I love that one of the notes for The Man From Laramie is that its considered a western version of King Lear. Nevermind that the only similarity is that it involves a crazy old man.If a book or film has a crazy old man, then it's King Lear. Retarded.
These two films are just part of five western films directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart.
Made in the 1950s, these films are different. Stewart is menacing and angry. If you want the Stewart of It's a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, seek another film to watch. Stewart's Howard Kemp and Will Lockhart have histories too dark to differentiate between who they were and what they've become.
What they've become are hard-edged dusty cowboys unafraid with slightly askew values that balance between what's right and what pays their bills.
Mann's films show a west that is uncompromising and dangerous. Where life is as meaningless as the the dust on his characters' boots. It was the only realistic western films of the time and, without them, the modern western would never exist.
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