The Westerner (1940)

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Roger Ebert introduced "The Cole Rule," which is 'no movie made since 1977 containing a character with the first name "Cole" has been any good.' "The Westerner," starring Gary Cooper as Cole Harden, came out in 1940.The film centers around Harden and Roy Bean (Walter Brennan), the barman and self-proclaimed judge of Vinegaroon, Texas. Bean has a tendency of serving capital punishment as easily as he serves whiskey. When Harden shows up on the scene--the classic drifter who comes from "no place in particular" and who's going "no place special"--telling tales of trysts with Lily Langtry, Bean's hanging ways are brought to a halt, at least for a little while. You see, Bean is madly in love with Langtry, a famous actress, despite not ever meeting or seeing her in the person; in fact, he has pictures of her plastered over nearly ever square-inch of his bar and bedroom. As great as Cooper is as the reluctant hero of above-average intelligence, Brennan is the star, delivering one of--if not the best of--his performances. He inhabits a "judge" Roy Bean who's at both times dangerous and pitiful. In his initial intellectual face- off with Harden--which quickly devolves into empty feats of masculinity--Bean comes off as a fierce, no-nonsense sociopath, incapable of sentiment. However, at the mere mention of Langtry, his face melts into a picture of childish affection. He's so good, that despite being the antagonist, the ways in which the hero manipulates Bean's schoolboy crush are borderline heartbreaking. Brennan rightly won the Academy Award that year. "The Westerner" is also home to one of the all-time great shootouts. It's comically realistic, as these aren't two sharpshooters, but they know how a gun works. So, naturally, they run around, shooting blindly and hiding behind things, as anybody in a shootout would. To boot, there's an orchestra between the two of them, so occasionally a bullet will graze an instrument, creating a natural, offbeat score to match the scene.In 1972, John Huston released another film based on the legend of Bean entitled, "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean," starring Paul Newman as the "judge," which is likewise an outstanding film. It's been a while since I've seen it, so I can't compare the two movies like I wish I could.Given the eclectic personality of the real-life Bean, "The Westerner" is a refreshingly quirky western, and is worthy of its source material.

Entertaining and Glossy Hollywood Product, this Time its a Western. Stagecoach (the one that put John Ford and John Wayne on the map), the Previous Year, Made it Clear that Westerns were an Untapped Gold Mine for an A-List Production. This One was Given the Golden Treatment and it Could Hardly Fail. Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan, Cinematographer Gregg Toland, Nevin Bush Pushing the Pen, and All the Money in the World. What's Not to Like. Well, More than Competent in Many Respects, the Movie also Smacks of a Prefabricated Production. It's a Good Looking bit of Stiffness. Expected Things Happen Expectedly, the Humor, the Tension Between the Sodbusters and the Cattlemen, the Mating of Two Handsome People, and it All Happens with the Rigidness of Some Sort of Cooking Recipe.That was the Hollywood Studio of the Time. Take Very Few Chances and Never Go Off Script. It Works in an Assembly Line Kind of Way. But the Art Suffers. That Type of Production is Fine for Making Cars but Creativity is Hardly a Concern.So Viewers can Enjoy what's Here and They Did and They Do. There are a Few Unexpected Subtleties that can Surprise. For Example Gary Cooper Fingering His Wallet "Inserting" the Lock of Hair. But Overall, the Sympathetic Ending for the Judge is an Abrupt and a Cheat Considering what had Gone Before. Again it's a Studio Concession for a Satisfying Conclusion that Destroys Any Semblance of the Assertion of the Beastly Character that was On Display for the Previous 100 Minutes.

This film charts the fight between cattle herders and homesteaders in late C19th Texas. In particular, we focus on self-appointed judge Walter Brennan (Judge Bean) and his town of murderous cowboys who are very much on the cattle side of the land dispute. The town's courtroom is the saloon bar. Drifter Gary Cooper is brought to Brennan for sentencing – the crime being horse theft, which, like all crimes under Brennan, carries a sentence of hanging. How will Coop escape? And who will win the land battle? The film is slow at times and the outcome of the land battle is obvious. What makes the film interesting is the relationship between Brennan and Cooper. It's almost a buddy-buddy film, but you know that Brennan can turn and is capable of stabbing Coop in the back at any moment. An amusing scene has Cooper stealing Brennan's gun and riding off as Brennan goes for his gun to shoot him. It demonstrates that Brennan is not your friend. His rulings are one-sided affairs although he actually comes up with a good one that should be applied today, namely, that anyone found sober after 7pm will be arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Brennan's weakness is English actress Lily Langtry who is also at the heart of this tale. His fascination for a lady showbiz type along with his obsession with Cooper's friendship suggests a homosexual element to his character.So, which side would you be on in the dispute between the homesteaders and the cattlemen. What do you prefer, beef or corn? And what of the awful combination that is corned beef? Disgusting.

We here in Texas have always HATED corn. If you have steak, who needs vegetables? America is fat (morbidly obese) today because high fructose CORN syrup is sneaked into almost every product in our groceries. Roy Bean tried to nip the creeping evil of Big Corn in the bud during the time he appears in this libelous Big Corn Lobby smear campaign film, THE WESTERNER. As Roy knew, any grain or vegetable requires many illegal southerners to harvest. Folks like Col. Travis and Jim Bowie DIED in order to kick them out of here (they even had the unmitigated gall to try to free our Intercontinentals!). Heroes such as Davey Crockett, Sam Houston and corn farmer-Hanging Judge Roy Bean tried to insure Texans a future steady diet of good old American steak. But rascals with names like Abe Lincoln and Michelle Obama have crammed fattening corn products down our throats instead as the decades roll by. At the end of this film, the FAKE westerner played by Gary Cooper ASSASSINATES Roy Bean so the Yankee fat cats behind Big Corn can have the last laugh. If you feel a twinge of unease watching your 400-pound 12-year-old waddling toward the fridge tonight, blame Gary Cooper and Big Corn!!