Man of the West (1958)'s comments

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ChrisReynolds

The cynical and dark nature of the story make this feel like one of the late film noirs, and the existential subtext of a man haunted by his past crimes makes this an impressive deconstruction of Western heroic archetypes with some excellent cinematography. Cooper is OK but about twenty years too old for the part, and there are a series of plot conveniences that weaken the film a bit.

8 years 4 months ago

Siskoid

Though modern audiences have seen worse, Anthony Mann's Man of the West is kind of shocking for 1958. The violence is extended and visceral, and there are several moments where a woman is placed in sexual jeopardy. Even almost-nudity. Now, I do think you have to get up real early in the morning to give Gary Cooper some edge, and Mann slept through his alarm clock. He's just an open-faced goof that it's hard to believe he was ever a ruthless outlaw. Yes, he needs to have grown up and found a sense of decency - to have BECOME Gary Cooper - but I'm not convinced of his disreputable past. The story has him, a con man, and a singer left in the wilderness after a train robbery. From there, he runs across people from his past who take treat him as much like a hostage as like a partner in their next crime, dragging him back down to the hell he thought he'd escaped. When Mann takes on a script, you can expect characters with interesting quirks, and twists that veer away from the usual tropes, and Man of the West at least delivers on those counts.

2 years 1 month ago