THE WESTERNER (1940) ** I don't know much about the real one, because I never paid much attention, but Walter Brennan's Judge Roy Bean is one of those self-centered loner guys whom women understand perfectly, but he thinks he's all complex and they don't. As a judge he rationalizes decisions to fit the interests of his class and buddies, and when he can't figure out how to bend rationality far enough, he just does what he wants. Mah, mah, how judges dew change! But Gary Cooper don't play that, and he's got his own personal relationship with truth, one that also involves more circles than lines. A couple scenes notable for illuminating the cruelty of man-they weren't just mean to Indians, you understand-it is a nice precedental complement to McCabe and Mrs. Miller, so far as demythologizing them days of the rugged individualist (let's face it, the thing was largely run by cowards in gangs, just like corporate now). Yeah, yeah, but some of them dénouement parts-they's funny as a sow pig with a corncob up its butt.
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