It's "Judge" Roy Bean and his bloodthirsty cattlemen against the hard-working homesteaders in post-Civil War Texas, with drifting 'saddle bum' Gary Cooper caught between the warring sides. William Wyler's cloudy, dusty, majestic western suffers a bit from an unresolved unhappiness at its core (and a conflicting attitude towards Walter Brennan's hang-'em-high Judge, who happily wields a cold-blooded sense of immorality yet is built up in the film's preamble to be something of a hero!). Cooper, barely twitching a facial muscle, is supposed to be a crafty, quick-thinking sonuvabitch, but Cooper just doesn't exude that type of personality; he's rugged when he needs to be, and stalwart with the one eligible woman in town, but he's disappointingly one-dimensional. Brennan got the critical kudos (and a Supporting Oscar) for his work, although his Bean is hardly a dandy villain--and the brutalities suffered by the homesteaders leaves behind a bad taste for the film. Gregg Toland's fine cinematography and Dimitri Tiomkin's solid score are certainly helpful, as are the terrific supporting performances from Fred Stone and Doris Davenport (a curious choice for the female lead, but ultimately a good one). **1/2 from ****
Review of The Westerner
