Man of the West

Released Oct 1, 1958

1 hr. 40 min.

Western

List

95%

19 Reviews

Tomatometer

76%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

Ex-outlaw Link Jones (Gary Cooper) is aboard a train when it is robbed by bandits. When he tries to intervene, he's knocked out and left in the middle of nowhere with saloon singer Billie (Julie London), whom he hoped to hire as a schoolteacher in his town, and Sam (Arthur O'Connell), a con man. Link brings the three to his nearby former home, now the hideout for the bandits, who are led by his uncle (Lee J. Cobb) -- and to save his new friends, he must rejoin the old gang for one last holdup.

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Steve D

One of Cooper's best westerns.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/07/24

Full Review

Bill B

A savage and tough film for its time. I always remembered Royal Dano's haunting final scene from when I was a youngster. All of the acting is superb, as is Anthony Mann's tight direction.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

08/14/23

Full Review

William L

When people refer to the time in which the West was dying, it wasn't like the continent was split in half and got sucked into a whirlpool; the lifestyle was changing with the arrival of the railroads and industry, and it was the people that made the West what it was that were forced to change with it. That's what Mann's film is about - evolution and change. Cooper's Link, a moderately reformed outlaw, is forced to determine whether or not his lifestyle changes are devout or mere posturing when confronted with his old gang. There's no theatrics, no moment of clear redemption, and essentially not an ounce of cheer in the entire runtime. Instead, you just get a man acting out of practicality, weighing his own survival, his willingness to inflict violence on others, and the potential to protect what few innocents are caught up in chance misfortune against one another. The audience is left wondering where the moral line is with Link, who is shown practically at his introduction (almost instictively, with some remorse) pilfering a pouch of money from an unsuspecting stable owner, and while he claims to be representing a town in which he has made a life honestly, it's only his word that backs that up. There's also the strange, volatile chemistry of the outlaw band to consider, led by Dock Tobin, an aging and increasingly eccentric relic of times with better pickings (played by Lee Cobb, an actor with considerable range who appeared in some all-time classics, most notably as the hot-tempered Juror #3 in 12 Angry Men). Some stay on out of blind loyalty, others out of familial ties, some out of deference to an almost animalistic pecking order. It's like watching volatile chemicals stored aboard a spaceship in a decaying orbit - inevitably doomed and potentially explosive. These are what's left of the romanticized outlaws of yesteryear - a squabbling, irrational pack. Their treatment of the sole female character of substance - London's Billie - is surprisingly brutal by the standards of '50s Westerns, and representative of their personalities as a whole. Taken together, it's a tight, violent, morose think piece on personal growth and environmental change, told through the less-than-squeaky-clean lens of Anthony Mann, in a film as close to a Revisionist Western as he ever got, and perhaps his best work. (4/5)

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

06/04/21

Full Review

dustin d

Man of the West is a dark Western (for 1958) taking on themes of masculinity, loyalty, the shadow personality and redemption. An underrated work of the genre.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

richard f

What can you say about Gary Cooper? He was an American icon of western movies. The plot is good, there are some twists and some very good acting. Lee J. Cobb is perfectly cast as the aging leader of a second rate bank robbing gang. Entertaining and satisfying.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Great performance by Gary Copper ,strong cast

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

Full Review

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Anthony Mann

Director

Gary Cooper

Link Jones

Julie London

Billie Ellis

Lee J. Cobb

Dock Tobin

Arthur O'Connell

Sam Beasley

Jack Lord

Coaley

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Derek Malcolm

Guardian

Mann's direction is immaculate, making Reginald Rose's clearly allegorical, and sometimes forced, screenplay seem even better than it is.

Mar 12, 2015

Full Review

Wendy Ide

Times (UK)

Anthony Mann's terrific final western is a potent examination of one man's battle against his own darker impulses.

Rated: 4/5

Mar 12, 2015

Full Review

Variety Staff

Variety

Cooper gives a characteristically virile performance, his dominance of the outlaws quietly believable, while London achieves some touching and convincing moments in a difficult role.

Mar 26, 2009

Full Review

Sean Axmaker

Stream on Demand

The great western director Anthony Mann and aging western icon Gary Cooper teamed up for the first and only time in [this] stark frontier drama of a trio of train passengers stranded in the desert after a railway holdup.

Dec 16, 2023

Full Review

Cory Woodroof

615 Film

The antithesis of sweeping – carefully constructed, fierce, enveloping, unforgiving. Quite a film.

Aug 11, 2022

Full Review

Brian Eggert

Deep Focus Review

Man of the West is Anthony Mann's shining conceptual project and his last great Western.

Rated: 4/4

Mar 21, 2022

Full Review

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Synopsis

Ex-outlaw Link Jones (Gary Cooper) is aboard a train when it is robbed by bandits. When he tries to intervene, he's knocked out and left in the middle of nowhere with saloon singer Billie (Julie London), whom he hoped to hire as a schoolteacher in his town, and Sam (Arthur O'Connell), a con man. Link brings the three to his nearby former home, now the hideout for the bandits, who are led by his uncle (Lee J. Cobb) -- and to save his new friends, he must rejoin the old gang for one last holdup.

Director: Anthony Mann
Screenwriter: Will C. Brown, Reginald Rose
Distributor: Warner Home Vídeo, MGM/UA Home Entertainment Inc., United Artists
Production Co: Ashton Productions
Genre: Western
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 1, 1958, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 16, 2008
Sound Mix: Mono

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