Man of the West

Anthony Mann's penultimate Western, Man of the West (1958) is a divisive film. Some consider it an overlooked masterpiece, while others find it piffle. I fall in the latter category. Man of the West takes a talented cast, a potentially interesting story and gorgeous scenery, and turns it into a turgid, stagnant B Western.

Link Jones (Gary Cooper) is a reformed outlaw transporting money to hire a school teacher for his hometown. His train is robbed by a gang of outlaws, and Link is stranded with singer Billie (Julie London) and gambler Sam (Arthur O'Connell). It turns out that the gang is led by his old partner, the crazed Doc Tobin (Lee J. Cobb), and Link reluctantly rejoins them to try and save his friends. When Link is recruited into a bank robbery scheme, he is forced into a showdown with Doc and Company.

Man of the West is highly disappointing, especially from a director of Mann's caliber. Aside from Ernest Haller's gorgeous cinematography and some knock-out set pieces - particularly the long, brutal fistfight between Link and Coaley (Jack Lord) - it's largely hack work. The story is rushed and under-developed, characters are poorly-drawn ciphers, things drag at inopportune moments. Reginald Rose's terrible script culminates in Link telling Doc "I'm takin' you in!" like the star of a cheesy '30s serial. Even the shootouts seem anemic, and the final showdown is laughable. Mann somehow gets everything wrong, resulting in a film that feels like a shoddy B Western.

To be fair, one can see why many adore the film. It contains many themes which should be interesting: the death of the outlaw breed, a killer trying to go straight. Trouble is, they are badly handled. The Mann who brought us the tortured, fascinating characters of The Furies and The Man From Laramie is absent here: themes aren't so much explored as baldly asserted, and character conflicts remain puerile and one-note. That later Westerns - most notably The Wild Bunch and Unforgiven - cribbed a good deal from Man's plot only underscores its failure: they show that this story could be done well, and that Mann has no excuse.

The cast is equally ill-used. Gary Cooper fails to be convincing as a tough guy fighting back murderous rage. Julie London is pretty, but aside from a rather sadistic striptease, is wasted in a dopey romance. Lee J. Cobb (On the Waterfront) chews scenery like a starving Tasmanian Devil. The supporting cast fares slightly better, particularly Jack Lord and John Dahner as Doc's more devoted followers.

Overall, Man of the West is a huge disappointment. It's by far Mann's weakest Western, if not film (that would be Fall of the Roman Empire), and shows little sign of being the work of the auteur behind The Man From Laramie. Pity.