J.W.COOP 1971 (MILL CREEK)

Interesting and off beat modern western.

Cliff Robertson directed and stars as J.W. Coop, a man recently released from nine years in prison who tries to again get on top of the rodeo world one last time.

He finds that the world has changed a lot in those nine years and he is determined to be number one in the sport he loves. He manages to climb to number 2 behind a young man who jets from arena to arena and barely works hard to keep his number one spot.

Coop also meets a young woman named Bean (Cristina Ferrare) and they have a short but rewarding relationship. Geraldine Page is Coop's mentally unhinged mother.

The rodeo sequences were shot at many actual rodeos and some of the actors are greats from the sport such as Larry Mahan. Robertson handles the directing chores just fine and he manages to get solid performances out of the entire cast.

This is an interesting character study of a man who tries to regain what he has missed in his life and all I can say is it was a good film and the ending is brutal and somewhat sad.

The cast is rounded out by R.G. Armstrong, John Crawford and Wade Crosby.