THE WESTERNER
US, 1940, 100 minutes, Black and white.
Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Doris Davenport, Forrest Tucker, Chill Wills, Dana Andrews.
Directed by William Wyler.
The Westerner is a serious-minded Western produced by Sam Goldwyn in 1940 - at the time of Wuthering Heights and The Little Foxes.
It was directed by William Wyler who directed these other films. There is a strong quality production atmosphere about the film. Gary Cooper is a sturdy hero - and was soon to win the Oscar for Sergeant York. Walter Brennan portrays Judge Roy Bean and won his third Oscar for best supporting actor. (Paul Newman in John Huston's 'Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean provides an interesting comparison.)
The film starts with action but soon moves into discussion sequences and the issues of the open range and law and justice in the West. It is an interesting portrait of Judge Roy Bean and his place in the West and his infatuation with the actress Lily Langtry.
1. Was this an interesting and entertaining Western? Its status as a classic Western of the forties? Impact then. now?
2. The lavish production values of Sam Goldwyn films? The serious direction and presentation by William Wyler? Gary Cooper's presence in Western films? Walter Brennan's interpretation or judge Roy Bean and his Oscar- winning performance? How did these give quality to the film?
3. The American traditions of the West, specially about law and order and the place of Judge Roy Bean in these traditions? His earlier career in the West, setting himself up as a judge, a hanging judge? Was he a means of fair justice in the West or a self-legalized outlaw? What is the truth of the story of Roy Bean? How well did the film and screenplay adhere to the truth? What insights into the lawless West and the administration of justice?
4. The opening of the film and the illustration of themes of law and justice. the arbitrary nature of its administration, the clash between the ranchers and the cattlemen and Bean's victimization of the ranchers? The emotional feeling behind the clashes and the fights at the fences and in the fields? The horror of the lynchings?
5. The visual presentation of the lynchings? The arbitrary nature of those? The crowds enjoying this, the ranch people being satisfied and getting their way?
6. The presentation of Judge Roy Bean within this atmosphere? His background. character, self-legalization, his reputation as a hanging Judge? His conduct in court, in his bar? On what basis was his justice administered? Roy Bean's saloon, his way of managing this? The importance of his infatuation with Lily Langtry and his idealizing of her? The posters - and the one with the bullet through it? His attitude towards people who had seen her, who did not know her? A credible picture of arbitrary inconsistency and self-importance? The importance of the encounter with Colt Harden and his going to hang him? The eventual revelation of the truth? His response to Colt's tricks? The bond between himself and Colt, their drinking, the chase? The background to his double-dealing with Colt?
7. The symbol of Lily Langtry and it being his fate? His idealizing her, her being his nemesis and drawing him to the theatre, for the shoot-out?
8. How was Colt the man of the West, the Westerner? His drifting, the horse and the thief, arbitrary justice and his almost being lynched. his tricking Roy Bean about Lily Langtry and later with the lock of hair, his seeing the two sides of the range war. his support of the ranchers, yet his warning of Bean to escape, his love for Jane Ellen? His decision to stay? His relationship with Jane? The irony of his killing of Bean in the theatre? The final confrontation of the man of the West with the self-made judge?
9. The portrait of the Matthews family and the various ranchers, the fooling on the range, the fence building, the violence, Jane Ellen and her place within this?
10. The role of Colt with the ranchers and his helping them despite, their suspicions of him? The conventional Western scenes of life on the range, work, gunfights?
11. The portrayal of the violence in the West prior to lay and order being established? The portrait of 19th century myths of the West and the Western heritage for the 20th century?
