESTERNER.

Gary Cooper stars as the smooth-talking drifter Cole Harden, and William Brennan plays a villainous, yet often likeable, Judge Roy Bean. Brennan's portrayal of Bean would deservedly win him his record third Oscar in a five-year span. Much of the film is focused on the relationship between Harden and Bean. Harden's manipulation of Bean is humorous and masterful as he manages to become the first accused man to avoid hanging in Bean's saloon/courthouse. Ultimately, the odd friendship that develops between the two men crashes: a result of Bean's unwavering support of the local cattle ranchers against the newly arrived homesteaders in a tragic range war which is tearing the county apart. In the end, Harden and Bean must meet in a classic showdown, but unlike most movie showdowns, we have sympathy for both characters.

Walter Brennan is the true star of this picture in what has become the definitive portrayal of Judge Roy Bean. Bean is a real villain in this film, but Brennan makes him complex and likeable nonetheless. If it wasn't for his star power, Cooper should have received second billing in this movie, since the Bean role is clearly the dominant one. Brennan's solid reputation and identification as a character actor may have contributed to his relegation to a supporting role, but again, a supporting role in name only.

Doris Davenport plays Jane Ellen Mathews, the lady farmer that Harden/Cooper falls for and takes up with against Judge Bean. The ensemble cast includes such notables as Chill Wills and Paul Hurst as well as Dana Andrews and Forrest Tucker in their first screen roles. Cinematography is by the great Gregg Toland (CITIZEN KANE, THE GRAPES OF WRATH) and Samuel Goldwyn produced the film. Director William Wyler ultimately achieved his objective: THE WESTERNER is truly one of the great westerns of all time.

Jeremy W. Forstadt

Gary Cooper may be the star, but it's Walter Brennan as Judge Roy Bean, "the law west of the Pecos," who drives The Westerner and makes the movie interesting. William Wyler, such a superb director, has somehow given us two movies. The first one is about, you guessed it, sodbusters, regular folks like you and me who, according to Hollywood, just want to put down roots, raise their families and build decent lives. The husbands are always pulling out tree stumps and the wives are always whomping up pies. Against them ride the cattlemen, and every cliche in the book is thrown into this part of The Westerner's story.

The second movie, however, is a sly, sometimes funny and somewhat vicious story of Judge Bean, his dictatorial character and his obsession with Lily Langtry, a beautiful singer from over the seas and a woman the Judge has idealized for years. The two stories come together when Cole Hardin (Gary Cooper) drifts into the dusty collection of ramshackle buildings close to the Mexican border where the Judge runs things. Before Hardin can wet his whistle in the Judge's bar and courtroom, he's accused of being a horse thief. It takes only a few minutes for the "jury" to find him guilty and the Judge to pronounce sentence...hanging, and right now. Hardin has enough wits to notice all the pictures of the Jersey Lily the Judge has nailed to the walls, so he makes up a story about how he knows her; he even has a memento of her hair. That's enough for the Judge to postpone the hanging. Before long Hardin and the Judge are downing whiskey together ("Don't spill none of that liquor, son. It eats right into the bar.") while the Judge listens with open mouth to the stories Hardin tells about Lily Langtry.

While all this is going on those homesteaders are building fences. The Judge doesn't take kindly to this. He's going to run them off by any means it takes. While Hardin is trying to find a middle way, he just happens to fall for the daughter of one of the sodbusters. Soon he's taking their side while trying to keep the Judge from doing anything murderous. It doesn't work. The fields and homes are burned and Hardin decides that the Judge himself needs a little justice. When the Judge hears that Miss Langtry will be performing in Fort Davis, a two day's ride away, the stage is set for a dramatic shootout between the Judge and Hardin.

What makes this entertaining is Walter Brennan as Roy Bean. The Judge is a mean, bad-tempered, poorly washed bully. His word runs things, and his guns, his noose and his followers make it happen. Justice, with the Judge, is a relative thing. But when he says, "That's my rulin'," he means it. In a tour de force performance, Brennan somehow manages to make the man both a reprobate and likable. When Brennan played Pa Clanton in My Darling Clementine, he was a mean old man to the bone. Here his deep, deep infatuation with Lily Langtry doesn't make him any more likable, but Brennan makes him just a little vulnerable. And in a nice bit of actorly sharing, Gary Cooper when he's acting with Brennan becomes much more interesting. If Cole Hardin is going to keep his neck from being stretched, he has to find ways to keep the Judge on the hook. Then, when Cole Hardin is trying to keep the Judge from ripping into the homesteaders, he has to find a way to appeal to the Judge's vanity. Cooper with the homesteaders is Cooper as usual. Cooper with Brennan is shrewd and a little sly; it's a fine performance. The conclusion in the music hall at Fort Davis, when Cooper and Brennan finally shoot it out, and when the Judge at last meets the Jersey Lily, is not only exciting, it's moving as all get out.

The Westerner has developed a fine reputation over the years, but I suppose it's largely because the movie had been so seldom seen. With the new DVD, I'm sure Walter Brennan's performance will continue to get all the acclaim it deserves. I'm sure the chemistry between Brennan and Cooper will be examined and praised. As for the rest of the movie, I'm not so sure.

For those who like to get in their cars and journey to interesting places, I recommend driving down Texas state highway 90 heading to West Texas and the Rio Grande. You'll eventually find Langtry, Texas, (not named for Lily Langtry) and Judge Bean's wooden barroom, the Jersey Lily, and adjoining courtroom. It still stands, a few paces from a state information center. Langtry is about as close to being a ghost town as you can get. The only drinks you'll find is cool water from the center's water fountain. If you're there in the summer, you'll need it. After you've prowled around and bought a few postcards, continue on to Fort Davis. It's a pleasant, very small west Texas town. You can visit the old Army fort, now run by the U. S. Park Service, go up to the Davis Observatory for a star show and stay a night or two at the state-run Indian Lodge in the Davis Mountains. The lodge is just five minutes or so from town.
My Darling Clementine