 | Great western
rating: 5
Great J. Stewart western, one of his best. Kind of "dark", but still great movie.
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Stewart and Mann's last Western in widescreen
rating: 4
This western, unfortunately, turned out to be James Stewart & Anthony Mann's last collorboration together and their only Western in widescreen (Cinemascope). It's may well be their best one along with "The Naked Spur" for it tells the Shakesperian like story of a stranger who arrives in a New Mexico town bent on revenge who totally disrupts an elderly rancher's (Donald Crisp)family. Mann's use of the wide screen process is exceptional and Stewart, without the use of a stunt person, creates the portrait of a cowboy who is physically abused by the evil elements in town. He's more than matched by the under-rated Arthur Kennedy who always remain somewhat sympathetic even as a villain and Alex Nicol as Crisp's weak son who brutally abuses Stewart in his quest for power. I don't want to reveal too much of the plot but if you know your Shakespere, you'll recognize some elements of "King Lear" in the story. Recommended for all Stewart fans and lovers of great westerns.
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Usual great stuff from Mann and Stewart
rating: 4
Director Anthony Mann and star James Stewart made a great combination. I always found their westerns together reached a part of me that other westerns didn't reach. Along with Bend of the River, Winchester '73 etc, this is top-notch stuff, not necessarily heavy on action, but with a lot of heart.
The rest of a really great cast includes Donald Crisp, Arthur Kennedy and Aline MacMahon.
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A tale of anguish and vengeance...
rating: 3
Some of the best Westerns of the fifties were those directed by Anthony Mann and John Ford, straightforward and unpretentious, but each with an interesting approach to the requirements of the genre... Mann's films were the more prestigious, usually featuring James Stewart who, with John Wayne, was the fifties' biggest box-office draw... "The Man From Laramie" best known because of the Frankie Laine theme strong which accompanied it, is notable for (among other things) Alex Nicol's extraordinary projection of sadism, an element which dominated the best of Mann's movies... The motion picture was to be the last of the Mann-Stewart Westerns...
Stewart is cast as a wagon handler from Laramie, Wyoming, but is, really, an army officer out to avenge the death of his younger brother, a U.S. Cavalryman, massacred by the Apaches who were buying guns from unknown persons... It is these persons that Stewart is looking for..
Soon Stewart gets involved in an area of New Mexico which is ruled by the iron hand of a cattle baron Donald Crisp, a strong authoritarian "who can't live with a lie"... Crisp's one weakness is his love and care for his spoiled son, Alex Nicol...
Wild but feeble, yet vicious, Nicol - with extraordinary projection of sadism - accosts Stewart in several confrontations in which (among other outrages) Stewart is dragged through fire by horses, and has his hand held tight while Alex puts a bullet through it... Mann proceeds in this mood throughout the movie, growing even more sadistic...
Arthur Kennedy, a hard-working heavy, plays the adopted son of Crisp... He is a son in disguise, jealous of Alex, pretending to be his brother's ally and protector...
A lot of good supporting actors are cast including Cathy O'Donnell, the fragile beauty who has little to do but await patiently for an opportunity; Aline MacMahon, the fine 'ugly' woman who never leaves the old man, and Jack Elam who tries to knife James Stewart in the back...
Anthony Mann adopted an altogether tougher approach to Western mythology than John Ford... His obsessive, neurotic characters and his emphasis on violence foretell the work of Peckinpah, Leone and Eastwood...
Filmed in Technicolor, "The Man From Laramie" is a Western with new touches of brutality touching off the wide screen spectacle...
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Powerful western
rating: 5
This ambitious western concerns a corrupt landowning family (the Waggomans) who finally disintegrate when an outsider, Will Lockhart (James Stewart in his best role for Mann), is drawn into its closed world.
Mann's dramatic presentation, here as in most of his 50s westerns, is Shakesperian in its power and intensity. Mann's widescreen compositions of the 50s are among the best uses of that then fresh format when people were still exploring its possibilities. His landscapes create a superbly configured canvas against which the conflicts are played out.
Donald Crisp is the family patriarch (going blind in more than just a physical sense) who is preoccupied with dynastic succession. His natural son (Alex Nicol) is a psychopath who, early in the film, overturns and brutally burns Stewart's trading wagons, shoots his mules and has him roped and dragged through the dirt, all in a pitiful bid to assert his authority in front of his men. In a later incident, he shoots Stewart's hand at point blank range, as if castrating him (a violent and potent sequence). Crisp's foreman and surrogate son (Arthur Kennedy in a fine performance) feigns worthiness but plots to usurp the succession and betray his father-surrogate.
Stewart as catalyst and protagonist, fulfils his own quest for justice and revenge with an obsession/pathology bordering on madness. Strong stuff!
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