The Man from Laramie (1955)

I am no fan of western. Still, I try to be open-minded. That is, I watch a western every now and then, and sometimes I am positively surprised. The Man from Laramie is one of the better westerns I’ve seen, even though it is not particularly good. Yes, it has some unnecessary melodramatic elements, but nonetheless, it is mostly a restrained film dealing with some traditional themes in the genre: revenge, loneliness, confrontation and a sudden sense of commitment. James Stewart plays the stranger who rides into a town in the middle of nowhere. He has a mission. It is clear that most townspeople consider him a bothersome nuisance, too many questions asked. The stranger sticks around. He gets into fights. His presence spells trouble – and change. It was not so much the story that I liked. I liked the airy aesthetics, the quiet scenes and how a sense of rage and foreboding was kept mostly under the surface, only to explode into your face in the very end.The best thing about The Man from Laramie is one of its female character, a strong-headed woman of a kind rarely to be seen in this type of move.