Wow
With Man of the West, Mann created the flat out best series of westerns ever made in America. Period. Not Ford, Boetticer, Peckinpah, or anyone else is in rifle range now. Ford still owns second place with My Darling Clementine which is pound for pound better than this one, and Red River still beats Clementine, but, my God, when all of these are stacked up together its no wonder that there is nobody around to even want to beat them. And I am leaving out Raoul Walsh in the bargain. And even in such a glittering mist, Man of the West owns a pretty fine piece of territory.The opening is perhaps a bit weak, and the plot from then on worse than thin: very convenient that this band of outlaws are still living at the same house where Cooper killed with them, and about five or six other ludicrosities, but what the hell, give yourself over to just watching yourself plopped into a writhing snake den and you will be just fine.
It's the last third of the film that is near perfection, only a few films rivaling it in intensity, the last 30 of Touch of Evil, Citizen Kane, Clementine, Red River, and very few others.
The weakness of the first and middle perhaps is what led the critics of the day to overlook the brilliance of the last of it. But from the moment of Cooper taunting Lord to sneak up behind him to start their fight, it just never lets up. The fight is astonishing, not as good as one has noted here,kicking and hitting brawl in Treasure of Sierra Madre, and Fritz Lang has a great tooth and claw one in Cloak and Dagger, but this one is pretty damned amazing, and then the buildup to Lassoo, killing of Trout, and THEN the shootout between Cooper and Dehner is just as good as the great, if longer one in Clementine. By then Mann had learned to simplify and strip his camera, let it roam some: nobody with a functioning set of eyes will not wind up hypnotized with this shootout. Absolutely fabulous.
Then the King Lear like nod comes with Cooper returning to the raped Julie London and mad white haired Lee j. Cobb, and Mann once again shoots a finale in echoing rocks, also quite nice, and somehow even the hokey words of London as they ride off into the hills almost works.
Don't miss this one.
It's pure greatness.
score 9/10
loydmooney-1 22 June 2006
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1399579/35090
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