Mirisch's Man of the West
By: Henry Cabot Beck 04/01/2008
Man of the West has been called too violent and sadistic, but there is, I believe, a real honesty in it. Anthony Mann felt as I did about it. When I gave him the script, he was enthusiastic about doing it, particularly since he had never worked with Gary Cooper before. He really pushed the realistic and psychological elements as far as he could. Perhaps too far. Perhaps our attempt to do “a different Western” either shocked or failed to interest, the wider audience we were looking for. At the same time we may have antagonized the more simplistic Western fan who wanted to see more action and less complexity of character. Fort Massacre and Man of the West were attempts on my part—because I developed these films apart from directors, and the scripts were given to the directors before hiring them—to create more three-dimensional people, to see the warts on the character of the hero, and to make more sophisticated films. Neither picture succeeded commercially, although I think they are both good and interesting films. Man of the West, particularly, has been appreciated by cultists who continue to see and discuss it.
Excerpt from I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History (University of Wisconsin Press)
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