Alright, the time has come again for yours truly to bring on yet another somewhat difficult task: ranking the community's top 100 westerns. I know most of us won't be able to come up with anything close to a hundred films but that's quite fine. No worries about your list being small; even 25 or 30 helps. I made it 100 because it's pretty clear our top 50 is going to be great. Damn great. And don't be shocked if you've seen more than your think. Here's a rundown of just some of the many types of westerns:
The Traditional Western - The classic style of American western. Cowboys and indians. Sheriffs and bandits. Saloon fights and shootouts. Ranches, railroads, stagecoaches and gold. Everything from old school films like 3:10 to Yuma and True Grit to modern standouts 3:10 to Yuma and True Grit. The bread and butter of John Ford, Anthony Mann and Sam Peckinpah.
The Spaghetti Western - The bloody, extravagant westerns to come out of Italy, primarily in the late 60s and early 70s. Sergio Leone is legendary but don't sleep on Corbucci or Sollima either.
The Neo Western - If it looks like a western, smells like a western, and tastes like a western, but instead of riding a horse your hero drives a pickup truck, this is your genre. Likely the style that most of us are most well versed in without even knowing it. Now you guys can list whatever you want/believe in because when I look at the films generally defined here I often wonder if some are really even a western. Bad Day at Black Rock, Hud, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Brokeback Mountain, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Hell or High Water...
That's just the three big ones. You've still got acid westerns (El Topo), horror westerns (Bone Tomahawk), sci-fi westerns (Westworld), comedy westerns (Cat Ballou), spoofs (Blazing Saddles) and countless other great films.
Sorry for cutting it short; got real sleepy all of a sudden. If you think it's a western, vote for it. No films shorter than 25 minutes. Miniseries (Lonesome Dove, Hatfields & McCoys) are allowed but not full fledged TV series (Gunsmoke, Deadwood).
Last edited by badseed on 05/05/2018 05:37; edited 1 time in total
Here's my list, keeping in mind it's subject to change.
1. Once Upon A Time In The West
2. Django Unchained
3. Dead Man
4. No Country For Old Men
5. El Topo
6. The Good The Bad And The Ugly
7. Hell on High Water
8. For A Few Dollars More
9. The Searchers
10. Stagecoach
11. The Revenant
12. Unforgiven
13. A Fistful of Dollars
14. The Hateful Eight
15. McCabe & Mrs. Miller
16. True Grit (2010)
17. Bone Tomahawk
18. Walker
19. My Darling Clementine
20. Meek's Cutoff
21. Slow West
22. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
23. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
24. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
25. Jauja
26. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
27. High Noon
28. Rango
29. Ain't Them Bodies Saints
30. The Homesman
And Borrowed Time isn't eligible, but man is it good.
Last edited by Hayden on 05/19/2018 06:09; edited 1 time in total
well I'm not familiar with westerns as much as I'd like. But that introduction from you, badseed, definitely helps shed the inhibitions on counting some movies which seem like westerns to me. and now i shall make a potentially silly list literally as I go on this post rather than compose it elsewhere and decide if its any good before posting, here...we...GO!
Chapter I: The List
#1 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (J Stew!!!!!)
#2 Dances With Wolves
#3 Unforgiven
#4 Logan (this is the reason for my apologetic intro if you wanna call it that. I just feel like this is a western superhero movie. Does that make may craaaaayzyyy?)
#5 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
#6 True Grit (2010)
#7 High Noon
#8 Rio Bravo
#9 The Searchers
#10 Django Unchained
#11 The Wild Bunch
#12 Winchester '73 (my main man, J Stew!)
#13 The Naked Spur (J Stew!)
#14 An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (J Stew's last ride!)
#15 Stagecoach
#16 Last of the Mohicans
#17 Hell or High Water
#18 Hostiles
#19 Shane
#20 No Country For Old Men
#21 McCabe & Mrs. Miller
#22 Once Upon A Time In The West
#23 Blazing Saddles
#24 Wind River
#25 Open Range
#26 Tombstone
#27 Rango
#28 The Hateful Eight
#29 There Will Be Blood
#30 The Revenant
#31 The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
#32 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Chapter II: The List
These are my big regrets (not seen) (also these are the ones I'll hopefully get to before list finalizes)
the assasination of jesse james by the coward robert ford
Rio Grande
Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid
the other 2 "man with no name" movies
True Grit (1969)
the magnificent seven
my darling clementine
Ox bow incident
Red River
El Topo
One-Eyed Jacks
Heaven's Gate
Johnny Guitar
Dead Man
I will not go full recinefix and have Star Wars on my westerns list. smh.
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feel free to make fun of me. For Logan and Fievel Goes West lol
oh and the near last place finish of The Good The Bad and The Ugly, which I like but don't love. _________________ -Ryan
This will be fun. I've only seen 60 Westerns total according to my letterbox, many of which aren't good. Got some catching up to do before the deadline.
If I'm the only one who has The Ox-Bow Incident on their list, then shame on all of you. Watch this now:
So, as you may have imagined, I'm partial to the western. I'm glad to see a few that I don't know on lists already. Stuff always slips through the cracks. While I'm certainly no expert, I'd wager I know a good deal.
I would add the definition of the "Frontier Western" to the criteria, which is great BTW; these are movies like The Revenant and Jeremiah Johnson. Movies about people that move west in an attempt to claim riches like oil or gold (There Will Be Blood).
And there are some that have had some questions about them, so I'll answer, and we can see if we agree.
There are a lot of western tropes and elements that can be seen in movies, whether or not that makes them a western can be hard to discern sometimes.
No Country for Old Men- absolutely neo-western to a "T" I think. If you put the basic plot of that story in Texas in 1880, but have it be with an Apache and an army officer, then I think you have the plot for a movie.
Mercury, well,
I didn't see Logan, but having read the comic I can imagine what the movie is like. We've got movies like True Grit and El Topo where an older lawman has a child tag along while they murder people. If someone else who has seen the movie can confirm this, then I think it ought to be ok.
However, the one that's an issue on your chart is Last Of the Mohicans.
I understand that it's got Indians in it, but it's about the French and Indian war in the middle of the 18th century, when most westerns are set in the late 19th century. It's more of a historical piece kind of like, let's say Glory. It's more of a historical War Drama than a western to me.
I submitted a list a while ago that I made quickly; here is that same list with a couple new ones added.
(Good Call on the Ox Bow Incident Street Spirit it's been awhile since I've seen that one.
Regarding the different subgenres I was gonna go into detail on like a dozen others but I went from wide awake to passing out at random. Happens a lot lately. Must be getting old.
According to Wikipedia, both No Country and Logan both fall into the neo-western category. They're allowed. Personally for me even though I love those films my list is gonna sway more towards classical styles of the genre.
As for Last of the Mohicans, I understand both sides. Personally I don't care either way. If you think it's a western, rank it. If you don't, don't rank it. Kinda like how we've been doing all our lists lately.
Also Merc you should add the rest of the James Stewart - Anthony Mann collabs to your already overly essential watchlist.
The Ox-Bow Incident is one of the quintessential westerns of the 1940s and will certainly be on my list and hopefully many others.
I don't know where to start on recommendations. I will say I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the Australian made and set film The Proposition (directed by John Hillcoat and written and scored by Nick Cave). Among the many 21st century instant classics it's one of my favorites.
Edit: Nevermind. It's on Chief's list. Good shite. A few I haven't seen there.
I just went and looked through Ebert's "Great Movies" list, and isolated the westerns. I found it interesting
Stagecoach
Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Rio Bravo
Johnny Guitar (that's a weird choice to me)
Yojimbo (I think this should be included as a western since it's the reason A Fistful of Dollars was made)
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
The Wild Bunch
Unforgiven
The Searchers
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (this is the Peckinpah I've neglected)
Shane
Mccabe & Mrs Miller
Red River
My Darling Clementine (Don't know why I've never watched this one)
Mad Max: Fury Road (Miller himself called it a 'western on wheels')
Mudbound
Paris, Texas
I'm gonna have to refer to your "if you think it belongs, list it, and if nobody agrees it probably won't make the list anyway" thing. I hope this doesn't bite us in the ass by making us wind up with more Star Wars films than John Wayne but it is what it is. With that said none of those were on my radar as westerns and if they were they're all probably good enough to be there. But personally those three are a no for my list.
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Might squeeze it in there.
