USA Today
"...Anthony Mann's final Western is also the last great Gary Cooper film..." 03/29/1991 p.3DUncut
"Anthony Mann's last movie proved to be his most intense an ambitious western." 04/01/2005 p.141 Film Comment
"Anthony Mann's last great western....The meticulous detailing in the costume design reflects Mann's penchant for characterization through precise physical description..." 05/01/2008 p.77 Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "Cooper channels the pull of the past with manful heft. The resulting punch still smarts. Terrific." 11/01/2008 p.147 DVD Times 7 of 10
In a nutshell Man of the West concerns Gary Cooper's ageing ex-outlaw. A train journey with wholly good intentions results in his meeting up with Lee J. Cobb, the man he used to run with and who now has a new, much younger gang. This newer contingent are of little interest to Mann, however. Rather, as with James Stewart and Arthur Kennedy in his earlier Bend of the River, he is more concerned with the two sides of same coin with Cooper and Cobb represent and the tensions this brings. As the former puts it "you either grow up or you rot". For Cooper this has meant a transition into folksiness, politeness and an amiable clumsiness; for Cobb self-loathing, insecurity and possible insanity...Yet despite its themes and ageing leads (this was one of Cooper's final films before his untimely death in 1961), Man of the West lacks an air of fatalism. Cooper's character may have an antecedent in Clint Eastwood's William Munny from Unforgiven (and perhaps even Josey Wales), but this is no 'end of the West' example of the genre...It may hit all of the correct generic buttons and prove hugely enjoyable as a piece of action cinema, yet what remains is an expertly drawn portrayal of two deeply troubled men and their outlaw culture. - Anthony Nield
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