1940: The Westerner (24th)

What else happened this year? WWII stuff, and a cancelled Olympics, obviously.

What is the plot - in one sentence? A handsome young cowboy acts as the middle ground between farmers and cow farmers, the latter of whom is led by the famous Judge Roy Bean.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? The handsome cowboy tries to help both sides, but is betrayed by Judge Roy Bean and he cleverly eventually has him killed. He then marries 'the only woman in the movie' TM.

What is the meaning of the title? It's not quite certain who the Westerner is in this - is it Roy Bean or is it the Cowboy? Frankly, I don't need to know.

Smouldering looks between cowboys helped to inspire Ang Lee as a boy.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? It's aged in ways that weren't intended. The central romance of the movie is between the cowboy and judge Roy Bean - a real historical figure, depicted fictionally here - they are played by a young, very handsome Gary Cooper, and Walter Brennan, respectively. Despite sharing a love of Lily Langtree, their relationship is nothing but homo-erotic. Before a drinking competition, Bean slyly suggests that 'we could have a lot of fun together,' before they wake up in the same bed. There's a tussle atop horses, and the lines 'I never wanted to see a man so badly' is uttered with a yearning lustiness (or something). 

The betrayal at the end also mirrors a relationship going awry. Like a lot of westerns, the main romance is between two men. That's fair enough, as Gary Cooper is gorgeous in this movie, thank God he took up booze to haggard him up a bunch. Other than that, nothing too bad, though the pious farmer father of the female character pimps his daughter out pretty obviously, but that's all in good fun, and, as I said, can you blame him? 

Any thoughts? Lily Langtree (a real-life stage actor) makes such a huge part of the story that it's funny. Gary Cowboy rocks up and gets in Bean's good books by pretending to know Lily herself.

Later, a lock of hair given to the cowboy by the one woman, as a romantic act, is later given to Bean as Lily's hair. He does this to literally save his life, and the life of her and her kinfolk, but she jumps to a huge conclusion that she is unloved. She also jumps to another conclusion about a fire starting, which was wrong. She blames him for being behind the fire. She is never dissuaded, but is next shown married to him. He can do better, especially as he's used to life on the range, free and easy.

The final shootout is staged at a nearby playhouse where Lily Langtree is due to play. After a shootout, a dying Bean is brought to see her, where she actually is, and Roy Bean dies in the arms of the one he loves: Gary Cooper. That relationship over, our cowboy marries the one other woman who's a character of note in the movie. This is a bit of a trope in Western movies: marry whoever is left when the guy that you really prefer dies.

Speaking of which, Bean had a mate buy 'ALL THE TICKETS' to go and see her, making sure he's there alone. This is obviously so that he can masturbate there, otherwise why would he need all tickets and need to be there? Filth.

Other things of note: there is a hanging quite early on, and one of the underlings of the town asks 'how was the hanging?' which sounds so much like 'how's it hanging?' that it took me a while to work it out. Let's also not forget that Roy Bean boasts of his exploits in the civil war. For the confederate states. He Loves slavery, which is always worth noting.

Would you recommend this? Yeah this was a lot of fun, even if it's aged kind of weirdly. There's a slight disconnect between the violence of Bean's actions (they desecrate a corpse, for example) with his dopey persona, and Gary Cooper is at times a playful, annoying teen type. Despite this (Cooper) stops Bean from getting hanged, and helps the other side by compromising and moving cattle from the farmland - but he's later betrayed by both sides. I don't know why he stayed,he should have just left. 

Also of note is that there is some CGI / special effects of the fire which are pretty impressive. Not bad.

Final thoughts? While this movie did deliver on Chekov's Lily Langtree, it didn't deliver on it's Chekov's sword, a weapon that Bean boasted about several times and even was wearing when he was shot. I was sure that it would come into use in a different way, but they fooled me.

Two last points: I've talked so little about the actual movie that I'm kind of proud. I also noted that the 2nd speaking female character in the movie appears at the 1 hour 7 minute mark, and this isn't a long movie. 

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