J.W. Coop (1972)

J.W. COOP is the highly-acclaimed story of an aging rodeo rider who after released from a 10-year prison sentence is determined to win a national rodeo championship. When his turbulent past exemplified by his disturbed mother (Academy Award®-winner Geraldine Page "The Trip to Bountiful") collides with his one shot at a comeback Coop is confronted with a society that has radically changed since his incarceration making it nearly impossible to adapt and survive. In a stunning directorial debut Oscar® winner Cliff Robertson (Charley Spider-Man) stars in the title role of a dreamer fighting to seize his one true passion in the brutally competitive high-stakes rodeo world. Considered by the nation's critics as of one of the original independent films of its time J.W. COOP is for every one who has ever won for every one who has ever lost and for everyone who has ever dreamed of a second chance.System Requirements: Running Time 112 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396042018 Manufacturer No: 04201 Product Description

I LIKE sleeping in weeds!

The title character in JW COOP has spent the last ten years in prison for writing a bad check. It wasn't his fault, we learn, and the sentence probably would have been much shorter if he hadn't hit that guard, or sheriff, or whatever authority figure was crowding him. It doesn't matter. Our hero has been out of circulation for ten years for a non-violent offense, and it's going to take a lot of adjusting for him to adapt to a radically changed society.
Counterculture heroes were popular in the late 60s to the early `70s (JW COOP was released in 1972.) Apparently Cliff Robertson was powerful, or persuasive, enough to push this one through. Not only does he play the title character, he's credited as the primary writer and director, as well.
JW COOP is very much a product of its time. Its attitude, images and subject matter make it feel old. Carob drinking and soybean munching hippies are curious and attractive people. They're young gurus with The Answer. Authority figures - The Man - are dumb, loutish, venal, corrupt.
Coop is too old to be a hippie, too non-conformist to feel comfortable with authority, too long out of circulation to know where he fits in at all. So the movie is really a journey of discovery. If the script had been stronger, if a half-dozen cliches had been rejected rather than included, if they'd edited about twenty minutes of fat, JW COOP might have been a classic. As it is, it can go in the bin with Billy Jack, Then Came Bronson, and suchlike films and television series that sought to stick it to the Man.
One of the biggest problems concerns the writing. Not only is there a deadly lack of dramatic tension, but the characters are loosely drawn and poorly realized. Cristina Ferrare plays Robertson's hippie girlfriend, and it stinks like she's giving a bad performance, but I think it's simply because she isn't given much to do beyond braid black licorice into peace symbols. Even the great actress Geraldine Page, here gigged out in Hush Hush Sweet Charolette fright makeup, seems to flounder while searching for her demented mother character.
An audience can survive vague characters if the dramatic content is riveting enough, but it's not. We can even survive that if the lead character is compelling, but the only reason we care about Coop is because he's played by a charismatic movie star.
If you remember the 70s and want to experience a retro flashback, you might enjoy JW COOP.
December 18, 2004

A minor masterpiece...

Cliff Robertson has always been one of the hugely underrated actors of stage, TV & film. Anyone who saw his original performance in Days of Wine & Roses on Playhouse 90(with Piper Laurie) or saw him doing Tennessee Williams on Broadway knows that this is someone who for whatever reasons missed out on the major stardom that was his natural due. J.W. Coop is one more surprise from Mr. Robertson. This movie is the closest approximation I've ever seen on the screen to a Hemingway story. It's full of the rich true details of place and incident, and the aching pain of the fighter/cowboy/soldier/man rubbing up against life, trying to make some kind of mark, some kind of sense, before his end comes, & it always comes too soon for these guys. May 29, 2000

COOP? How do you spell that?

Growing up in the Mid_West, the concept of "art' film was quite foreign to me in 1971. The first time I saw J.W. Coop, it struck me like a thunderbolt. Lots of ambin' around, reaction shots, quiet confidence, pseudo-documentary style, unspoken sub text...WOW.

A labor love for Cliff Robertson, JW COOP is an indie-like movie developed in the 1970's studio system, where titles like POSEIDON ADVENTURE and TOWERING INFERNO were the only things that made sense at the time.

As a result, studio-type compromises are evident throughout--Christina Ferrare is atrocious as the hippie-chick who interjects JW's dust covered mind-set to the present. I'm certain the original script-by Gary Cartwright and the ingenious Bud Shrake was likely funnier...and edgier.

What's left is still engaging, and the rest of the supporting cast is solid, the story interesting--spiced with wonderful little vignettes throughout. I highly recommend. February 13, 2000

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