In Inverse order from 10 to 1.
10. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon. I don’t know it this really qualifies as a Western but the themes and the photography are great. I want to include Ford’s cavalry pictures as westerns. The theme of an old warhorse retiring to be replaced by the younger generation is a recurring one in Ford’s later work. John Wayne gives a stellar performance as Captain Nathan Brittles and his cemetery scene where he talks to his wife let me go to my dad’s grave and talk to him without feeling self conscious. The photography and costumes were influenced by the great western artist Fredrick Remington and the shots during the storm were just a lucky break that Ford just kept rolling through. Superb.
9. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Lee Marvin is the best villain that I ever saw. He had this fuck you attitude that was right on the money. Jimmy Stewart can get a little cloying but he had an edge here as the slightly sleazy lawyer who steals the Dukes girl. Woody Strode had another of his great almost silent performances as Pompey. “When the truth disagrees with the Legend, print the Legend.” Or the modern newsman’s motto, “Just make shit up.”
8. Johnny Guitar. Man this is a great movie. Joan Crawford is unbelievable and the dialogue is unreal. Nicholas Ray is a great underrated director.
Johnny: How many men have you forgotten?
Vienna: As many women as you've remembered.
Johnny: Don't go away.
Vienna: I haven't moved.
Johnny: Tell me something nice.
Vienna: Sure, what do you want to hear?
Johnny: Lie to me. Tell me all these years you've waited. Tell me.
Vienna: [without feeling] All those years I've waited.
Johnny: Tell me you'd a-died if I hadn't come back.
Vienna: [without feeling] I woulda died if you hadn't come back.
Johnny: Tell me you still love me like I love you.
Vienna: [without feeling] I still love you like you love me.
Johnny: [bitterly] Thanks. Thanks a lot.
What a great movie chock full with lesbian overtones and the female lead is named after a sausage
7. The Long Riders. A great Walter Hill flick where he had a set of brothers play the members of the James Gang. The gang was actually made up of brothers who had run away to fight with Quantrill during the Civil War. The James and Younger clans were cousins and the Millers and the Fords were part of the extended kinship of intermarriage of rural America. As Cole Younger, David Carradine gave his best performance ever. One of my favorite lines of all time is in this movie.
Belle Starr: Coleman Younger! Seems like you folks are havin' a real nice party in there.
Cole Younger: I expect so, with free food and drink and all.
Belle Starr: How come I wasn't invited?
Cole Younger: 'Cause you're a whore, Belle.
Belle Starr: I might be; but at least I ain't a cheap one
"Cause you’re a whore, Belle." Love it.
6. Unforgiven. A great Clint Eastwood flic that really shows what violence is all about. The performances by Richard Haris and Gene Hackman are great as well. Morgan Freeman overdoes the saintly Negro bit but at least it can serve as a blue print for the Barack Obama campaign. This movie is a distillation of all that Eastwood learned about Westerns throughout his career. The greatest compliment I could give him is that it easily could be a work from Ford or Peckinpaugh. It is by far his best work.
5. Stagecoach is the movie that set the archetypes for almost all subsequent westerns. The whore with the heart of gold. The greedy banker. The southern gentleman fallen on hard times who lives as a gambler and gunman but retains his courtly ways. The drunken doctor who is a truth teller but still a drunk. And most important of all is the Anti-hero. A bad man who does good. A killer who is in the right and does what he has to do. The Ringo Kid as played by John Wayne is the model for hundreds of movies and TV shows and is the archetype of the western hero. In this movie, the shots and the action and the characters set the standard for western movies.
4. Red River is the movie that really made John Wayne a star. His portrayal of Dunson is one of his top three performances and his chemistry with Montgomery Clift is amazing. You could believe that they were father and son. Adopted son but son all the same. This set the tone for all the trail drive movies to follow. The funny part about the movie is that most people assume because it was a Wayne movie that John Ford directed it. The real Director Howard Hawks loved to bust on Ford that he made Wayne a star. Ford would pour his drink over the heads of fans who told them how much they loved Red River. He might have been pissed, but Red River and Stagecoach were the originals that thousands of hacks have copied from for decades.
3. Rio Grande is my sentimental favorite. A great love story with Wayne and Maureen O’hara, the themes of conflict between duty and family is always a favorite. The comic scenes with Victor Mclaglen were stellar as always and the movie could be seen as a metaphor for the war against terror. General Sheridan comes down and tells Colonel York that he has to break the law by crossing into Mexico to stop the attacks by the Apaches. The government might have to disown him but he still has to do the job. It’s fun and lighthearted in an engaging way and better than 90% of the crap we get to watch today.
2. The Magnificent Seven is one of the best action westerns ever made. I much prefer it to the Wild Bunch as it is more stylized and has such a great cast. I mean James Coburn and Charles Bronsen as supporting players. Eli Wallach plays the best “bad tooth” Mexican bandito this side of the Treasure of Sierra Madre. It was a copy of Seven Samurai which Kurasowa has often said was heavily influenced by John Ford’s westerns. So it was a western influenced by an eastern which was influenced by a western. Yul Brenner gave such an iconic performance that he lived off it for years as witness the comic turn it took in Westworld. This is just great popcorn entertainment.
1. The only real agreement I have with AFI is that The Searchers is the best western ever made. Wayne was great as the uncle searching for his niece so that he could kill her because she was ruined by being raped by Scar the Comanche chief. It included most of Fords stock company in their usual roles but they seem sharper and more in tune. This movie has been ripped off in so many ways and so many times that it is impossible to list them all. The themes of lost love and redemption are universal and it is above all great entertainment.
Honorable Mention: Fort Apache, The Gunfighter, The Big Sky, Cheyenne Autumn, The Angel and The Bad Man, The War Wagon, The Daybreakers, Ride the High Country, Will Penny, The Alamo (the one with the Duke of course), Destry Rides Again, The Star Packer, The Tall Horseman, Duel in the Sun, They Died with their Boots On, Drums Along the Mohawk, Rancho Notorious, Major Dundee, Broken Arrow, Lonely are the Brave, The Way West.
31 comments:
Tombstone isn't on any list?
WHat a shit list that doesn't have Last of the Mohicans nor Good Bad and Ugly nor Fistful of Dollars and other spaghetti westerns with hauntingly beautiful and memorable music like the one about something gold that goes doodle doodle doo ... whaaa whaaa, doodle doodle doo ... (higher) whaaa whaaa.
And not just regular dollars either, no, silver dollars, real silver all the way through, official U.S. Mint and if you had a fistful of those right now, boy, they'd really be worth something. How much? How do I know, what I look like a numismatists over here? A lot!
That makes the movie worth watching right there because you're all, When are we gonna see the dollars?" And the suspense is maddening.
This may out me as as guy who knows very little about western, but The Cowboys had been my favorite since I was a kid.
Where's True Grit? I mean the better one with Jeff Bridges, not John Wayne.
Ride The High Country is perfect dramatically. Why, you ask? Because the climactic moment is the last moment of the film. If you ever took a drama, or writing for drama class, that's the point they make over and over: that a perfect drama is one that builds up to its last moment, which is its climactic moment. In High Country that's where Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea take on the bad guys in a gunfight and McCrea goes down, the very final frame of the film McCrea subsiding in the foreground with the mountains behind him. Always a catch-in-the-throat moment for me. I'm no tough guy!
I want to hear woman's opinion on western movies.
About 10 of my faves - no particular order
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon - maybe Ford's best, Fort Apache may have some better lines ("Sergeant, pour me some scripture").
The Magnificent Seven - best gunfighter Western, a little talky, but the scene about the ups and downs of a gunfighter's life is pure gold.
Red River - it's better when the Duke isn't in it /ducks, Just doing the drive with all those great character actors is the best part; btw, didn't Hawks know cowboys weren't slaves?
Stagecoach - John Carradine, Andy Devine, Tom Tyler, Thomas Mitchell doing their thing, I love the last lines
They Died With Their Boots On - some great lines, the final scene gives a good idea of the sweep of the real battle, and JL finally let Olivia let down her hair a little
Broken Arrow - good Jimmy Stewart and Jeff Chandler is great, good battle sequence, tries to make the Indians people.
Last Train To Gun Hill - good morality play, another great gunfighter Western from John Sturgis
The Big Country - forget the plot, with all the names, Chuck Connors walks off with the picture, best movie score ever done
The Comancheros - the best of the Duke's fun Westerns - honorable mention El Dorado - some excellent lines
Rio Bravo - OK, great Tiomkin score, great idea, great screenplay, you can have Angie Dickinson, but what I like about it is, when push comes to shove, little Carlos Romante is the only one of the townspeople who steps up (too bad, when the shooting was over and everybody went back to town, the Duke couldn't have put his arm around Consuelo's waist as she beams with pride at her man and said something like, "I know, Senora, a man don't have to be tall to stand tall")
Dodge City - OK, not Flynn's metier as such, but you have to love it when the murder of the little boy is what pushes him to pin on the star
Northwest Passage - good re-enactment of the St Francis campaign
OK, I won't get into why I quarrel with "The Searchers". I do have to mention that it wasn't really on anybody's radar until the Rex Reed crowd picked up on it in the late 70s/early 80s.
OK, Troop, tell me how wrong I am.
Chip Ahoy said...
WHat a shit list that doesn't have Last of the Mohicans nor Good Bad and Ugly nor Fistful of Dollars and other spaghetti westerns
Spaghetti Westerns?
You must be joking.
Trooper is the reason I don't have to watch movies....he does it for me and explains it.
Red River is a great movie ruined by a stupid WTF ending.
Johnny Guitar. Way too soap opera. This is a favorite movie for those who've been in film school too long.
I'm glad High Noon didn't make the list. Rio Bravo was Wayne's revenge for High noon.
I would add Winchester 73 ,Nevada Smith, How the West was Won. (Not entirely but some parts. like the River pirates are great) , Paleface, Son of Paleface and Laurel and Hardy in Way Out West.
I hate to jump on the bitch wagon, but no "Blazing Saddles"??!!??!! Really?
Magnificent Seven's writing and dialog is a bit stilted at times (although it would make my top ten westerns too, just not quite as high on your list), but the cinematography action and stunt riding in that moving is some of the best ever filmed.
I like High Noon, although I would have a Sophie's Choice in picking which movie had to go. I like Unforgiven a lot, but for entertainment value High Plains Drifter and Outlaw Josey Wales never grow old (Unforgiven does).
And while it is not in the lame league as these classics, Tombstone never grows old for its OTT dialog and acting.
Wow, not one mention of "Shane" my all time favorite western.
A couple of others, both with Moses in them
Arrowhead - not sure how close the movie gets to the legendary Al Sieber, but it's a great character study for Chuck with good performances by Jack Palance, Katy Jurado, and Milburn Stone as Chuck's partner, good scenes of a real Western fort - Ft, Davis TX
Pony Express - good locations, nice evocation of the pre-Civil War West.
ampersand said...
Red River is a great movie ruined by a stupid WTF ending.
Another is, uh..., "The Big Country".
Just sayin'.
Evi L. Bloggerlady said...
And while it is not in the lame league as these classics, Tombstone never grows old for its OTT dialog and acting.
Not 100% sure, but IIRC some of that dialogue was what was actually said.
Jeremiah Johnson, Lonesome Dove (not really a movie movie, but great anyway, especially Robert Duvall), The Westerner (gotta have Gary Cooper on the list somewhere), Open Range (Robert Duvall again).
“Shane! Come back!”
The Magnificent Seven was a B western when first released. Yul Bryner was the only star. I think Steve McQueen was a tv star which was kind of déclassé in Hollywood. Whoever picked that cast had quite an eye for talent. Most of the unknowns went on to become major stars......Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was kind of an anti-western, but very few movies are more entertaining.......More than other movies, westerns are dependent on their soundtracks. The most vivid memory I have of The Big Country and The Magnificent Seven are their soundtracks. I think if you had Lara's Theme playing in the background as the magnificent seven rode to death and glory, then the picture would have sunk.
Many here are going to complain that Brokeback Mountain was left off the list, but most of the movies mentioned share the same homoerotic subtext without making it so glaringly obvious. In most westerns, the hero is paired with a sidekick or a male star of equal wattage. The women mostly tell the men to be careful and fade into the background.......I remember Katy Jurado and Grace Kelly in High Noon and Marlene Dietrich in Destry, but those are the only two mythic westerns that I can remember where the women were as memorable as the men. I remember Alan Ladd and Van Heflin in Shane, but who remembers the female lead. Were there even any women in The Wild Bunch or Red River? OK, Natalie Wood was in The Searchers but she played the role of a lost object rather than a maker of her own destiny.
William said...
The Magnificent Seven was a B western when first released. Yul Bryner was the only star.
Wrong. McQueen and most of the cast were on their way up. And a lot of movies would have 1 headliner. The supporting people were all top-flight as was Sturges as director.
"The Searchers" had 1 headliner. So did "Northwest Passage"
I think you better reconsider.
Many here are going to complain that Brokeback Mountain was left off the list, but most of the movies mentioned share the same homoerotic subtext without making it so glaringly obvious. In most westerns, the hero is paired with a sidekick or a male star of equal wattage
?????
Did anybody even see it? And, no, a lot of times there isn't a sidekick (sidekicks are never of equal wattage - I mean Gabby Hayes, Walter Brennan - homoerotic subtext?)
You really need to reconsider.
The women mostly tell the men to be careful and fade into the background.......I remember Katy Jurado and Grace Kelly in High Noon and Marlene Dietrich in Destry, but those are the only two mythic westerns that I can remember where the women were as memorable as the men.
You mean like Claire Trevor in Stagecoach, Olivia in They Died With Their Boots On, Carolyn Jones in Gun Hill, or (dare I say?) (dare, dare) Geraldine Page in Hondo?
Directors of Westerns tried to get the broads out of the way because they liked the action stuff better - Raoul Walsh was legendary for it, largely I think because that's what everybody came to see, although the problems of coif, lipstick, and gown doubtless figured into it in the middle of Kanab UT or Old Tucson, but there were a lot of good women's parts - take a look at Barbara Stanwyck in Union Pacific or The Violent Men.
Also a small part can be significant compared to the feature players. Consider Ollie Carey and her "We be Texicans" soliloquy in The Searchers (happy, Troop?).
I remember Alan Ladd and Van Heflin in Shane, but who remembers the female lead
The lovely and talented Jean Arthur. and I hate Shane.
You're entitled to your opinion, but I don't think it has much traction here.
Some others:
310 to Yuma (1957)
My Darling Clementine
The Professionals
Seven Men from Now
The Wild Bunch
Good Bad and the Ugly
Watched "TGBATU" on TV 30 years ago and my Mom lasted 15 minutes, she couldn't stand that "Crazy music" - I think she expecting Tex Ritter
Some consider "Treasure of Sierra madre" and "The mark of Zorro" to be westerns.
Another great woman's part - Connie Towers in "Sergeant Rutledge". Ford know how to handle women.
Hawks couldn't understand a woman that didn't want to go hunting and fishing
rcocean said...
Some consider "Treasure of Sierra madre" and "The mark of Zorro" to be westerns.
Plenty of modern-day Westerns, saw a nice one with William Prince called Lust For Gold a few months ago. The best, of course, is Bad Day At Black Rock.
Zorro is something of a fusion - Western swashbuckler, but, if you consider Across The Wide Missouri and The Big Sky take place in the same time frame and only about 1000 miles distance (same as The Virginian and Rio Bravo), yeah, it's a Western.
PS Lots of Westerns where mountain men make it into Spanish California.
William I don't think you realize who hangs out here. Nobody is going to complain that "Brokeback Mountain" was left off the list.
I gave a token gay western nod with Johnny Guitar. But gay Westerns don't make the cut. That is why Shane is not even close to being mentioned.
The two movies that might make a revised list are "Tombstone" and "Hondo."
I composed this list several years ago and should have given it a little revision.
Next up. The Ten Best Gangster Movies.
Trooper York said...
Next up. The Ten Best Gangster Movies.
I still think that genre should be renamed "Easterns."
When I mentioned Brokeback Mountain, I was being tongue in cheek. Brokeback Mountain was a tongue in cheek kind of movie.
Unforgiven. Great, great flick. And Eastwood was just the guy to do it. His career is amazing.
There is an even darker side to B westerns. I'm sure Gene Autry had an honest, manly relationship with Champion, but there was something a little disturbing about the way the Lone Ranger was constantly grooming his great white beast Silver.. And Roy Rogers mounted Triigger far more often than he did Dale Evans and, for sure, he didn't have Dale stuffed and given a place of honor in his museum like he did with Trigger. Dale was always jealous of her younger blonde rival, but for the sake of their careers,she didn't let on.
Trooper:
A great post, thanks.
I am a fan of "The Cowboys," in which Wayne has to rely on a bunch of boys to bring the cattle to market.
About "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" -- am I the only one that finds it fascinating to see a younger Wayne made up to look old, all the while mentally comparing that with the movies in which an actual, old Wayne performs ("True Grit," "Shootist")?
About "True Grit" . . . John made clear he prefers the Jeff Bridges version. I wonder what others say? I thought the Bridges version was very good; maybe it really is better. But I like Wayne's version a lot.
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