Here's one person's top 25. What say you? The 25 Most Important Westerns & Why and High Noon didn t make the list.
25) The Searchers (1956) For years, this John Ford-John Wayne vehicle has held the reputation as being the inspiring force behind every filmmaker from Spielberg to Coppola, which is the only reason it shows any importance. In reality, its probably the most highly overrated western ever made.
24) The Hired Hand (1971) Understated, aimless, occasionally boring and definitely anticlimactic. In other words, a genius portrayal of life in the real Old West. Peter Fondas first film after Easy Rider proves the first was no fluke. Warren Oates always added grit and realism to any Western, and he burns up the screen here with his quiet quirkiness.
23) The Outlaw (1943) An otherwise forgettable matinee Billy the Kid vehicle, this Howard Hughes production looms.
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large in the annals of film history for highlighting the prodigious bust of co-star Jane Russell. Hollywood Babylon contends Hughes invented the under-wire bra for his female lead. If you can think of a more important reason this film should be on the list, we would like to hear it.
22) The Good, the Bad & the Ugly (1970) Sergio Leones West was wildly inaccurate, yet the grit, the style and the sweep overcome its shortcomings (Ugly is actually the third of Leones so-called "Dollars" trilogy the other two being A Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More). Unlike most Hollywood slop being served up at the time, the Eastwood character (The Man With No Name) is completely detached and uninterested. He is only out for personal gain and nothing else. If that doesnt match John Wesley Hardin and a myriad of other Bad Men, we dont know what does. Meanwhile, the score is a virtual Rorshach test for an entire generation.
21) The Quick & The Dead (1995) Gunslingers converge on hellish town, facing off every hour, on the hour, for the title of Best Gunfighter. Combining some of the most unique scenes, camera tricks and characters in some time, The Quick & The Dead, directed by sci-fi visionary Sam Raimi, pulls the western to a bold new level in less than two hours.
20) The Bank Robbery (1908) A terrible movie, with no closeups, medium shots or any compelling sense of narrative. The end result is a film that is totally bone-headed and a complete waste of time. Except for the fact that many of the actual "actors" are some of the biggest names in Old West history. Lawman Bill Tilghman, Heck Thomas, Frank Canton and outlaws Al Jennings and Quanah Parker are clearly seen, riding straight at the camera. To see how each one sets his horse and dismounts makes The Bank Robbery an important film and a must-see.
19) Missouri Breaks(1976) On the surface, another range war epic. Importance? Find us another film that combines Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando, and forces the Godfather to don a dress for a key scene. Classic, and first real portrayal of the assassin as western nobility.
18) Stagecoach (1939) John Fords dark, gritty, and extremely cold story of a seemingly doomed group of travelers. Most importantly, John Carradine inadvertently debuts the greatest Doc Holliday to ever appear on film.
17) Star Wars (1974) Take something old, make it new again. At a time when the movie industry was in the middle of a western drought, matinee western fan George Lucas gave us a new, albeit quite different, gunfighter named Han Solo (complete with tie-down blaster rig) and one of the greatest cantina scenes ever filmed.
16) One-Eyed Jacks (1961) Terribly flawed (Stanley Kubrick quit as director and Brando took over), Jacks still has its moment in the sun. Based on the Billy the Kid-Pat Garrett story, Marlon Brando stars as a terse outlaw who returns from the past to settle a score with "Dad." Not counting Zorro, its one of the few Westerns that uses the coast of California, mainly Monterey, as a location, and unlike so many Westerns that use N.D. horses (nondescript), this production is full of beautiful horseflesh used to magnificent results. The opening sequence of Brando about to seduce a señorita is worth the trip.
15) The Long Riders (1980) Director Walter Hills casting of actual brothers to play the James-Younger gang was his first stroke of genius; his second was dragging the viewer through the bloody mud of Northfield, Minnesota, and the James downfall.
14) Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1974) We still have our doubts about Kris Kristofferson as Billy, but all is forgiven when Peckinpah has the sand to show the Kid being bucked off his horse, while trying to escape from the Lincoln County jail. Witnesses testified this actually happened on April 28, 1881 when the horse Billy was trying to mount was spooked by the dangling shackle and chain still attached to Billys ankle. That Hollywood would even portray such a scene when virtually every range rider from Mix to Clint were shown riding horizon to horizon glued to the saddle is, well, a miracle (the only other realistic buck-off portrayal that comes to mind is Robert Duvalls Gus in Lonesome Dove).
13) Jeremiah Johnson (1972) As far as mountain men films go (and there are dang few), this one has it all greenhorns hungry for a new Hawken rifle, grizzled old fart trappers, skeptical Indians, shell-shocked victims of Indians, an uncaring U.S. Army, and snow. Lots of snow. Based on the life of the real Liver-Eating Johnson, Redford and Pollack do what Eastwood has been trying to do, and failing, for years make a thinking mans western.
12) Viva Zapata (1952) Muy simpático before it was cool to be muy simpático. The Mexican revolution and Emiliano Zapata (Marlon Brando) turn on a series of symbolic ropes and then the whole shebang ends up like Jesse James (betrayed by a friend). So very stylish and ahead of their time in costuming and stage dressing.
11) Birth of a Nation (1915) Frequently written off as an exercise in racism, and admittedly, downright silly in places, Birth of a Nation exposes much about post-Civil War America (Texas comes to mind). When presented as a classroom projection, it offers an informed look at racial fears that fueled Reconstruction outlawry.
10) Heavens Gate (1974) The very definition of the West too large to tame, dirty, expensive, brief moments of inspiring beauty and extended moments of breathtaking brutality. For everything that went wrong with the production of this movie, what was captured on the screen is pure brilliance; quite frankly, despite (or perhaps thanks to) the cocaine-frenzied excesses, they got a hell of a lot of things right. When Frank Canton (Sam Waterson) corners and kills Nate Champion (Christopher Walken), you are there, right down to the very smallest detail. Brilliant.
9) Bad Company (1972) The set-up is anti-Vietnam, but the depiction is pure, unadulterated Real West. Nothing quite shocks the viewer like the stark scenery, haphazard violence, and rambling efforts of the title group of chicken thieves, who havent got but one gun and a few mules between them. When they come upon an east-bound emigrant and inquire about the West, he warns them to stay away. Advice ignored, the end result is sobering.
Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid (1969) Before this film there was nothingonly a handful of cranky, regional historians even knew who they were. William Goldman changed all that with a brilliant, witty script (based on source material from one of those cranky, regional historians, James Horan) and the subsequent movie, literally catapulted Butch and Sundance out of obscurity and into the pantheon of Western outlaws. Take out that damn song ("Rain Drops Keep Falling On My Head") and the movie still stands tall three decades later.
7) Ride With the Devil (1999) Bushwacker curls, sheephair tunics, and a lyrical script that will have you reaching for your Ozark dictionary. This Civil War border tale concerning bloody Missouri farm boys was sacrificed at the box office for a Hollywood sin100% historical accuracy. Apparently audiences werent ready for dead-on costuming, dialogue, and a realistic representation of the sins of our forebears. Then again, maybe viewers just couldnt handle Pit, the scariest villain to emerge on screen in a long, long time.
6) McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) Loaded with pathos and drenched in black humor, Robert Altman nailed the underbelly of the Westering experience. In an ugly, half-built town, Warren Beatty becomes a big fish in a small pond, knowing all the while his days are numbered and yet, hes not sure exactly what to do about it (sounds like the magazine business!). Edgy, dark and beautiful, the ending is possibly the most accurate, dead-on portrayal of the outcome of a "gunfight" on celluloid. No winners, only frozen corpses. And all over a misunderstanding. Very cool.
5)The Great Train Robbery (1903) Long lauded as the first Western (it wasnt), The Great Train Robbery is important for two reasons the crude film (made in a mere two days) contains virtually all the devices of the yet to be evolved "Western," including a saloon scene where the "tenderfoot" is made to dance; ruthless villains who stop the train and shoot down the guard; a dramatic chase with six-guns blazing; and guys tumbling from their saddles until all the badmen are dead. Allegedly based on an actual Wild Bunch robbery, it is believed Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid watched it while in New York on their way to South America. Killer!
4) Lonesome Dove (1989) OK, so it was on television, but its still one of the best westerns put to celluloid. Based on the adventures of Charlie Goodnight and Oliver Loving, Dove turns the dusty streets of San Antonio, the green hills of Montana, and a dutch oven full of biscuits into something worth long, slow inspection. Hell, hang it in the Louvre, this is fine art.
3) Wild Bunch (1969) Slo-mo masterpiece of Western death that cemented the doomed walk-down sequence, and the code of sticking together, no matter what. When all the smoke blown by cinema snots clears, its still there. It not only changed westerns, it changed the national mindset. Pretty heavy stuff.
2) Tombstone (1993) In the first five minutes, this film totally redeemed the motion picture industry for over fifty years of costuming, historical and dialogue sins. The Remingtonesque clothing scored the picture a homerun before the first line was ever spoken. A first in many ways, Tombstone stands out among Wyatt Earp fans for solid, as-accurate-as-allowed portrayals of the Earp brothers and their wives, the Cow-boy gang, the very town of Tombstone, and Doc Holliday and Curly Bill Brocius, played with haunting effect by Val Kilmer and Powers Boothe. Their portrayals sparked a long-since extinguished desire to dress up and play cowboy in the hearts of many men. Almost overnight, the reenactor and make-believe gunfighter population inflated to epic proportions, with armies of "Docs" and "Curly Bills."
1) Little Big Man (1970) It only took some seventy-odd years, but Little Big Man marks the first time a major film starred an actual Native American. Chief Dan George (who won a supporting actor Oscar for the role) nonchalantly plays Old Lodge Skins which, in turn, totally complements Dustin Hoffmans edgy interpretation of the 121-year-old Jack Crabb. Besides being hilarious and politically incorrect (its hard to imagine this film being green-lighted today). Little Big Man serves as a concise history of the American West, representing each phase of development the pioneers are here, fat horny sisters are here, the clergy, the prostitutes (mixed up with the clergy), straight Indians, queer Indians, bureaucrats, soldiers, drummers, journalists, carpetbaggers, vigilantes, scouts, muleskinners, gamblers, gunfighters (including Wild Bill Hickok), the windy old-timer, historians (sometimes confused with windy old-timers) and last but not leastGeorge Armstrong Custer himself. No other Western, not even the bloated How The West Was Won, had the scope, the sand, or the vision of this masterpiece. Funny, ironic and a certified kick in the pants just like the real Wild West. As Phil Hardy so aptly put it, Little Big Man is "the story of a perpetual adolescent fathered by the heroes and villains of the West."·
Amen.
From the Last Winter Issue of OLD WEST JOURNAL We've now combined all those great features into True West Magazine.
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