Sun 20 Mar 2016
A Western Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: THE MAN FROM LARAMIE (1955).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[4] Comments
THE MAN FROM LARAMIE. Columbia Pictures, 1955. James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, Donald Crisp, Cathy O’Donnell, Alex Nicol, Aline MacMahon, Wallace Ford, Jack Elam. Based on the novel by T. T. Flynn (Dell, paperback original, 1954). Director: Anthony Mann.
The final collaboration between Anthony Mann and James Stewart, the gritty and taut Western The Man from Laramie has a lot to recommend it. Filmed on location in New Mexico in CinemaScope (one of the first Westerns to do so), the film has some absolutely beautiful Southwestern scenery.
So much so that, despite the Shakespearean drama unfolding before your very eyes, you nevertheless are attuned to the relative insignificance of man’s petty foibles in the midst of Nature’s bountiful horizons and mountains. Be it menacing cliffs or a dusty frontier town, Mann captures the color, mood, and the very spirit of the myriad outdoor settings.
Indeed, the crisp and memorable visual aspect of the film overshadows what is essentially a rather quotidian Western revenge story. Stewart, more than capable of playing a stoic man with torrents of rage gurgling under an outwardly jovial demeanor, is really very good. Even those who don’t particularly find Stewart to be on the same level as Wayne and Scott will find much to appreciate here.
He portrays Will Lockhart, a former Army captain from Laramie, Wyoming, who is determined to find the man he holds indirectly responsible for his brother’s death at the hands of Apaches. This is what brings him to Coronado, a small dusty border town with a significant Pueblo Indian presence.
It is here that he gets caught up not only in his own psychological desire for revenge, but also enmeshed in a range feud between the local power broker and cattle baron, Alec Waggoner (Donald Crisp) and local holdout, Kate Canady (Aline MacMahon). Complicating matters further is a menacing drunk portrayed by Jack Elam; Waggoner’s spoiled and violent son, Dave (Alex Nicol); and Waggoner’s devious foreman, Vic (Arthur Kennedy) who is set to be married to Waggoner’s niece, Barbara (Cathy O’Donnell). The plot veers from Greek tragedy to soap opera, never exactly finding a comfortable middle ground.
But it’s not really the plot that matters in The Man from Laramie as much as the visual means by which Mann tells a story of a lone man set out for revenge in the midst of an expansive Western landscape. There are some extremely effective moments of violent retribution and menace. One gets the sense that Mann was trying very hard to say something about what happens when one gets the chance to peek behind the façade of self-made men.
It’s also as if all that the frenetic activity that transpires in the movie has happened before and will happen again, all petty squabbles taking place in the shadows of mountains that will outlast the different human civilizations that will come and go in their majestic presence.
March 20th, 2016 at 4:00 pm
Fine review Jonathan. You are dead on about how the scenery dominates this film and would have overwhelmed it with a lesser cast and weaker storyline.
Kennedy, of course, was also a strong villain opposite Stewart in Mann’s BEND OF THE RIVER and the two have good rapport, though they aren’t matched quite as evenly here as in RIVER.
This is usually ranked right behind WINCHESTER 73 and THE NAKED SPUR as Mann’s best film with Stewart though I might put it in a tie with SPUR since after multiple viewings I have come to appreciate it more.
Ironically I found a later reprint of the Flynn novel a month or so back and recently read it. It is close to the film, closer perhaps than many adaptations, but I wonder if it was quite as good as it seems now without the visuals from this in the back of my head.
I don’t know if you can really compare Stewart to Wayne, Scott, or Cooper since each has such a distinctive personality they bring to a Western. I can’t really imagine Stewart in a Wayne role or vice versa and the same for Scott and Cooper.
The anguish a Stewart hero feels is in his expressive face and the crack in his voice. With Cooper it is his face and body and the hardening of his soft voice. For Wayne it is in the eyes and a bitterness in his voice, and for Scott it is a shadow across a stone façade, the slightest movement of his lips, a hardening or a bitter smile.
I can’t imagine Wayne or Scott or Cooper in LARAMIE any more than I can imagine Stewart in HIGH NOON or THE SEARCHERS or Cooper in THE TALL T. I think that is the quality they bring to most roles that you can’t imagine another actor playing the part.
It’s like in RED RIVER. I cannot imagine that the character Wayne plays played by Stewart, Cooper, or Scott would kill Montgomery Clift’s character, but there is real tension that Wayne will in the film. It’s because he brings a different tension to a film than they do. In the same sense I can’t see Wayne bring the vulnerability Stewart does to a Western or the quiet integrity Cooper does or the relaxed competence hiding steel Scott’s screen persona projects.
That’s what marks a star, you can’t imagine anyone else playing the parts they play.
March 20th, 2016 at 6:23 pm
Jonathan, great review of a move I’ve always liked.
David, your comment might be the best succinct explanation ever of the different qualities Wayne, Cooper, Stewart, and Scott bring to their roles. I especially love your description of Scott–my favorite. Yes, that’s it, exactly! He brings a “relaxed competence hiding steel” and displays anguish subtly as nothing more than a “shadow across a stone facade.”
March 21st, 2016 at 4:11 am
I enjoy MAN FROM LARAMIE, there’s some good stuff there, but it doesn’t seem as tight and enjoyable as WINCHESTER 73 or BEND OF THE RIVER to me.
As far as Stars making a part their own, I’ve always wondered what RED RIVER would have been like if the Montgomery Clift part were played by Gilbert Gottfried.
March 21st, 2016 at 10:41 am
One of my favorite westerns. How Stewart wasn’t nominated for an Oscar just for the scene where Alex Nicol shoots him in the hand I can’t understand. It has one of my favorite lines of dialogue said by Wallace Ford. “I feel I got to know you and I like What I know.”