Man of the West

When the subject of Anthony Mann's contribution to the western genre is explored, it is his cycle with James Stewart that is inevitable brought up. Indeed the Stewart collaboration Naked Spur (1953) remains Mann's highest praised achievement in the great American genre. However, it is his nearly forgotten and last true western, Man of the West (1958) starring Gary Cooper that is his most strikingly modern. A telling sign of this film's greatness lies in its still debated status.Mann's casting of Cooper is nothing less than inspired brilliance, although it probably cost the film box office revenue. Mann and Stewart had fallen out during the making of the previous year's Night Passage, but by then audiences had come to accept Mann's reinvention of Stewart's on-screen persona. Starting in 1950, under Mann's direction Stewart had been portrayed as violent, selfish, cynical and remarkably complex.In 1958, Gary Cooper was nearing the end of his career and no director had manipulated Cooper's screen personality in such a way as Mann had done with Stewart. Andre de Toth, a competent journeyman director who, never the less, lacked a real consistent vision, had come closest in Springfield Rifle (1952) by portraying Cooper's character as an accused coward in the first half of that film. However, that turned out to be an undercover ploy to smoke out the real traitors, so Cooper retained his pure as the driven snow nobility after all. Still, even then, neither audiences nor critics bought it. Laconic simplicity and nobility were Cooper's well established personality trademarks. Mann took advantage of what was already established and manipulated it with a darkly hued underbelly. Under Mann's direction, the "Yup" mannerisms of Cooper's Link Jones convey evasiveness in an attempt to hide a less than noble past.Link Jones is about to catch a train, heading for Texas. He is on a mission to find a school teacher for his small town's new school and is carrying the funds to pay for her. A Marshall at the local train station thinks he recognizes Link, asks Link his name, inquires into Link's past and asks him if he knows the fugitive Doc Tobin (Lee J. Cobb). Link cautiously shakes his head, lies, squints, and evades the Marshall's penetrating looks. Mann's expert manipulation of Cooper's personality traits is so subtle as to be believable and, thus, unnerving. It was unsettling enough for 1958 audiences to reject it, and even contemporary critics have often lamented the casting of Cooper, as opposed to Stewart, in this film. Stewart would not have worked nearly as well simply because his casting would have been acceptable, even expected.Cooper's Link Jones consistently plays dumb throughout the film, first to evade discovery, then out of sheer necessity for survival. It can well be believed that Link Jones hides a sordid past. Link's train trip is cut short when bandits rob the train. Link, saloon singer Billie (Julie London) and the con man Sam (Arthur O' Connell) are left stranded by the train. Link recognizes the nearby area as his one time home. Knowing the nearest town is 100 miles away, Link leads his fellow two passengers to the hidden farmhouse of his uncle and onetime foster father Doc Tobin. Link is surprised to find Doc there with his white trash gang. It is the same gang that robbed the train. Doc is even more surprised to see his prodigal son, Link. Doc reminds Link of a murder they committed together. Link looks away, vulnerable, embarrassingly exposed as if naked in front of the gang. Cobb expertly captures the trashy Doc without resorting to over-the-top, mannered melodramatics, such as the type Donald Pleasance' resorted to with a similar character in the otherwise well done Will Penny (1968) directed by Tom Gries.Man of the West becomes a reversal of a biblical melodrama, with a dash of Oedipus thrown in for good measure. Here it is the father figure who needs redemption, but he is too unyielding, too far gone down the wrong path, too broken to find it. The prodigal, who has found his first redemption, away from his uncle/father, will eventually have to commit patricide in order to survive and secure his redemption. Billie and Sam have unwittingly joined the intentionally monikered "Link" on an existential journey that will transform them as well. The prodigal's cousins/step-brothers resent Link and feel betrayed that Doc still favors Link, even though they have proven more loyal and did not abandon their father the way Link did.One of the gang has been mortally injured from the train robbery. Doc wants to display his still strong leadership and "family pride" to his returned prodigal. Doc orders his men to shoot and kill their wounded comrade. Neither cousin Punch (Robert J. Wilke, memorable in High Noon) nor cousin Trout (the always impressive Royal Dano) can do it. They are not real men, according to Doc. Link attempts to hide his smile, pleased that the first sign of Doc's lack of loyalty is blatantly apparent to all. Vicious cousin Coaley (Jack Lord) will do it.When Coaley does the deed, Link's tension is felt. Indeed, this is a film of diaphanous tensions. We do not know just how long Link can continue his act or whether he will be able to protect his fellow passengers from harm. At greatest risk is Billie. Julie London invests an internal sexual tension in her character that she is sickened by. The sex appeal of London has often been compared to Elvis Presley, but it is London's complexity that renders Presley comparatively banal. Billie is as frightened for Link as he is for her. Thankfully, the romance that one keeps expecting to blossom between the two, never does, which only heightens the sexual tension. She knows full well what these men are capable of doing to her since she has dealt with types akin to these for years. "You are not like these at all" Billie tells Link. "I was. There was no difference." He tells her. Link's fear parallels Billie's fear. It is not the fear of the unknown, but the fear of what they both know all too well that threatens to consume them. Both characters resonate authenticity. Neither of them could survive their tormentors if they did not understand them and, in Link's case, if he had not once been that himself. This will lead to a second redemption for Link, in finally coming face to face with what he has been attempting to outrun for so long. Billie was on the verge of her escape when she boarded the train, but escape cannot be equated with redemption. When she left for Texas, Billie was on the verge of spiritual bankruptcy, from having seen and experienced too much. Now, out of necessity, cynicism and coldness have been replaced with co-dependency, vulnerability, and faith in someone else. Sam does not have enough firsthand experience in familiarity to ensure survival. However, he too must find redemption. Sam the con man is ready, willing and able to abandon Billie in escape. Sam does not need Billie, but he needs Link, only Link will not resort to such selfishness. Link's inspired example will provide Sam his own opportunity for an unselfish choice.Cousin Claude (John Dehner) returns to the lair, having heard Link was on the train. When he finds Link alive and well with Uncle Doc, he is embittered, knowing that Link is only pretending to go along with Doc's dream of a full reconciliation between himself and Link. Claude loves Doc, especially in light of Doc's increasing senility and alcohol-induced nostalgia for older, better days, which he knows Link is taking advantage of in order to survive. Claude begs Doc to kill Link, even though he knows Doc, who truly loves Link, will never allow it.Link, echoing the Davidic Absalom, takes revenge upon Coaly for his intended violation of Billie. Link humiliates Coaley in the same manner that Coaly humiliated Billie, in front of the "family." In the earlier sequence, Coaley forced Billie to expose herself by stripping down to her corset as he held a knife to Link's exposed throat. Drained and vulnerable, Billie collapses in abject humiliation. That earlier sequence is, by turns, titillating, repulsive and unbearably tense. In retaliation, Link now similarly exposes Coaly, stripping him down after a savage beating. Link identifies all too well with Billie's vulnerability. They both felt naked and humiliated in front of this family. The retaliation scene is equally tense and well executed. Doc is so proud of Link's raw humiliation of Coaly, that he slaps, father-like, Link on the back. Doc's number one boy is back. It is more than Coaley can endure and he tries to shoot cousin Link. Ready, willing, and able, Sam intentionally takes the bullet meant for Link. The dying Sam tells Link, "I don't know what came over me. I never would have done that before." Sam tires to pooh-pooh his sacrifice," It was a shrewd move of me. If they had killed you, they never would have allowed me to live." Link knows better than to accept Sam's half-hearted downplay of what he just gave up. Inevitably, Link and Billie will join Sam, unless an opportunity soon arises.Doc wants to consummate the old father-son relationship with a bank job in the nearby town of Lassoo. The senile Doc is unaware that Lassoo is now a ghost town, but Link is aware of it and sees this as the opportunity to reverse the situation for Billie and for himself.Billie is raped (off-screen) by Doc (shades of the biblical Lot) while, simultaneously, Link is killing Doc's "sons" in Lassoo. In the showdown between Link and Doc, Link tells his father, "I have killed your sons. Lassoo is a ghost town, like you. You are a ghost who has outlived his usefulness." Man of the West is brutal poetry and may well the best film of Mann's entire oeuvre. Par for the course, MGM has issued it in a "ho-hum" release.

This 1958 Western is a tale of redemption, violence, and change. Gary Cooper plays the deeply flawed hero, Link Jones, while Julie London plays the beautiful, lonely singer in small Texas towns, Billie Ellis. The story centers around a failing small criminal gang with its aged leader, Dock Tobin (Lee Cobb). Dock is the leader of the remnants of a small gang of eccentric, incompetent criminals. Anthony Mann directed the film which was shot largely in California in technicolor.Link Jones had been a criminal protege of Dock but left the gang 12 years before the story takes place to try to live an honest rewarding life. As the film opens he is on his way to Fort Worth to hire a school teacher fro the small town where he lives. When Dock's gang tries unsuccessfully to rob the Fort Worth train, Link and Dock hook up again. Link is in the company of Billie and of a small-time gambler. The gang members are suspicious of Link but Dock sentimentally takes him on in remembrance of old, violent times in a scheme to rob a bank in the distant town of Lassoo. Tensions abound between Link and the gang members."Man of the West" is replete with violence and with sexuality. The gang members lust after Billie and force her to perform a striptease. As in a tragedy the outlaws, other than the reformed Link, all wind up dead, The film develops a certain sympathy for Dock and for the new life of the West which has passed him by. Link at the end returns to his reformed, essentially decent life with his family in the little Texas town. Billie must go it alone and pursue her singing.This was my first time seeing "Man of the West". It is one of the better Westerns with its tale of the halting change from violence to law, and of the efforts, both individually and communally, to live a good human life.. The relationship between Link and Billie and the much different relationship between Link and Dock both add to the film's complexity. I was grateful to learn of and to see "Man of the West" through Amazon Prime.Robin Friedman

Released in 1958, this is the ultimate western. Good guy overcomes adversity, and bad guys. The hero has a beautiful admirer(Julie London), who cares for him even though she knows he is married, with children. She knows he has changed from what he was, into her ideal man. I must say this script seems to bear no woman's touch, as her dialogue and situations are definitely male oriented. Be that as it may, she professes her admiration & new feelings of woman-ness to him. Boy are the bad guys played well! Real scum bags. Mr. Cooper is just so enjoyable to watch, and you know he is just being himself.

Una excelente película de Gary Cooper, en el que toma el rol de un asaltante, quien se a regenerado y en busca de un maestra para el pueblo donde está, se encuentra con su antiguo socio. La película llegó antes de lo esperado

Good one by GAry Cooper

The first Western I saw as a youngster starred Gary Cooper, (The Plainsman - 1936- Cecil B. Demille) I've enjoyed the work of this actor ever since and now many decades after that initial encounter that pleasure remains.This film is typical of a Cooper Western. Once again he does't have a lot to say verbally - he says what he has to say by his very presence, and a well controlled air of menace. Here he plays a former bad guy trying to be a good guy but unfortunately runs into some villainous former compatriots. (Some interesting appearances from his co-stars here, a terrific, crazy role for Lee J.Cobb and a good show from a young Jack (Hawaii Five-O) Lord among others.)Cooper's loping, laconic, easy-going style is in many ways like that of John Wayne. Both actors appear to just play themselves whatever role they are taking in a movie, and I have no complaint on that score.Gary Cooper played a variety of roles in his movie career but he will of course always be remembered for his part in 'High Noon', the film (with also perhaps Alan Ladd's 'Shane') that sums up the golden age of the Western movie.Technically, 'Man of the West' has transferred well to DVDwith excellent colour saturation, sharpness and - surprisingly - a good soundtrack, although it is 2-track mono.I'm happy to give this movie 5 stars because, at least for me, it achieves all I ask for in a film. Good acting, a good story and an hour or so of entertainment. This was almost Cooper's last film (he was ill during its production) and he managed to complete only a few more following a career total of over a hundred movie performances.

Gary Cooper is Link Jones, a reformed outlaw, who is forced to revisit his past and literally kill his demons, the biggest one being his uncle, Dock Tobin,played by the never better Lee J. Cobb. This film also includes one of the best fight scenes ever where Coop fights Jack Lord ( of Hawaii-5-0 fame!), one of Dock's slimy gang members. The very desirable Julie London is the female attraction in the story and the template for Mann's insistence that part of what makes a good man is his tender treatment of women. The final showdown between Link and Dock is a great scene with some great lines delivered by Cooper: " Lasso is a ghost town and your a ghost! You've outlived your time and your kind and now I'm taking you in!" Bravo Coop. He died three years after this film was released.

Anthony Mann's Westerns of the 1950s are legendary, and rightfully so. He brings a psychological dimension to the genre matched by the fantastic cinema. Man of the West is his masterpiece and a crowning achievement of the genre.