Western Writers of America put together a well done (but not perfect) Top 100 Western films of all-time list. Really, the only thing that makes me shake my head in disbelief is the #99 rank for Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller, which is one of the greatest films ever made. Here would be my top 10 Westerns, no particular order.
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Unforgiven
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Searchers
Rio Bravo
The Naked Spur
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Seven Men from Now
6 comments:
Just saw Man Who Shot last weekend. The Ford-isms really hurt the film. It was good, but I think it could have been an absolute film for the ages if Ford weren't Ford. Where I think the Technicolor and not very talky panorama of The Searchers really evens out the Ford-esque comic relief and particular tropes, they weigh down MWSLV. It could have been up there with AOJJBTCRF.
What, no War Wagon??? Kidding-
For a Few Dollars More should be under consideration.
OK, Young Guns is on the list. They were just naming 100 westerns they could think of.
Young Guns is a rather shocking inclusion. But as lists go, this one doesn't have that many, and it has only a few definite overlooks. One question I have is, what is a Western? What about The New World? That's definitely a frontier movie. So is Badlands, in its way. Dead Man, too po-mo for this list? What about Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia? Too modern and not incographic enough? Does anachronism overrule inclusion? Probably not, with No Country for Old Men included. How about Australian Westerns - Ned Kelly, The Proposition, etc.
Just noticed, no Brokeback Mountain. Say what you will.
A couple of strange inclusions: Bad Day at Black Rock and The Last Picture Show, neither of which I think of as a Western. LPS would be on my list, if I thought of it that way.
Nothing from Leone on your top ten?
I personally am a huge fan of Liberty Valance, it's flawed by the obvious gap in age between Stewart and Wayne and the characters they're supposed to be playing but it builds into a monumental, subversive statement by the end.
Print the legend.
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