One Paragraph Movie Review: The Man from Laramie

Three hundred and forty-sixth film: The Man from Laramie, a 1955 Western starring Jimmy Stewart in a punchy mood and New Mexico in a dusty one. See, I made up the rules of this movie-watching thing and one of them is that I have to watch whatever’s alphabetically next in the ‘1001 Movies… ‘ book, regardless of the genre. As a result, I’m seeing a LOT more Westerns and Kung Fu movies than I otherwise might, and this is absolutely a Western. Barely five minutes in and there’s a wagon train, a general store, and a man dragged through a campfire by a lasso. Basically, Stewart’s big tough hero Lockhart comes from Laramie to avenge the death-by-Apache murder of his brother, knowing that someone sold the Apaches some fancy guns. On the way he meets various members of the Waggoman family, who own most of the town and surrounding cattle, and wouldn’t you know it, he likes some,, shoots at others, and finds out who the villains are. A lot of the reviews I read mention themes of family alliances, greed, and treachery, but it’s the same theme as always — blokes being tough and dirty. That’s not a bad thing, but except for wanting a pair of jeans of precisely the same cut and colour as Stewart’s, and realise that taking fashion inspiration from a Western is not really its main thing, this isn’t really my thing. It’s fine. Two and a bit Apache gun transaction hiccups out of five.