The Virginian

Buy This Item The Virginian by Kvc Entertainment  Available from Amazon  $14.99  on 8-28-2008     The third of five screen versions of Owen Wister's novel and play <I>The Virginian</I> is the only one that merits classic status. It's not a masterpiece, mind you, and not a great Western. But it <I>is</I> a landmark in the genre for defining some archetypal characters and situations, and for certifying the stardom of a key Western icon, Gary Cooper.<p> You could say this 1929 movie hasn't aged well: the pace is spavined, the dialogue groans like a rickety ladder, and Cooper's pancake makeup occasionally leaves him looking like an eye-batting odalisque. Yet in other ways the film's datedness feels like validation. From the vantage of the 21st century, this movie was made nearly as long ago as the era it describes, and the roughhewn town buildings, the absence of a music score, and the glimmering light (it always seems to be just after sunrise or just before sunset) all belong to a privileged moment, an unspoiled, vanished world.<p> That feeling is never stronger than in the great and terrible centerpiece of the film, the hanging of the rustlers--including one of the most sympathetic characters we have come to know. This is a harrowing sequence, the more so for being played matter-of-factly, even tenderly. And the climactic showdown in the streets of Medicine Bow is pretty fine, too. With Walter Huston, newly in from Broadway in his first Hollywood role, as that snake-in-the-grass Trampas; Richard Arlen as Steve; Mary Brian as the new schoolmarm; and frog-voiced Eugene Pallette, not yet too swollen to sit a horse, enhancing the new world of sound as Honey Wiggin. <I>--Richard T. Jameson</I> Reader Reviews I'm surprised to find this old classic currently unavailable. If I wanted an authentic Western collection, this would be the place to start. Cooper defines his style here that he uses through out his brilliant career which includes his clumbliness with the ladies. While others have discussed in detail the plot. My favorite scene is early in the film where Cooper and his outfit are herding steers through town, and one happens to stray into a dress shop through an open door into the street. Cooper appoligeticly enters the dress shop on horse back to recover his property. Anyone who has had the job or privilege to herd cattle in unfamiliar places will most especially appreciate those moments. At the time the picture was filmed, there were many colorfull old time westerners around Hollywood to compliment the real life western setting.

The Virginian Available from Amazon Price: $14.99 Updated on 8-28-2008.

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