Gary Cooper: American Life, American Legend

GARY COOPER found his niche in westerns, never requiring a lot of talk but a lot of fast action and quick on the trigger in cowboy roles.

His likable and unpretentious manner of acting, combined with his natural good looks made him a natural for films, after attending college and thinking of a career as an artist. Once the public got a brief glimpse of him in WINGS, his career path was determined. He'd become an actor.

Described by the narrator as "one of the most romantic figures of the screen," we see a series of clips from his famous films, where he gradually attained stardom as the "everyman" in films like MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN and MEET JOHN DOE.

Off screen, he was hardly everyman. He and his wife and children lived in luxury, with a huge swimming pool as a playground and lots of skiing and target practice on shooting expeditions.

On the eve of WWII, Warner Bros. released SERGEANT YORK and Cooper's fine performance, playing his first real-life hero, won the Academy Award. While at Warners, his three-year romance with Patricia Neal is touched upon only briefly before we get to HIGH NOON and another award for Cooper's work.

The commentary by Clint Eastwood is not particularly illuminating and is delivered in the dry Eastwood manner and in a monotone. The story of Cooper's career concludes with an emotional James Stewart at the 1961 Oscars presenting Cooper with a special Oscar honoring his career while the actor was home terminally ill with cancer.

Summing up: Not really the most illuminating biography of the great star, nor does it overcome the notion that many have that Cooper was a star personality with a limited range of emotion. There's an almost wooden look to much of Cooper's underacting, in my opinion.

I was really surprised to see that unlike most documentaries, this was written, directed and produced by a film critic-- Richard Schickel. Most of the times I know of where film critics had major involvement in films, the films turns out to be bombs (Rex Reed starring in "Myra Breckenridge" and Roger Ebert writing "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" are prime examples). However, in this case, the critic's powers are used for good and not evil--and the results are better (though this isn't saying much, as the films I just mentioned are among the worst films ever made).

As for the documentary, it's narrated by Clint Eastwood (a pretty good choice) and manages to discuss his long career--from his silent days until his death in the early 1960s. The only negatives, and they are slight, are that the film is awfully short (as are most film documentaries) and there is very little about Gary Cooper as a human being--you really don't learn all that much about his life. However, as a nice overview of his films, it works very well.

Richard Schickel's 1991 documentary about Gary Cooper - "Gary Cooper: American Life, American Legend" gives us a look at the tremendous, all-American star through his films and his life.

Narrated by Clint Eastwood, the theme is definitely "Gary Coooper, American" as we are taken through fast clips of his many appearances in westerns, and scenes from "Meet John Doe," "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, and "Sgt. York."

The best part of the documentary is the home movies of Cooper and his family as well as his childhood photos, showing him as a beautiful blonde kid with the sunny smile he would have his entire life.

There is also a hilarious clip of Cooper on "The Jack Benny Show" doing the comeback on the number "Bird Dog" - and Benny loses it. The documentary also takes us briefly through his tumultuous affair with Patricia Neal, which nearly ruined both their lives.

There's a certain cohesiveness missing from this bio/retrospective - it jumps around a lot and has no footage of Cooper being interviewed, which would have added a lot.

Also, Clint Eastwood's narration was described as unobtrusive. What it was, was boring and monotone. Given that Cooper himself tended to be the strong, silent type on screen, we could have used a little animation.

On a personal note, Gary Cooper was one of the handsomest men who ever lived - there were some looks at him in his early films, but not nearly enough for this fan. That smile, those lips, that bone structure - he was handsome throughout his life, but in films like "Morocco" and "Desire," he is devastating.

Instead of sitting through a scene from one of his worst performances, as Howard Roark in "The Fountainhead," giving a speech that he admitted to the author he did not understand - a young, suave Cooper in a tux would have been a nice touch. This documentary, alas, was definitely produced by a man.

Gary Cooper: American Life, American Legend (1991)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Clint Eastwood narrates this documentary that takes a look at the career of legend Gary Cooper. Calling this a documentary is a little unfair as the only person talking is Eastwood and he only casually drops in to say a few lines. The rest of the film pretty much just shows us clips from all his movies including WINGS, PRIDE OF THE YANKEES, SERGENT YORK, HIGH NOON and many other classics. There's really two ways to look at this and one is that if you haven't seen any of Cooper's great films then you should enjoy what you see here enough to where you'd want to go out and buy the films. On the other hand, if you've seen these movies already then you really don't learn too much. The only personal stuff really talked about is Cooper's disastrous affair with Patricia Neal and how he changed his life before his death. The Honorary Oscar award, which was accepted by James Stewart, is shown here and was quite touching. That footage makes this documentary worth sitting through, although a more complete one is certainly needed.

Probably no other screen legend was so perfectly cast as a hero as was Gary Cooper. Even in later years when an edge of cynicism crept into his roles, you always saw Coop piercing through those expressive eyes hoping the world was not really as bad as he was seeing.

Richard Schickel's production had the good fortune to acquire the services of Clint Eastwood as narrator. The parallels between High Noon and Dirty Harry are hard to miss. Both Will Kane and Harry Callahan are highly moral men who've taken it on themselves to do a disagreeable job that few step up to the plate to do.

Much as I admire what Cooper did in High Noon, his more straightforward heroes appeal to me best. Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, Meet John Doe, Sergeant York and my personal favorite of all his films Friendly Persuasion are more of what I like to see from him on screen. Even what I consider one of his worst films, The Fountainhead got a viewing mainly because of his relationship with Patricia Neal.

What was really nice was a clip from the Jack Benny Show with Coop trying his hand at the Everly Brothers classic Johnny Is A Joker. I have a radio broadcast on vinyl of Coop with his Paramount buddy Bing Crosby on his radio show post World War II. That's a treasure.

And so is the work and memory of Gary Cooper.