LoC #112 -Top 50 Western Films

[George-2.0]

I'm not surprised that no one else voted for The Shooting & Ride the Whirlwind, but really, no one else for the original 3:10 to Yuma. DISGRACEFUL.

Sad that Sam Fuller didn't make the list. 40 Guns is such a blast. Check it out!

I liked all of those (especially The Shooting, which I re-watched not long ago), they just got squeezed out of my 25.

[George-2.0]

Phew, well that was a long dusty ride, but a good one I think. I want to thank the Magnificent 13 who provided lists.

Aside from myself there was Edward, Johnny, Stethan, Charles (the King of the West - as all but 3 of his movies made the list), Russoguru, Linzoid, Cole, MartyS, Fred (who I had to pester, but he came through) Psychogoatee & CJones (who promised partials, but delivered full ones) and our special guest, Travis from Letterboxd.

One final list:


The Directors
Here’s an LoC filmography of the top directors, and what was nominated or won entry on the list. With a minimum of 4 movies voted for

John Ford
1. The Searchers #3
2. Stagecoach #7
3. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance #13
4. My Darling Clementine #35
5. Drums Along The Mohawk (nominated)
6. 3 Bad Men (nominated)
7. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (nominated)
8. Two Rode Together (nominated)

Anthony Mann
1. The Naked Spur #27
2. Winchester ‘73 #40
3. Man of the West #41
4. The Tin Star (nominated)
5. The Far Country (nominated)
6. The Furies (nominated)

Sergio Leone
1. Once Upon a Time in the West #1
2. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly #2
3. A Fistful of Dollars #5
4. For a Few Dollars More #8
5. Duck, You Sucker (nominated)

Clint Eastwood
1. Unforgiven #4
2. The Outlaw Josey Wales #20
3. High Plains Drifter #25
4. Pale Rider #49

Budd Boetticher (with actor Randolph Scott)
1. 7 Men From Now #45
2. The Tall T (nominated)
3. Ride Lonesome (nominated)
4. Decision at Sundown (nominated)

[Edward J Grug III]

Well, I feel like my list had a good showing anyway.

1   The Searchers
2   My Darling Clementine
3   Stagecoach (1939)
4   Johnny Guitar
5   Shane
6   The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
7   3:10 to Yuma (1957)
8   Pursued - Excellent western/noir hybrid starring Robert Mitchum.
9   High Noon
10   Forty Guns
11   A Fistful of Dollars
12   Red River
13   The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
14   True Grit (2010)
15   The Professionals
16   Jubal - A very underrated little film, basically a western version of Othello. And Ernest Borgnine is so great in it.
17   Once Upon a Time in the West
18   The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada - A modern western directed by Tommy lee Jones, and really worth hunting down if you get the chance.
19   Ride in the Whirlwind
20   The Misfits - Clarke Gable's last film. with Marylin Monroe and Monty Clift.
21   Drums Along the Mohawk
22   The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
23   Giant
24   The Shooting
25   Two Rode Together

[George-2.0]

22   The Treasure of the Sierra Madre - Thought this would make the list, but perhaps it doesn't spring to mind as a western?

It did. At #35

[Edward J Grug III]

22   The Treasure of the Sierra Madre - Thought this would make the list, but perhaps it doesn't spring to mind as a western?

It did. At #35

Oops, I missed marking it off. Well. Good.

[George-2.0]

My List - Charles' votes for the Aldrich films helped me out, I wound up with a good showing. My silent films were kicked to the curb and one talkie.

1. Unforgiven
2. The Searchers
3. Once Upon a Time in the West
4. Man of the West
5. Shane
6. Stagecoach
7. One-Eyed Jacks
8. True Grit 1969
9. Ulzana’s Raid
10. The Tall T
11. Winchester ‘73
12. McCabe and Mrs. Miller
13. Naked Spur
14. The Great Silence
15. Dead Man
16. Go West
17. Vera Cruz
18. The Red River
19. Rio Bravo
20. Godless
21. High Planes Drifter
22. Ox-Bow Incident
23. Outlaw Josey Wales
24. 3 Bad Men
25. Hells Hinges

[PsychoGoatee]

Great countdown! And cool to see Once Upon A Time In The West at the top, that's such a great movie, unique and something special. It's cool that Dario Argento is a writer on that, I'm a big fan of his as well.

[George-2.0]

Mr. Bungle Alert!
Fred just informed me of a mistake. He had 4 Boetticher films on his list, and it appears I switched points on two of them. I gave 7 Men From Now's points to The Tall T and vice-a-versa. I've doubled checked all your entries and it looks like that was my only cock-up. 

You can find a NEW write-up here for 7 Men From Now

It's just behind Rango, which moves up a slot. So if you want, you can adjust your likes accordingly.

I'm keeping Tall T as a bonus entry, no need to throw away good work. But it's no longer in the 50. Not a major change. A couple films move up a slot. Budd Boetticher is still represented on the LoC, Fred doesn't lose a pick. I do, but Cole gains one.

So, so sorry about that.

[ColeStratton]

Good list, 'pardners. Though I hoped Support Your Local Sheriff and Cat Ballou would squeak in there. Here's mine:

1.   The Professionals
2.   Silverado
3.   Lonesome Dove
4.   Support Your Local Sheriff
5.   Johnny Guitar
6.   The Gunfighter (1950)
7.   The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
8.   The Naked Spur
9.   Once Upon a Time in the West
10.   The Magnificent Seven (1960)
11.   Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
12.   The Searchers
13.   Cat Ballou
14.   7 Men From Now
15.   Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
16.   Open Range
17.   High Noon
18.   The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
19.   Rio Bravo
20.   Tombstone
21.   3:10 to Yuma (2007)
22.   Winchester ‘73
23.   Stagecoach
24.   Unforgiven
25.   Young Guns II

[Charles Castle]

I can't believe how quickly this went. This list is amazing. There are only a handful of films on the entire thing that I don't think are great. I have not had a chance to read all of the write-ups yet, but the selection of essays for the ones I have looked at is really excellent.

1. Once Upon a Time in the West
2. The Searchers (1956)
3. High Noon
4. Ride the High Country
5. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
6. The Tin Star - What an amazing movie this is. Check it out, won't you?
7. Vera Cruz
8. McCabe and Mrs. Miller
9. Rio Bravo
10. The Wild Bunch
11. The Great Silence
12. Stagecoach
13. For a Few Dollars More
14. Ulzana's Raid
15. The Naked Spur
16. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
17. Forty Guns - Totally agree with Edward. This movie is a masterpiece with one of the greatest roles for a female in the entire genre.
18. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
19. Dead Man
20. High Plains Drifter
21. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
22. Rancho Notorious
23. Winchester ’73
24. Unforgiven
25. Johnny Guitar

Thanks for all of your hard work putting all of this together.

[Johnny Unusual]

I'll post my list later.  I just want to say that George did a fantastic job hosting the list and I'm glad it turned out so well.

I'm a big Leone fan, especially #1 and 2.  I love The Good, The Bad and the Ugly because... it's almost a comedy.  It is crazy over the top and arch and it's a buddy comedy and it's also very Looney Tunes, like in this cannon scene.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/iPC4rIZX5qI" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/iPC4rIZX5qI</a>

BTW, come for the cannon, stay for the Ecstasy of Gold.  The film has one of the most epic endings in film history, with epicness piled on epicness until it builds to an intolerable degree of tension.  Even though the actual "action" lasts for a second, that epic staredown is one of the greatest "fight scenes" in movie history.

No slight to Lee Van Cleef, who kills it, but this film is all about the interplay between Tuco and Blondie.  As I said, this has a lot in common with Looney Tunes and these two are basically Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny, respectively (though Bugs if he was more of a jerk).  I think that's why I like Tuco more.  He's not the guy who is going to "win", nor does he deserve to (even in winning, he completely loses his dignity at the end of the film), but there is a lot of pathos to his character (much more than we get with the unflappable Blondie) with his brother making him a much more sympathetic antiheroes despite his awful crimes.

Oh, and I love how the film drips with irony whenever it refers to Blondie as "the Good."  This is one of my all time favourites and the film that changed me from having a respect for Westerns into a love of the genre.

[stethacantus]

while compiling my list I was surprised to find out that I had seen more than 25 Westerns in my lifetime. But not much more. Just missing the top 25 are every Western riffed on MST3K, which explains all the bottom five movies on my list.  Also not making my list: Lonesome Dove and the Kung Fu pilot movie, because I counted them as a television series, any Western I had only seen half of, and Back to the Future III for being more science fiction than Western.

#1 The Good The Bad and the Ugly ( 1966 )
#2 Blazing Saddles ( 1974 )
#3 Dead Man ( 1995 )
#4 Silverado ( 1985 )
#5 Young Guns ( 1988 )
#6 The Magnificent Seven ( 1960 )
#7 Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid ( 1969 )
#8 Mark of Zorro ( 1920 )
    Three silent films make my list.  There would have been more, but for some reason I completely forgot about The Wind ( 1928 ). The silent era was when the Hollywood Western hit it's peak, replaced in the sound era in popularity by the musical. Also, the major studios began shying away from making Westerns because they required being shot outside a soundstage where the microphones kept picking up the sounds of nearby automobiles and airplanes, requiring them to keep retaking scenes. The independents like Republic Pictures didn't seem to care that that their Westerns were suppose to be taking place in the 1800s, but you could hear the sound of motors in the background. And they shot all their action scenes without recording any sound. There was sort of a rebound in the popularity of Westerns in the 1050s, mostly due to television. But the genre was never as popular as it had been in the 1920s
#9 Once Upon A Time in the West ( 1968 )
#10 A Fistful of Dollars ( 1964 )
#11 Way Out West ( 1937 )
   Every comedy team made an obligatory Western. This was Laurel & Hardy's contribution to the genre. It's the film with this classic moment:
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/jwLlo9lFjQw" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/jwLlo9lFjQw</a>
#12 The Toll Gate ( 1920 )
#13 Bad Company ( 1972 )
#14 Go West ( 1925 )
#15 Shanghai Noon ( 2000 )
#16 Shane ( 1953 )
#17 Once Upon a Time in China and America ( 1997 )
#18 Duck, you Sucker!  ( a.k.a. A Fistful of Dynamite  a.k.a.  Once Upon a Time... The Revolution ) ( 1971 )
#19 For a Few Dollars More ( 1965 )
#20 The Frisco Kid ( 1979 )
#21 Billy the Kid vs Dracula ( 1966 )
#22 Stranger and the Gunfighter  ( a.k.a Blood Money ) ( 1974 )
#23 Heavens Gate ( 1980 )
     Depite it's reputation as one of the worst films ever made, it all bdepends on what edit of the film you watch. I saw one of the directors cuts, and it was a very decent epic. The problem is that Michael Cimino shot a  five and a half hour film that was cut down to about three hours for the general release.
#24 Carry on Cowboy ( 1965 )
#25 Lone Ranger ( 1980 )

[George-2.0]

I'll post my list later.  I just want to say that George did a fantastic job hosting the list and I'm glad it turned out so well.

I'm a big Leone fan, especially #1 and 2.  I love The Good, The Bad and the Ugly because... it's almost a comedy.  It is crazy over the top and arch and it's a buddy comedy and it's also very Looney Tunes, like in this cannon scene...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/iPC4rIZX5qI" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/iPC4rIZX5qI</a>

BTW, come for the cannon, stay for the Ecstasy of Gold.  The film has one of the most epic endings in film history, with epicness piled on epicness until it builds to an intolerable degree of tension.  Even though the actual "action" lasts for a second, that epic staredown is one of the greatest "fight scenes" in movie history.

No slight to Lee Van Cleef, who kills it, but this film is all about the interplay between Tuco and Blondie.  As I said, this has a lot in common with Looney Tunes and these two are basically Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny, respectively (though Bugs if he was more of a jerk).  I think that's why I like Tuco more.  He's not the guy who is going to "win", nor does he deserve to (even in winning, he completely loses his dignity at the end of the film), but there is a lot of pathos to his character (much more than we get with the unflappable Blondie) with his brother making him a much more sympathetic antiheroes despite his awful crimes.

Oh, and I love how the film drips with irony whenever it refers to Blondie as "the Good."  This is one of my all time favourites and the film that changed me from having a respect for Westerns into a love of the genre.

Awesome! You know it's funny, when I was doing write-ups I was thinking, "I should ask Johnny to write a reflection for G.B.U.", because I'd not seen it in a while. And what do you know, here it is, without me asking. I put a hold on it at the library a month ago, but it must still be as popular as ever because 4 people were ahead of me. I'm still waiting for it to show up.

Thanks for the kind words everyone. Westerns are near and dear to me, and I'm overall happy with how this turned out.

It did seem to go by quickly. I'm going to miss working on it, sharing results and such.

Aside from positing my first LoC mistake (I thought I caught 'em all, then I got a text, "Um, I meant to tell you this earlier, but forgot...") This is my first hosting gig where Bill Murray didn't make the list. I think the closest he's gotten to a Western was a bit part where he's seen dressed up as John Wayne in the Searchers, in that horrible Charlie Swan movie.

But here's a pic of Bill from that flick, just so I can say that Murray has shown up in every LoC I've hosted. 

[Johnny Unusual]

1. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
2. Once Upon a Time in the West
3. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
4. Unforgiven
5. High Plains Drifter
6. True Grit (2010)
7. For a Few Dollars More
8. High Noon
9. The Ox-Bow Incident
10. The Hateful Eight
11. No Country for Old Men
12. The Three Amigos! - This one has some delightful musical numbers
13. The Quick and the Dead - Sam Riami's western doesn't feel particularly "spaghetti" but his over the top directing style is a perfect way to bring that energy into what would otherwise be a conventional Western.
14. Bone Tomahawk - If you haven't seen this one, check it out, but be warned that this one, even more than the Quentin Tarantino, is probably the goriest on this or any other list.
15. Django Unchained
16. Maverick
17. Serenity - I'm really surprised this didn't show up.  I mean, I would have expected it to be near the bottom, but all the same.
18. The Outlaw Josie Wales
19. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
20. Dead Man (1995)
21. Back to the Future Part 3
22. Pale Rider
23. Blazing Saddles
24. A Fistful of Dollars
25. Rango

[MartyS (Gromit)]

My list, crazy that I had The Quick and The Dead at the same spot as Johnny U.

These are all the westerns I've seen except for Maverick, if I had remembered that one it would have replaced Traded at the bottom, Traded was not good.  Some others that showed up on the list seemed familiar so I probably saw them on TV as a little kid.

1   Once Upon A Time In The West 1968
2   The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly 1966
3   Unforgiven 1992
4   Shane 1953
5   Godless 2017
6   Django Unchained 2012
7   For A Few Dollars More 1965
8   Pale Rider 1985
9   High Plains Drifter 1973
10   Hang'em High 1968
11   A Fistful Of Dollars 1964
12   True Grit 2010
13   The Quick And The Dead 1995
14    3:10 To Yuma 2007
15   Blazing Saddles 1974
16   The Wild Bunch 1969
17   100 Rifles 1969
18   Rango 2011
19   Hannie Caulder 1971
20   Dances With Wolves 1990
21   The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre 1948
22   Two Mules For Sister Sara 1970
23   Cowboys & Aliens 2011
24   The Wild Wild West 1999
25   Traded 2016