Man of the West

The tension in the film never lets up, as the threat of violence hangs in every scene. Cooper is fine in one of his last performances, portraying a man who has tried hard to overcome his past, finding himself in a situation where he must literally fight for his survival. London also does well as the saloon singer finally experiencing love, giving a quietly moving performance. Cobb is explosive as usual, helping to give the film some of its tension and edge.

Man Of The West is well photographed in colour, with empty spaces looming everywhere in the backdrop of the struggle. Director Anthony Mann keeps everything simple, if not elemental, not shying away from portraying the brutality of the characters and the situation. Other than an obviously "stagey" fight between Cooper and one of the gang (lots of easy to spot fake punches), there is a dark realism throughout the movie.

Man Of The West may not be a very well known Western, but it deserves to be seen.


This is a Magnificent Film   March 22, 2000
Jack (Chicago)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

This is truly a magnificent film. Acting -- especially Gary Cooper's Link Jones, a man who is drawn back into his earlier life as a killer -- and direction and script and cinemaphotography, they are all flawless. The only flaw is in this video, from MGM/UA. I've written them, trying to get them to release this in letterbox and DVD, all to no avail. Do not buy this pan-and-scan version, since director Anthony Mann took full advantage of the wide screen to tell his story. In the pan-and-scan version, Cooper is missing from much of the action. This is because it is a typically tight-lipped Cooper performance, thus he is lopped out of the frame -- even though he is central to every single scene in the entire film! This is a magnificent film which is deserving of a better fate than MGM/UA video distribution. TCM shows it in letterbox, catch it there.


Late Cooper Western More Than Worth A Look   July 6, 2006
Terence Allen (Atlanta, GA USA)
12 out of 15 found this review helpful

Man of The West was one of Gary Cooper's last Westerns, and he had transitioned from virile, youthfully exuberant characters to older, wizened, wiser, and scarred characters.

In this film, directed by masterful director Anthony Mann, Cooper plays a leading citizen who is on his way to hire a schoolteacher. On route, the stagecoach he's on is robbed, leaving Cooper, a dancehall girl played by Julie London, and a gambler played by Arthur O'Connell to fend for themselves. They end up crossing paths with an outlaw gang that Cooper used to run with; in fact, he's related to some of them. The old gang leader, played by Lee J. Cobb, wants Cooper to rejoin the gang, but Cooper wants to protect himself and his two charges from his greedy, bloodthirsty ex cohorts.

Mann and Cooper are both in their element, and this film is a rousing, entertaining, psychologically deep adventure that seems to point out the fallacy of thinking that your past will never catch up to you. This is a great film that deserves a DVD release.


Brilliant Cooper Western Ahead Of Its Time   May 24, 1999
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

Here's a brilliant western. More than 30 years before Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven", Gary Cooper, writer Reginald Rose and director Anthony Mann explored the same violent terrain -- that of a reformed killer forced to face the monster within one more time. Mann had made several wsterns with Jimmy Stewart, but this is his masterpiece. Almost Shakespearean in its grand, tragic themes, "Man Of The West" deserves mention with the greatest westerns of all time.


A Classic Film   March 25, 2000
Chris (Boston)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

Man Of The West is a classic. Gary Cooper dominates a sterling cast with his powerful portrayal of Link Jones, a former killer who has long since suppressed the demons within. However, when he meets up with his Uncle and former partner, Dock Tobin (Lee J. Cobb, brilliant) he is forced to confront the fact that there is still a killer inside him. There is a brutal fight between Cooper and Jack Lord which is one of the meanest, most vicious fights I've ever seen in film. The only flaw, as others have pointed out, is that this video version is not letterbox. Avoid it and wait for TCM to show it in its original widescreen format. Better yet, why doesn't MGM/UA simply release a letterbox version? Cooper made this back-to-back with another classic, The Hanging Tree. But Warner Home Video has seen fit to remove it from distribution here in the U.S. It's available in Europe and Canada, but not here. Idiots!