The Westerner (1940)

I saw The Westerner as a part of a series of Gary Cooper films they were showing on the Criterion Channel. I sort of hated it. Its chief redeeming quality is supposed to be Walter Brennan's third Oscar-winning performance in five years (he won in '37, '39, and in '41) as Judge Roy Bean. But Brennan pretty much does his usual shtick here. Nothing is of much interest in this early William Wyler western. There are some cool sequences – the entire prairie catches on fire at one point, and the whole thing is shot gorgeously – but mostly I thought The Westerner was really boring.