Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.5

The Man from Laramie Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov June 29, 2017

Anthony Mann's "The Man from Laramie" (1955) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British label Eureka Entertainment. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; new video interview with critic and novelist Kim Newman; and exclusive new audio commentary by film critic Adrian Martin. The release also arrives with an illustrated booklet featuring a new essay by Philip Kemp, an interview with Anthony Mann, and rare archival imagery. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

The man

Anthony Mann and Jimmy Stewart made eight films together and The Man from Laramie was their final western. It is based on a story by Thomas T. Flynn that was published in The Saturday Evening Post and screenplay by Frank Burt and Philip Yordan. (Just prior to this film Yordan also scripted two other bona fide genre classics, the groundbreaking western Johnny Guitar and the stylish crime thriller The Big Combo).

Will Lockhart (Stewart) is a wagon handler from Laramie, Wyoming, who is on a secret mission to avenge the death of his younger brother, a cavalryman, who was killed by the Apaches while they were buying rifles from a mysterious trader in Coronado, New Mexico. Shortly after Lockhart and his helper Charles O'Leary (Wallace Ford) arrive in the area, however, they are confronted by Dave Waggoman (Alex Nicol), the wild son of the powerful local cattle baron Alec Waggoman (Donald Crisp), who burns his wagons and kills his mules after he accuses the two of stealing salt from his father’s property. When the baron learns about the scuffle he reimburses Lockhart for his loss and then invites him to come work for him, but he refuses and soon after finds himself in the middle of a serious rivalry involving the wild son and the baron’s right-hand man Vic Hansbro (Arthur Kennedy).

The Man from Laramie offers a cinematic image of the Old West that has very few similarities with the one that is promoted by John Ford’s big classic films and even some of Mann’s earlier films. Instead of an idyllically-beautiful place populated with tough men who are caught in a seemingly never-ending game of survival, here the Old West emerges as a semi-civilized place full of ordinary people with human flaws and emotions. There are still men that occasionally feel the urge to be unsung heroes, but they are vulnerable individuals who very much understand the real value of human life.

Stewart’s character is exactly that kind of an ordinary man with dual identity. He is an aging bachelor with a secretive past that has learned how to ignore many of life’s greatest gifts, including true love, and is determined to find and punish the man responsible for his brother’s death. However, there is a part of him that also frequently demands that he recognizes that his life would be a lot more rewarding if he finds a special woman to share it with.

The cattle baron who is slowly going blind has an interesting function as his perspective on life (and ultimately fate) appears to be the biggest reason why some viewers have drawn parallels between Mann’s film and the famous story about King Lear. However, the evolution of the character is actually not a unique form of imitation, but an interesting reflection of some of the values that would drive social and economic prosperity in the West.

The violence in Mann’s previous westerns is never romanticized -- it is always raw and oozing pure authentic energy. Nothing changes in this film. When Stewart’s character gets beat up at the salt heaps he is really hurting, and when later on the Indians surround the man they have been trading with after their guns are destroyed it instantly becomes clear that he is going to die a painful death. This is how Mann always saw and filmed the Old West, as a beautiful and at times perhaps borderline mythical place where people were free to live their lives as they wished, but also an uncharacteristically dangerous place that had accepted that violence is an inseparable part of it and learned to tolerate it.

The Man from Laramie was the one and only western Mann filmed in CinemaScope and Technicolor. He hired the Oscar winning cinematographer Charles Lang (One-Eyed Jacks, The Magnificent Seven) and they shot on location in New Mexico and Arizona.

The Man from Laramie Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.55:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Anthony Mann's The Man from Laramie arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment.

The release is sourced from a recent 4K restoration of the film that was prepared by Sony Pictures in the United States. It is incredibly beautiful, and actually the type of restoration that makes it painfully obvious that when it comes to bringing back to life older films that have been ravaged by time there is a sea of difference between the work that people at Sony Pictures and other major studios do (and Twentieth Century Fox in particular). Indeed, clarity, depth and fluidity are simply outstanding, and the larger your screen is, the easier it will be for you to appreciate the terrific organic appearance of the film. There are a few sporadic density fluctuations that are introduced by native source limitations (see screencapture #20) as well as a few sporadic density fluctuations that emerge during transitions, but they are retained, not introduced by poor digital work during the restoration work. There are no traces of problematic degraining or sharpening adjustments. Not surprisingly, the grain is nicely exposed and resolved. In fact, the bigger your screen is, the easier it will be for you to appreciate the outstanding organic appearance of the film. The color scheme is beautiful, and it immediately becomes obvious that the person that graded the film knew how to properly preserve and balance the primaries and the nuances. All of this is also reflected in a very solid dynamic range. There are no stability issues. Finally, there are no distracting debris, damage marks, cuts, stains, or other serious age-related imperfections to report. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Man from Laramie Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and English LPCM 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they split the image frame and the black bar below it.

I viewed the film with the LPCM 2.0 track and have nothing but great things to say about it. The audio has clearly been fully remastered and as a result depth, clarity and fluidity are as good as one can expect them to be. The music is also nicely balanced, while the dialog has the type of natural flow that it ought to have when it is completely free of age-related imperfections.

The Man from Laramie Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original theatrical trailer for The Man from Laramie. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

• Interview with Kim Newman - in this new video interview, critic and novelist Kim Newman discusses the production history of The Man from Laramie, the evolution of Anthony Mann's style and specifically some of the key elements that defined the classic status of his big westerns, some general trends in American cinema before and after the shooting of The Man from Laramie, the director's long relationship with Jimmy Stewart, etc. In English, not subtitled. (21 min).

• Commentary - in this audio commentary, critic Adrian Martin offers an in-depth analysis of The Man from Laramie and discusses Anthony Mann's legacy as well the evolution of the western film genre. The commentary was recorded exclusively for Eureka Entertainment in 2016.

• Booklet - an illustrated booklet featuring a new essay by Philip Kemp, an interview with Anthony Mann, and rare archival imagery.

The Man from Laramie Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Anthony Mann and Jimmy Stewart's final western, The Man from Laramie, follows an aging wagon handler who is on a mission to avenge the tragic death of his brother somewhere in the heart of New Mexico. It is a fantastic western, the only one that Mann shot in CinemaScope and Technicolor, that in many ways sums up everything that was so great about these types of films. As a big admirer of Jimmy Stewart's work, I have to say that I believe that one of his all-time best performances is here, playing the aging but resilient Will Lockhart. Eureka Entertainment's Blu-ray release of The Man from Laramie is sourced from a first-class 4K restoration of the film that was completed by Sony Pictures in the United States. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.