Gary Cooper is one Hollywood legend who always irritates me. He was meant to be famed as this stoic silent type who was a great movie actor and star - but I always found he played these whiny whingy characters who liked to sulk and his "aw shucks" routine left me cold.
This documentary was made by Richard Shickel. I like Schickel as a critic but as a documentarian he seems more interested in talking about his subject's persona and image instead of telling the story of his life. There is a trot through the main milestones. Clint Eastwood does a decent job as presenter. There's clips from the famous movies: High Noon, Wings, Mr Deeds, etc.
The best thing about it is some impressive archival footage including home movies of Cooper at Sun Valley hanging out with Hemingway. There's also vision of him at the HUAC hearings; the little turd used his aw shucks routine while giving evidence. What a loser. (Clint/Schickel get around this by saying Cooper was a "fair minded conservative embarrassed by the company he kept.")
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