Review of The Westerner (1940) by Harim K — 18 May 2010

3: It's hard to know who thought more of themselves, Samuel Goldwyn or William Wyler. Without a doubt, both are giants of the cinema, but this isn't the best work either of them did. It isn't half bad though.

I don't think either of them managed to get the best out of their DP though. Mr. Toland certainly wasn't given the creative freedom that Welles gave him in Citizen Kane. The Westerner does look damn good though.

Cooper and Brennan are two of the biggest and most reliable of western stars, although I'd be hard pressed to say which makes me think more of westerns. Cooper was obviously the bigger name, but Brennan was in so many westerns playing such a variety of roles, and such key and memorable roles, that one could argue he is one of biggest western stars of all-time.

Any man that was featured in Rio Bravo, Red River, and My Darling Clementine can stand up with the best of them. He's almost an archetype unto himself in my mind. This is more of historical western than most.

The conflict between homesteaders/farmers and ranchers isn't one that is often visited in the genre. In their heyday, westerns seemed to be concerned less with life-on-the-frontier stories like this and more about the conflicts that arose in a land rather devoid of law, apart from the law of might.

However, this certainly doesn't stray too far off the beaten path and is in many ways quite stereotypical of the genre. This was certainly not made in the heyday of westerns, but rather just as they were beginning to be accepted as more serious films and elevated above the B-movie level.

For that reason, it does seem a bit unique, more like The Big Trail than My Darliming Clementine or The Searchers. It does remind me of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence in that it's a "this is how the west was built" story.

Not a bad final shootout either.