Top ten Westerns
On a roll of late, here's another top ten list direct from the sagebrush, my top ten westerns of all time. In true western form, the camera pans Monument Valley and centres on a lone horse and rider, he loafs along at a leisurely pace, the sun gazes down on him casts a dark shadow on the canyon floor.
Entering at number 10, is a particular favourite of mine,
#10 - Once upon a Time in the West, starring Henry Fond, Jason Robards, and Charles Bronson,all as anti heroes. Serfio Leone directed this long sweeping oater.
The film portrays two conflicts that take place around Flagstone, a fictional town in the American Old West: a land battle related to the construction of a railroad, and a mission of vengeance against a cold-blooded killer. A struggle exists for Sweetwater, a piece of land in the desert outside Flagstone which contains the region's only other water source. The land was bought by Brett McBain (Frank Wolff), who foresaw that the railroad would have to pass through that area to provide water for the steam locomotives. When a crippled railroad tycoon Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti) learns of this, he sends his hired gun Frank (Henry Fonda) to intimidate McBain to move off the land, but Frank instead kills McBain and his three children, planting evidence to frame the bandit Cheyenne (Jason Robards). Meanwhile, former prostitute Jill (Claudia Cardinale) arrives at Flagstone from New Orleans, revealing that she is McBain's new wife and therefore the owner of the land.
#9- Unforgiven, starring Clint Eastwood ( you'll read a lot about him ). In 1880 in Big Whiskey, Wyoming, two cowboys—Quick Mike and "Davey-Boy" Bunting—attack and disfigure prostitute Delilah Fitzgerald with a knife after she laughs at Quick Mike's small penis. As punishment, local sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett orders the cowboys to bring several horses as compensation for the brothel owner, Skinny Dubois. The rest of the prostitutes are outraged by the sheriff's decision, and offer a $1,000 reward to anyone who kills the cowboys.
Back in Wyoming, British-born gunfighter "English Bob", an old acquaintance and rival of Little Bill, is also seeking the reward. He arrives in Big Whiskey with biographer W. W. Beauchamp, who naively believes Bob's exaggerated tales of his exploits. Enforcing the town's anti-gun law, Little Bill and his deputies disarm Bob and Bill beats him savagely, hoping to discourage other would-be assassins from attempting to claim the bounty. Bill ejects Bob from town the next morning, but Beauchamp decides to stay and write about Bill, who debunks many of the romantic notions Beauchamp has about the wild west.
Munny, Logan, and the Kid arrive in town during a rainstorm, and head into the saloon. While Logan and the Kid meet with the prostitutes upstairs, a feverish Munny is sitting alone in the saloon when Little Bill and his deputies confront him. Not realizing Munny's identity, Bill beats him up and kicks him out of the saloon for carrying a pistol. Logan and the Kid escape through a back window, and the three regroup at a barn outside town, where they nurse Munny back to health.
A hard movie to follow, but worth the investment.
#8- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, starring Clint Eastwood, is a 1966 Italian epic spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone.Clint plays as "the Good",Lee Van Cleef as "the Bad", and Eli Wallach as "the Ugly". Its screenplay was written byLuciano Vincenzeroni and Leone (with additional screenplay material and dialogue provided by an uncredited
Sergio Donati based on a story by Vincenzoni and Leone. Director of photography Tonino Del Colli was responsible for the film's sweeping cinematogography, and Ennio Morricone composed the film's score including its main theme. It is an Italian -led production with co-producers in Spain, West Germany and the United States. A cut above the standard western.
#7- Winchester 73, starring Jimmy Stewart, as Lin McAdam and 'High-Spade' Frankie Wilson, on the trail of a man named Dutch Henry Brown with whom Lin has a personal score to settle, arrive in Dodge City, Kansas just in time to see a man forcing a saloon-hall girl named Lola Manners onto the stagecoach leaving town. Lin confronts the man but backs down once he learns that he is standing up to Sheriff . Earp informs the two men that firearms are not allowed in town and they must check them in with Earp's brother Virgil. Lin and Dutch lay eyes on each other in the saloon, but are unable to fight due to the persuasive presence of Earp. A typical hero vs bad guys type of western, my type.
#6- Shane, starring Alan Ladd, as the titled character. Shane is the hero, but its not that simple, is it.
Shane, a laconic but skilled gunfighter with a mysterious past,is a drifter who rides into an isolated valley in the sparsely settled Wyoming Territory, some time after the Civil War.. He is hired as a farm hand by local rancher Joe Starrett who lives as a homesteader with his wife, Marian and their young son, Joey. Starrett tells Shane that a war of intimidation is being waged on the valley's settlers. Though they have claimed their land legally under the Homestead Acts, a ruthless cattle baron, Rufus Ryker, has hired various rogues and henchmen to harass them and force them out of the valley.Brandon DeWilde steals the movie, at the end calling Shane's name as he rides slowly away, "Come back Shane, come back ". A legend.
#5 - The Searchers, starring John Wayne, I mean, between Wayne, Eastwood and Stewart, c'mon let someone else make a movie. In 1868, Ethan Edwards returns after an eight-year absence to the home of his brother Aaron in the wilderness of West Texas. Ethan fought in the Civil War on the side of the Confederncy, and in the three years since that war ended, he apparently fought in the Mexiacan Revolutionary War, as well. He has a large quantity of gold coins of uncertain origin in his possession, and a medal from the Mexican campaign that he gives to his eight-year-old niece, Debbie. As a former Confederate soldier, he is asked to take an oath of allegiance to the Texas Rangers; he refuses. As Rev. Captain Samuel Clayton remarks, Ethan "fits a lot of descriptions".
#4 - High Noon, is a 1952 American Western film produced by Stanley Kramer, directed by Fred Zinneman, and starring Gary Cooper The plot, depicted in real time, centers on a town marshal who is torn between his sense of duty and his love for his new bride and who must face a gang of killers alone.
You never get up and go to the bathroom while this western thriller is on, you just have to hold it.
# 3- The Man who shot Liberty Vallance,
Senator Ranse Stoddard and his wife Hallie arrive in Shinbone, a frontier town somewhere in the Southwest, to attend the funeral of Tom Doniphon. As they pay their respects, reporters ask Stoddard why a United States senator would make the long journey from Washington to attend the funeral of a local rancher.
The story flashes back 25 years. Stoddard is a young, idealistic attorney; his stagecoach is robbed by Liberty Valance and his gang. When Stoddard tries to take Valance to task, he is brutally whipped and left for dead. Doniphon finds him and takes him into the town of Shinbone, where Hallie and other townspeople tend to his injuries and explain that Valance victimizes Shinbone residents with impunity. Marshal Link Appleyard lacks the courage and gunfighting skills to challenge him. Doniphon (who is courting Hallie) is the only man willing to stand up to Valance.
Stoddard opens a law practice in Shinbone, inviting retribution from Valance, who cannot abide challenges to his "authority". Force, Doniphon explains, is the only thing Valance understands; but Stoddard advocates justice under the law, not brute force. Stoddard earns the town's respect by refusing to knuckle under to Valance, and by founding a school to teach reading and writing to illiterate townspeople, including Hallie.
Hallie discovers Stoddard is practicing with a gun and fretfully tells Doniphon, who offers the inexperienced Stoddard a lesson in marksmanship. During target practice, Doniphon effortlessly shoots three paint cans; the final one showers Stoddard with white paint, ruining his suit. Tom explains that this is the sort of trickery that he can expect from Valance. Infuriated, Stoddard punches Doniphon in the jaw and leaves.
Shinbone's residents meet to elect two delegates for a statehood convention at the territorial capital. Doniphon nominates Stoddard, because he "knows the law, and throws a mean punch."
This one takes the cake,with Lee Marvin's sneer, Jimmy Stewart as the lawyer turned reluctant gunfighter, and John Wayne as Doniphon, the one who actually shoots Liberty Vallance (spolier alert)
#2 - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, and Katherine Ross as the woman they fought over. Chocked full of gun fights, horses and a trip to Bolivia ? George Roy Hill's take on the legendary Hole in the Wall gang. Train robbers par excellenance, blowing things up, "Did you use enough dynamite there Butch "...."Jump, no, why not, I can't swim..hahaha the fall will probably kill you", are just some of the classic dialogue.
# 1- The Magnificent Seven, starring almost everyone, Yul Brynner, Steven McQueen, James Coburn, Brad Dexter, Robert Vaughn, Horst Buccholtz,and Charles Bronson as the magnificent seven set upon to save a small village south of the border from Eli Wallach marauding gang of cutthroats.
A direct homage to the Seven Samurai, made a decade earlier, directed by John Sturgess, and what wins this prestigous first spot is Elmer Bernstein's score, the ride up to boot hillalone is worth the price of admission. Bucholz's persistant pleas to join the group,is humorous and worthy of note.
McQueen and Brynner always tried to one up each other on screen, making for long delays and re shoots. But for my money, the best western movie I have ever seen.
Entering at number 10, is a particular favourite of mine,
#10 - Once upon a Time in the West, starring Henry Fond, Jason Robards, and Charles Bronson,all as anti heroes. Serfio Leone directed this long sweeping oater.
The film portrays two conflicts that take place around Flagstone, a fictional town in the American Old West: a land battle related to the construction of a railroad, and a mission of vengeance against a cold-blooded killer. A struggle exists for Sweetwater, a piece of land in the desert outside Flagstone which contains the region's only other water source. The land was bought by Brett McBain (Frank Wolff), who foresaw that the railroad would have to pass through that area to provide water for the steam locomotives. When a crippled railroad tycoon Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti) learns of this, he sends his hired gun Frank (Henry Fonda) to intimidate McBain to move off the land, but Frank instead kills McBain and his three children, planting evidence to frame the bandit Cheyenne (Jason Robards). Meanwhile, former prostitute Jill (Claudia Cardinale) arrives at Flagstone from New Orleans, revealing that she is McBain's new wife and therefore the owner of the land.
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| The railroad scene |
#9- Unforgiven, starring Clint Eastwood ( you'll read a lot about him ). In 1880 in Big Whiskey, Wyoming, two cowboys—Quick Mike and "Davey-Boy" Bunting—attack and disfigure prostitute Delilah Fitzgerald with a knife after she laughs at Quick Mike's small penis. As punishment, local sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett orders the cowboys to bring several horses as compensation for the brothel owner, Skinny Dubois. The rest of the prostitutes are outraged by the sheriff's decision, and offer a $1,000 reward to anyone who kills the cowboys.
Back in Wyoming, British-born gunfighter "English Bob", an old acquaintance and rival of Little Bill, is also seeking the reward. He arrives in Big Whiskey with biographer W. W. Beauchamp, who naively believes Bob's exaggerated tales of his exploits. Enforcing the town's anti-gun law, Little Bill and his deputies disarm Bob and Bill beats him savagely, hoping to discourage other would-be assassins from attempting to claim the bounty. Bill ejects Bob from town the next morning, but Beauchamp decides to stay and write about Bill, who debunks many of the romantic notions Beauchamp has about the wild west.
Munny, Logan, and the Kid arrive in town during a rainstorm, and head into the saloon. While Logan and the Kid meet with the prostitutes upstairs, a feverish Munny is sitting alone in the saloon when Little Bill and his deputies confront him. Not realizing Munny's identity, Bill beats him up and kicks him out of the saloon for carrying a pistol. Logan and the Kid escape through a back window, and the three regroup at a barn outside town, where they nurse Munny back to health.
A hard movie to follow, but worth the investment.
#8- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, starring Clint Eastwood, is a 1966 Italian epic spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone.Clint plays as "the Good",Lee Van Cleef as "the Bad", and Eli Wallach as "the Ugly". Its screenplay was written byLuciano Vincenzeroni and Leone (with additional screenplay material and dialogue provided by an uncredited
Sergio Donati based on a story by Vincenzoni and Leone. Director of photography Tonino Del Colli was responsible for the film's sweeping cinematogography, and Ennio Morricone composed the film's score including its main theme. It is an Italian -led production with co-producers in Spain, West Germany and the United States. A cut above the standard western.
#7- Winchester 73, starring Jimmy Stewart, as Lin McAdam and 'High-Spade' Frankie Wilson, on the trail of a man named Dutch Henry Brown with whom Lin has a personal score to settle, arrive in Dodge City, Kansas just in time to see a man forcing a saloon-hall girl named Lola Manners onto the stagecoach leaving town. Lin confronts the man but backs down once he learns that he is standing up to Sheriff . Earp informs the two men that firearms are not allowed in town and they must check them in with Earp's brother Virgil. Lin and Dutch lay eyes on each other in the saloon, but are unable to fight due to the persuasive presence of Earp. A typical hero vs bad guys type of western, my type.
#6- Shane, starring Alan Ladd, as the titled character. Shane is the hero, but its not that simple, is it.
Shane, a laconic but skilled gunfighter with a mysterious past,is a drifter who rides into an isolated valley in the sparsely settled Wyoming Territory, some time after the Civil War.. He is hired as a farm hand by local rancher Joe Starrett who lives as a homesteader with his wife, Marian and their young son, Joey. Starrett tells Shane that a war of intimidation is being waged on the valley's settlers. Though they have claimed their land legally under the Homestead Acts, a ruthless cattle baron, Rufus Ryker, has hired various rogues and henchmen to harass them and force them out of the valley.Brandon DeWilde steals the movie, at the end calling Shane's name as he rides slowly away, "Come back Shane, come back ". A legend.
#5 - The Searchers, starring John Wayne, I mean, between Wayne, Eastwood and Stewart, c'mon let someone else make a movie. In 1868, Ethan Edwards returns after an eight-year absence to the home of his brother Aaron in the wilderness of West Texas. Ethan fought in the Civil War on the side of the Confederncy, and in the three years since that war ended, he apparently fought in the Mexiacan Revolutionary War, as well. He has a large quantity of gold coins of uncertain origin in his possession, and a medal from the Mexican campaign that he gives to his eight-year-old niece, Debbie. As a former Confederate soldier, he is asked to take an oath of allegiance to the Texas Rangers; he refuses. As Rev. Captain Samuel Clayton remarks, Ethan "fits a lot of descriptions".
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| The Duke |
#4 - High Noon, is a 1952 American Western film produced by Stanley Kramer, directed by Fred Zinneman, and starring Gary Cooper The plot, depicted in real time, centers on a town marshal who is torn between his sense of duty and his love for his new bride and who must face a gang of killers alone.
# 3- The Man who shot Liberty Vallance,
Senator Ranse Stoddard and his wife Hallie arrive in Shinbone, a frontier town somewhere in the Southwest, to attend the funeral of Tom Doniphon. As they pay their respects, reporters ask Stoddard why a United States senator would make the long journey from Washington to attend the funeral of a local rancher.
The story flashes back 25 years. Stoddard is a young, idealistic attorney; his stagecoach is robbed by Liberty Valance and his gang. When Stoddard tries to take Valance to task, he is brutally whipped and left for dead. Doniphon finds him and takes him into the town of Shinbone, where Hallie and other townspeople tend to his injuries and explain that Valance victimizes Shinbone residents with impunity. Marshal Link Appleyard lacks the courage and gunfighting skills to challenge him. Doniphon (who is courting Hallie) is the only man willing to stand up to Valance.
Stoddard opens a law practice in Shinbone, inviting retribution from Valance, who cannot abide challenges to his "authority". Force, Doniphon explains, is the only thing Valance understands; but Stoddard advocates justice under the law, not brute force. Stoddard earns the town's respect by refusing to knuckle under to Valance, and by founding a school to teach reading and writing to illiterate townspeople, including Hallie.
Hallie discovers Stoddard is practicing with a gun and fretfully tells Doniphon, who offers the inexperienced Stoddard a lesson in marksmanship. During target practice, Doniphon effortlessly shoots three paint cans; the final one showers Stoddard with white paint, ruining his suit. Tom explains that this is the sort of trickery that he can expect from Valance. Infuriated, Stoddard punches Doniphon in the jaw and leaves.
Shinbone's residents meet to elect two delegates for a statehood convention at the territorial capital. Doniphon nominates Stoddard, because he "knows the law, and throws a mean punch."
This one takes the cake,with Lee Marvin's sneer, Jimmy Stewart as the lawyer turned reluctant gunfighter, and John Wayne as Doniphon, the one who actually shoots Liberty Vallance (spolier alert)
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| Marvin, Stewart and Wayne |
#2 - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, and Katherine Ross as the woman they fought over. Chocked full of gun fights, horses and a trip to Bolivia ? George Roy Hill's take on the legendary Hole in the Wall gang. Train robbers par excellenance, blowing things up, "Did you use enough dynamite there Butch "...."Jump, no, why not, I can't swim..hahaha the fall will probably kill you", are just some of the classic dialogue.
# 1- The Magnificent Seven, starring almost everyone, Yul Brynner, Steven McQueen, James Coburn, Brad Dexter, Robert Vaughn, Horst Buccholtz,and Charles Bronson as the magnificent seven set upon to save a small village south of the border from Eli Wallach marauding gang of cutthroats.
A direct homage to the Seven Samurai, made a decade earlier, directed by John Sturgess, and what wins this prestigous first spot is Elmer Bernstein's score, the ride up to boot hillalone is worth the price of admission. Bucholz's persistant pleas to join the group,is humorous and worthy of note.
McQueen and Brynner always tried to one up each other on screen, making for long delays and re shoots. But for my money, the best western movie I have ever seen.
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