The Westerner (1940)

Redemption of Judge Roy Bean

This is the best and most sensitive of the stories about Judge Roy Bean--The Law West of the Pecos. He was known as a hanging judge and, early in the film, he determines, in his court room-saloon to execute Cole [Gary Cooper] as a hose thief because he can't produce legal ownership papers.

Befoe the hanging, however, there is the mandatory round of drinks. Cole notices that the saloon is hanging with numerous pictures and mementos of the actress Lily Langtree. Over a final drink, he tells Bean that he has a hidden locket of Lily's hair. The execution is immediately postponed until the acquisitive bean can get the locket.

Both Cooper and Brennan are terrific as they develp a complex and dangerous "friendship." Cooper, who has no locket, gets one from a local girl. After much "horse-trading" Bean gets the locket and is transported with joy.

Langtree shows up El Paso or San Antonio and nothing will keep Bean from going. Resplendant in his old Confederate army uniform he goes to the music hall. Cole and Bean shoot it out and Bean is fatally hit. Before he dies, however, he gets to visit the angelic Langtree. The dangerous Roy Bean is redeemed by his love for Lily. We look through his eyes as the image of Lily fades out--forever. A truly great film.

Ron Braithwaite author of Mexican Conquest novels, "Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God" June 19, 2008

One of the true classic westerns

A magnificent film, The Westerner concerns the love between two men. The men's love is platonic, not fleshy. They love the wildness in each other, the humour, the sense of style, the taste for adventure, the bravado. They are too alike not to admire and intrigue each other, and too alike not to come into fatal conflict. But both of them are essentially destroyed by women.

One of the men is 'Judge' Roy Bean (Walter Brennan), 'the only law west of the Pecos', dispensing a lethal whisky ('Rub o' the Brush') and his own brand of equally lethal frontier justice from his ramshackle bar. The bar also doubles as a shrine to the 'Jersey Lilly', Lily Langtry. Into this court/bar comes Cole Hardin (Gary Cooper). Falsely accused of horse stealing, Cooper can almost feel the rope snuggling around his neck when he realises he can use Bean's devotion to Langtry to save his life. He pretends to have met Langtry and even to have a lock of her hair. In scenes of masterly comedy, Bean and Cooper jest and test other. A promise to give the lock of hair to Bean secures Cooper's release. Those who only know Brennan as the edentulous, portly comedy extra in 1950s westerns will not recognise the lean, gimlet-eyed Brennan who stalks this picture, alternating psychopathic violence and charming but malicious humour. Brennan secured an Oscar for best supporting actor for this performance (his second such award), and Cooper matches him line for line (reputedly director William Wyler let them improvise many of their scenes). In one moment of astonishing tenderness and humour, they wake in each other's arms after a night of heavy drinking.

The film's thematic framework, as so often in westerns, is the conflict between rancher and homesteader. But both Brennan and Cooper are only tenuously connected to the causes they fight for. Brennan hates homesteaders, and is the ranchers' champion. But he is unofficial lawman and bar owner, not really a rancher. His hatred of homesteaders is clearly more spiritual than economic: they represent the forces of settlement and civilisation that will tame the West and end the anarchic freedom he revels in. He is a former Confederate who keeps his old army sword over the bar; he is the rebel in grey making the last stand against the forces of modernisation. And Cooper is essentially a 'saddle-bum', irresponsibly indulging in the freedom of the prairie. He is seduced, there is no other word, into working and eventually fighting for the homesteaders by the nubile charms of a raven-haired farmer's daughter.

Both Langtry and the farmer's daughter end the wild days of their respective worshippers. Brennan is drawn to his death in Fort Davies by Langtry's unexpected appearance in the town's opera house (although he gets to meet her just before he dies). Cooper is killed spiritually by marriage and respectability. In the final scene of the film, Cooper looks emasculated and constrained in the domestic sphere. There is a map of Texas on the living room wall: the mighty state he once roamed free is now reduced to room decoration. And from the window of his ranch, awkwardly clutching his bride, Cooper watches thousands of settlers arriving from the East. The West he and Brennan could once stride heroically is now destined to disappear. The Westerner is no more.
June 17, 2008

the NEW 2008 version is MUCH MUCH better than the OOP HBO issue!

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! May 17, 2008

The Westerner - A Great Western

A great western! One of my favorites. Gary C and Walter B are excellent. If you like fine classic westerns this one is for you. Fine story, fine acting, and an superb digital transfer in both picture and music. May 14, 2008

Classic Cooper/Brennan Western

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. March 28, 2008

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