Review of The Westerner (1940) by Orlok W — 30 Jan 2015

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. 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--'The Westerner', low on the special effects list still delivers such a satisfying punch, with a story that is complicated by character-driven plot turns, that the overall effect is one of real history.

Based on the actual existence of at least one character Judge Roy Ben, the movie weaves together a fabric of fiction and history at once based on the myth of the West, while countering it to allow the viewer into a tale that fulfills every expectation!!