The Westerner

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Cinematic Time Capsule1940 Marathon - Film #83”By gobs, he stole my gun”In what is now one of my favorite first acts of any western Gary Cooper rides into town on a “stolen” horse and is brought before the dishonorable Judge Bean’s kangaroo court in the town’s local saloon. This sets up a quirky western variation that you don’t see very often as Cooper and the Judge square-dance off of each other for the rest of the picture.This was Walter Brennan’s last Oscar win, and easily one of his best performances. As Judge Bean, he owns every scene he’s in and gives us one of those villains that makes you hate yourself for liking him so much.Now you see what you done?You stopped the show.Cinematic Time Capsule - 1940 Ranked

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Walter Brennan was somewhat embarrassed as to how he won three Oscars. In the early years of the Academy Awards, extras were given the right to vote. Brennan was popular with the Union of Film Extras, and since their numbers were overwhelming, he won every time he was nominated. His third win for this film led to the disenfranchisement of the union from Oscar voting.Walter Brennan’s third Oscar win for Best Supporting Actor very well could be one of his greatest showings. Even if the Union of Film Extras swayed the award in Brennan’s favor he clearly earned his respect and revered status among his colleagues for being able to harness dramatic and comedic chops on a dime. Judge Roy Bean is no exception to this, a role clearly suited for the guy. It is one of those roles where in context of the film it could be argued as a leading role but found itself as supporting for whichever way the people voted. For all intents and purposes, Brennan really could be argued as the leading man here. Gary Cooper’s Cole Harden is usually playing off of Roy Bean’s every move and lacks the arc necessary to really drive the film. He’s mostly used as a plot device, being able to link all the interesting aspects of Brennan’s character to make an entertaining feature film. With all this in mind, William Wyler does show hints of his nearly indecipherable directing ability, in how, the blocking of his characters reveal intimacy or repulsion and brandish insults or revealing lines while on the move. It is understandable how any of these traits could be deemed as distinguishable from any ordinary film, but Wyler really does manage to capture great character moments with a clear mastery of where things should be. With all this in mind, The Westerner is a solid little character film lead at the helm by Brennan in a leading role that won for supporting. He fits the bill perfectly and is the most interesting part of a film that one will not find interesting unless they like his performance or the melodrama surrounding homesteaders vs cattle ranches and various disputes over land. For a film up for a handful awards at the 1941 Oscars, I currently stand by Brennan’s Best Supporting Win—though I could possibly be swayed by Albert Brasserman’s turn in Foreign Correspondent—a film I have already seen but may revisit for the sake of going through the arbitrary exercise of placing these award contenders in some kind of order.Viewed on Amazon Prime.

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The Judge Roy Bean and Cole Harden are one of the stranger bromances in classic Hollywood. They could easily be a couple of Mark Twain characters: a lovable eccentric who’s a corrupt justice hanging men for the coins in their pocket, and a Trickster saddle tramp, both dusty wordsmiths. The film is strongest when Bean and Harden are slugging “rub of the brush” whiskey, sizing each other up and trying to pull one over on the other. Pre-clique Walter Brennen is the anti-hero “Judge” Bean giving him a dark edge I’d never seen from Brennan before. He gives full scope to El Loco Frijole. Cooper is a charmer and a con artist who tries to negotiate a peace settlement in the range war between the ranchers and homesteaders before taking the law into his own hands. This would be the first and best of six movies paring Cooper and Brennan.If tone management is the key job of a director, compare how well Wyler juggles the tone here between a comic saloon courtroom (which give new meaning to “you may approach the bar”) and lynching. (I’d also note the diverse tones of his string of Wuthering Heights, The Letter, The Westerner, and Mrs Miniver.) Wyler continually confounds expectations. Just when things start to get sappy, enter arsonists stage-left to burn the homesteaders’ dreams. Wyler subverts the classic western genre even before it’s fully codified with a final shootout in an opera house rather than a badlands gulch or a coral.