The Westerner

Cole Harden is a drifter heading west. In one town he is accused of horse theft. The town's judge is Roy Bean; he declared himself judge, sets the law himself, and his courtroom is his bar. The sentence is hanging. Harden finds a way: he learns of Bean's admiration for the actress Lily Langtry and says he knows her. Bean takes an interest and the hanging is put off. Meanwhile the real fight in the region is elsewhere: there is a war between the cattlemen and the farmers settling the land, and Bean is on the cattle side. Harden is caught in the middle and has to choose. William Wyler directs. Gary Cooper plays Harden and Walter Brennan plays Roy Bean. Walter Brennan won an Oscar for the part, his third in the supporting category. There is an imbalance in the casting: although Cooper has the lead, Bean stands at the film's centre, and Cooper had raised this as a reservation when the project began. Roy Bean was a real person and the admiration for Lily Langtry was real too; the man never met her. Gregg Toland is the cinematographer and his use of deep focus is visible here as well. The matter it treats is who sets the law; the film shows it through one man. Its limit is structure; the farmers' strand and Bean's strand are not fully joined and the romance is weak. Who it is for: viewers who like classic westerns and character playing. Who it is not for: the pace is slow, the romance functionless, and the genre shape dated.