page_title: The Virginian (1929 film)
section_title: Reception
hierarchical_section_title: The Virginian (1929 film) / Reception
caption_attribution_description: English: Screenshot from the 1929 film The Virginian with Gary Cooper and Mary Brian.
context_page_description: The Virginian is a 1929 American pre-Code Western film directed by Victor Fleming and starring Gary Cooper, Walter Huston, and Richard Arlen. The film was based on the 1902 novel The Virginian by Owen Wister and adapted from the popular 1904 theatrical play Wister had collaborated on with playwright Kirke La Shelle.
  The Virginian is about a good-natured cowboy who romances the new schoolmarm and has a crisis of conscience when he learns his best friend is involved in cattle rustling. The film is well known for Cooper's line, "If you wanna call me that—smile", in response to a cuss by the antagonist.
context_section_description: The Virginian was released on 9 November 1929, with a theatrical rerelease in 1935. Bruce Eder, writing for Allmovie (a site run by the Rovi Corporation), notes that the film was a significant milestone in Cooper's career. According to the American Film Institute, The Virginian is "one of the first of the studio produced, large-scale, all-dialogue Westerns." However, as the main character has little dialogue, Cooper was typecast as a man of few words, described by film historian Lee Clark Mitchell as a "yup and nope" actor. Cooper later called it his favorite film.
  The Virginian has been well received, with a 100% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of March 2012, based on five reviews. The review for Variety noted that the film mixed various aspects of previous Westerns. The review described the scene where The Virginian must send his comrades to certain death "one of the most harrowing and vivid sequences ever before the lenses". Eder praised the characterizations and use of sound, summarizing that the film was "a most worthwhile viewing experience". Film historian Colin Shindler notes that The Virginian, along with Cimarron, was one of the first Westerns to handle sound well. Film critic Emanuel Levy gives the film a B+, noting that Cooper showed moral conflict similar to his role in the later film High Noon (1952), which won an Academy Award.
  Due to poor maintenance, by the 1960s the only surviving copies of The Virginian were of poor audio and visual quality; Eder describes them as being "a chore to watch". The alternative for most audiences was to watch the 1946 adaptation. In the 1990s, the film was restored and became more widely available. Another adaptation of the novel, a television series, ran for nine seasons from 1962 to 1971. The film also shaped the view of cowboys as chivalrous, slow-talking yet tough characters.
  The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
  2003: AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains:
  The Virginian – Nominated Hero
  2005: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
  The Virginian: "If you wanna call me that, smile." – Nominated
caption: Gary Cooper and Mary Brian
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