Review of Man of the West (1958) by Jarett B — 04 Feb 2012

The renowned western director Anthony Mann pairs up with Gary Cooper for one of his last great westerns with good end result. It is no secret that the director's best westerns were made with James Stewart, but after the director's and Stewart's fallout, Gary Cooper comes close in filling Stewart's boots.

Man of the West will not astonish the viewer with its' original story. The story of an ex outlaw trying to start out fresh but having to face his violent past is nothing short of a text book western plot, but Gary Cooper's tougher than rock role as the Man of the West, Link Jones, makes it worthwhile. Being a character ran movie, much of the success depends on the opposing actor and Lee J Cobb as Dock Tobin delivers this. Cobb really pulls a terrific role as the older and senile criminal gang leader who represents the old and dying breed of wild west criminals to whom Link Jones used to belong.

All of the directors westerns so far have been solid and almost faultless and this stays true with Man of the West, but being technically faultless does not instantly make a movie great. Man of the West is solid and pleasure to watch, but it is also very predictable and filled with cliches of the genre that they inevitably eat away the interest bit by bit. Disregarding the movie based on these facts would be however a mistake. Man of the West might be bit unoriginal in story department but it still has great entertainment value and should not be skipped by anybody interested in Western films.