The Westerner
Composite Score: 81.93
Starring: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Doris Davenport, Fred Stone, Forrest Tucker, Paul Hurst, and Lilian Bond
Director: William Wyler
Writers: Jo Swerling, Niven Busch, and Stuart N. Lake
Genres: Western, Romance, Action, Drama, Comedy
MPAA Rating: Approved
Box Office: Unknown
Why should you Watch This Film?
The Westerner is a classic Western about a drifter cowboy who comes to a west Texas town in the middle of the farmers vs. ranchers conflict. Gary Cooper plays the titular westerner, Cole Harden who is on his way to California when he is arrested for riding into town on a stolen horse. His quick thinking and charisma keep him away from the hanging judge’s (Walter Brennan’s Judge Roy Bean) noose for the time being and set up a complex plot of comedic escapes, romantic encounters, and ultimately a showdown between farming and ranching interests in old west Texas. The film is undoubtedly a classic and features some phenomenal acting performances from its main players. It also holds a spot as one of the early westerns to not have a fully villainous villain or a purely heroic hero, creating an interesting conflict throughout.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
The film’s lady, while introduced in a strongly independent and inspiring fashion, quickly becomes the object that keeps Harden from leaving the area and committed to the homesteaders’ cause. While portions of Doris Davenport’s portrayal of Jane Ellen Mathews are incredibly well-acted, she also easily slips into the archetype of independent western woman who needs a man to do the fighting for her. The fact that it is a common trope in Westerns does not make the portrayal any less problematic from a modern perspective, nor does it make it any less historically accurate or inaccurate. The film boasts at the start that it is a legend based on fact, so why not grant agency to the female character outside of her desire to stay in the area and farm?
The film is also a bit of a slow burn and does not contain as much of the action as we often come to expect from many of the classic westerns, featuring only one major showdown, and that just between two men. It feels more like a character study of the contrasting personalities of Harden and Bean more than a Western about the conflict between farmers and ranchers – something that could in fact have been made about two men in any similar situation, working slightly at odds and slightly in the same direction. In that, the film suffers a bit from the expectations placed on Westerns to deliver quality shoot-outs and horse chases with stakes and all that.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
The film’s three leads deliver stellar performances that hold this Western together. Gary Cooper’s Cole Harden is handsome and brooding and wily and charismatic in all the ways that a leading Western man should be, creating in some ways an archetype for the drifter cowboy, which would later be perfected in Sergio Leone’s “Man with No Name” Trilogy. Walter Brennan’s Judge Roy Bean is equal parts bumpkin and mastermind, crafting the perfect sympathetic villain who is both loathsome and pitiful enough to elicit emotion both positive and negative at the final showdown in the film. Doris Davenport’s Jane Ellen Mathews, though often pigeonholed into a more objectified role, shines in the moments when she gets to wax poetic about her envisioned future and stand in defiance against the injustices of Judge Bean. She is the one whose acting draws you in during the early stages of the film when she shows up at Harden’s trial to challenge the judge with a defiance that silences an entire saloon full of ranchers.
The characterization of Harden as a crafty liar is interesting for a film from this era of Hollywood. While his character does eventually settle down and become an honest lawman by the film’s end, his morally ambiguous start creates an interesting narrative of a dishonest man working for good against a corrupt lawman (see Unforgiven if you want a more recent example). By contrast, Judge Bean is portrayed in a not fully negative light either (though his final moments come dressed in a Confederate army uniform as he falls fully from grace). He is both corrupt and unreasonable but also portrayed as a human capable of love and fear and passion (though usually misplaced in his case), which lends a sympathetic air to an otherwise despicable character. Both hero and villain in this film do not personify good and evil, as is often the case in older action films; instead, they personify the conflict between right and wrong and the gray areas in-between that are often ignored in such circumstances.
Terrific characterizations of its heroes and stellar performances from their actors and the leading lady are the recipe for success that makes The Westerner one of the Greatest Films of All Time. Though it suffers from certain genre issues, overall, it succeeds as a unique and stand-out among the Westerns of the early to mid-1900s. Check where you can find it and check it out when you get the chance.
