The Telegraph in Britain has published its ranking of the 25 best Western movies of all time. It's an interesting mixture, due as much to the films it leaves out as to those it includes. Its top choice is "Unforgiven", and its lowest choice at #25 is "Blazing Saddles"; but there's no mention of "McKenna's Gold" or "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" or other well-known classics.
Click over there to read their choice of movies, then let us know what you think in Comments. I'll be interested to see how those of us who live on the same continent as the "Wild West" think about the Old World's perspective on it from several thousand miles away (not to mention a cultural divide that yawns wide).
Peter
22 comments:
The power of myth cannot be over stated. 'The man who shot Liberty Valance' was notably missing. The song by Gene Pitney of the same name rang in the background of many a young man seeking adventure.
Well, since it won't let me sign up for a free month without giving it money, the list is not accessible to me.
So.
Top 25. Without actually placing them in order.
Fort Apache/She Wore a Yellow Ribbon/Rio Grande (it's a trilogy, basically.)
Fistful of Dollars.
For a Few Dollars More.
High Plains Drifter. (is it a ghost story or...)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Red River.
Blazing Saddles.
Support Your Local Sheriff/Gunfighter.
Magnificent Seven (the original, not the new garbage one.)
The Cheyenne Social Club.
The Outlaw Josse Wales.
And I can't think of any more right now
I am glad to see that Blazing Saddles made it on the list. I just would have liked to see it closer to the top of the list.
Typically, the list skews too much towards recent films. I haven't seen "Bone Tomahawk" (don't want to, from all I have read), but I would suspect that there are 100 older films more worthy. "Rio Bravo", Wayne's near-perfect bookend to "High Noon." Also "Ride the High Country" or any of John Ford's Cavalry Trilogy.
For the most part, I agree with the picks, if not the order.
Any of the great titles I could think of showed up. And I, for one, am delighted that they picked the original Magnificent 7 over the remake. Both are good, but even Denzel has a problem holding a candle to Yul.
I started to object to Dances with Wolves, but it does have Graham Greene, so yeah, it deserves a spot - if only for him.
Blazing Saddles should have been the #1 pick.
"Best of" lists are always subjective and based on personal experience, culture and history. In other words they are generally pointless. Any list not based on hard measurable numbers is simply opinion.
could argue with a few of them (and add one or two more - old Tom Mix movies - perhaps), but I think they've covered the genre quite well
Must create an account?
I wasn't asked to sign up or create an account. I wonder if that's a function of one's browser? I used Brave, which has greater privacy protections than some.
Pale Rider
McClintock (John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara)
The Searchers
The Four Sons Of Katie Elder
Big Jake
True Grit (John Wayne and Glen Campbell)
I haven't seen enough of those films to rank them, but I thought The Oxbow Incident was pretty mundane, so I'd drop it. Bone Tomahawk was good, IMHO, but maybe not top 25 good.
Notably missing? Silverado, True Grit.
3:10 to Yuma (Russell Crowe/Christian Bale version)
Silverado. Yes, it was a pulp western, but it was a great pulp western with a fantastic soundtrack. And John Cleese as a western sheriff?
"He fell off his horse."
TXRed
I second on "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" as missing.
"Unforgiven" is an awesome movie that I will never watch again as it disturbed me that much.
Tombstone
If Blazing Saddles is a Western, then Monty Python's In Search of the Holy Grail is a Bible Story.
Robert,
You mean Monty Python's Life of Brian?
What makes a western? Quigley Down Under is a western, but takes place in Australia. Treasure of the Sierra Madre takes place in 1925. Western? Wild Bunch is around 1915. Western? Outland is a remake of High Noon. Western? Rango? Cowboys and Aliens?
Breakheart Pass
Old Henry
Unconquered
Crossfire Trail
Chato's Land
The 25, in order:
1. Tombstone
Silverado
Stagecoach
The Searchers
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Jeremiah Johnson
Dances With Wolves
Blazing Saddles
Support Your Local Sheriff
My Darling Clementine
Big Jake
The Electric Horseman
Rio Bravo/El Dorado/Rio Lobo (they're the same movie, essentially).
The Big Sky
Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
The Magnificent Seven
True Grit
McClintock
Breakheart Pass
True Grit (1969)
Red River
The Wild Bunch
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Rio Grande/Fort Apache/She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (three-way tie)
25. The Shootist
Honorable mentions right beneath those:
Quigley Down Under
The Man From Snowy River
Two Mules For Sister Sarah
The Undefeated
Anything else Western with John Wayne
Anything else Western with Clint Eastwood
Anything else Western with James Garner
Anything else Western with Randolph Scott
Anything else Western with Audie Murphy
Anything else Western based on a Louis L'Amour title
Great list!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083619/
Barbarossa, with Willie Nelson and Gary Busey. I've always been fond of it. Pretty cool movie, plus, Willie Nelson!
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