|   E! Online's ranking of top ten best Western movies. | Smokey
Jul 21, 2003 10:45 PM | | <img src="http://cache.eonline.com/Features/Live/Wildwest/Toptenwesterns/Images/westerns.jpg">
.
This list and movies comments are from their web site (E! Online). Although they did not include couple of classics such as (Tin Star, Rio Bravo, Gun Fight Ok Corral), and included not so classic movie(Unforgiven..definitely not #2), but the list is pretty decent one.
#10. Red River (1948)
...............................<img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6304429754.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg">
Well, pilgrims, if you're gonna talk about westerns, you're gonna have to talk John Wayne. And for John Wayne's debut as John Wayne, look no further than this Howard Hawks epic about the first cattle drive on the Old Chisolm Trail. As bullheaded Tom Dunson, he's one helluva force to be reckoned with.
We meet domineering Dunson as he leaves his sweetheart to "grow good beef" in Texas. Although he's only got one bull and trusty sidekick Walter Brennan, he's undaunted--the kinda guy who, hours later, doesn't even flinch when his girl is killed in an Indian ambush.
Nope, this macho man moves on, meets a kid named Matt (the lone survivor of the Indian assault) and adopts him as his own without blinking an eye.
Cut to 1866, when Matt--now incarnated by Montgomery Clift--returns from the Civil War and joins Dunson's Missouri-bound cattle drive. On the trail, though, Matt ultimately leads a mutiny against the tyrannical Dunson and resets the course for Abilene. Dunson's response? Simple: He's gonna kill him.
"Every time you turn around, expect to see me," Dunson tells him, plain as day. "'Cause one time, you'll turn around, and I'll be there. I'll kill ya, Matt." Yikes!
There's nothing cute or cuddly about Wayne here. As cattle king Dunson, he's all beef. When he finally hunts Matt down, the Duke, in all his ungodly glory, has arrived. As he moves in for the kill, even the cattle know enough to step aside. He takes a bullet and keeps on coming like some sort of gun-toting Energizer Bunny...and those of us riveted on the couch can't help but think, Holy Moly ! This is John Freakin' Wayne!
.
#9. The Wild Bunch (1969)
...............................<img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0790731037.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg">
If you're a guy who has been bombarded for too damn long by the likes of Beaches, try popping this sucker into the VCR.
Tell your woman you're gonna watch this classic Sam Pekinpah shoot-'em-up. Tell her you're gonna power down the whole damn director's cut in one sitting, like it's some big, stinky burrito. Then watch her bolt as the opening bank-robbery sequence unspools with hails of gunfire, splatters of blood and little kids feeding a scorpion to red ants. This ain't no chick flick. This is The Wild Bunch, for cripe's sake. No girls allowed!
Our leader is William Holden as tough guy Pike Bishop. Ernest Borgnine is his right-hand man, Dutch. Filling out the rest of the gang are the ever-horny Gorch brothers, old codger Sykes and the patriotic Mexican, Angel.
The lot of 'em get away after that bloody bank job but are pursued by a scuzzy band of bounty hunters led by Pike's paroled former partner. The chase takes them all into Mexico, where civil war rages. The bunch makes a deal with a corrupt generalissimo to steal a trainload of U.S. Army weapons, including a newfangled machine gun. But then the general catches on to the bunch's subplot, and--trust us--everything goes all to hell.
In the ultimate apocalyptic showdown with the Mexicans, our man Sam seems to be saying, "All right, you bastards, you want a gunfight, I'll give you a gunfight!" Yet the scene has a strange beauty. When Pike--bloody, full of lead but incited to action by his best buddy, Dutch--mans the machine gun and mows down every federale in sight, you...well, you just gotta love him.
.
#8. The Gunfighter (1950)
....................... | | re: E! Online's ranking of top ten best Western movies (Pt2). | Smokey
Jul 21, 2003 10:48 PM | | #8. The Gunfighter (1950)
.......................<img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6301801733.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg">
Gregory Peck stars in this exceptional character study as aging gunslinger Jimmy Ringo, who's holstered with the psychological weight of being the fastest gun in the West. Wa-a-ay ahead of its time, this is a western for the Oprah generation. The Gunfighter has issues.
The Oscar-nominated story involves weary Ringo's effort to put his violent past behind him. All the guy wants is to settle down with his wife and kid. Yeah, like that's gonna happen. (Not with every young hotshot west of the Mississippi gunning for him.) Sorry, cowboy, you can't go home again.
Hell, the man can't even get drunk in peace! We first see him shooting down a bothersome barroom punk and then fleeing to the little town of Cayenne. He's determined to see his estranged wife and young son, who (of course) doesn't know he's his pa. Alas, Ringo's got no time to play house 'cause the barroom punk's brothers are after him. Poor schlub. Everyone wants a piece of him.
Well, everyone except the little woman. She won't even see him, much less let him cozy up to her corral. So, in a convoluted effort to get her to reconsider, Ringo, in a very Sally Jessy-ish scenario, holes up in a restaurant. You can almost see the explanatory subtitle below him: "Gunfighter wants to be good guy."
Hokey or not, the movie's influence has grown a lot of late--and for good reason. We get it. Back in 1950, audiences couldn't really relate to what we today accept as simple fact: Fame has its price, and infamy is even more costly. Look at Monica Lewinsky. All she wanted was to be normal, too.
.
#7. Winchester '73 (1950)
............................<img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6300184951.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg">
Mr. Smith goes to Dodge City in this Hollywood classic in which affable Jimmy Stewart reveals his badass side. In this first of Stewart's five "psychological western" collaborations with director Anthony Mann, he kicks some serious butt as a sharpshooter hell-bent on settling a score.
Bear in mind that by 1950, Jimmy Stewart was a guy who had blown the holy hell out of the Nazis from the cockpit of a B-24 and was not one to be messed with--onscreen or off. Universal Pictures learned that the hard way. When the big suits hemmed and hawed about casting him in a western, Stewart set an A-list precedent by taking a percentage of the gross rather than straight salary--and then laughed all the way to the bank.
It's also worth noting that one of Stewart's costars is a rifle: a Winchester '73, to be exact, a revolutionary weapon prized by cowboys and Indians alike. In this picture, one is up for grabs in a shooting contest. Enter Stewart as rifleman Lin McAdam. He wins the gun, only to have it stolen by his black-hatted nemesis.
The plot is paced by McAdam's relentless pursuit of the Winchester and the bad guy who stole it. The fate of the gun intertwines disparate characters, including an Indian warrior played by a low-billed Rock Hudson, who delivers immortal lines like, "Me want repeating rifle."
Winchester '73 made Jimmy Stewart a top-10 box-office draw, proving the studio had been wrong ever to doubt his talent or appeal. Don't mess with Jimmy! And don't miss him in this movie. Like a real Winchester '73, it's "one in a thousand."
.
#6. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1967)
...........................<img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6304698798.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg">
When Italian director Sergio Leone landed TV big gun Clint Eastwood for A Fistful of Dollars, he concocted a new recipe for the genre--the "spaghetti Western." With The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, he completed the trifecta of their collaboration.
Leone's recipe for the ultimate spaghetti western went like this:
First, cook up three meaty characters.
Sure, Eastwood's the main dish, but it's Eli Wallac |
| E! Online's ranking of top ten best Western movies (Pt3). | Smokey
Jul 21, 2003 10:51 PM | | Sure, Eastwood's the main dish, but it's Eli Wallach in the juicy role of the "ugly" outlaw, Tuco, who steals the show. His weird partnership with Eastwood's mysterious good guy, whom he calls Blondie, is the focal relationship. They're allies who, at various turns, threaten to kill each other. Lee Van Cleef is the sinister bad seed known as Angel Eyes. He's a plot-thickening agent for Tuco and Blondie, as the two undertake a meandering odyssey to unearth $200,000 in Confederate gold from a remote graveyard.
Then mix them up in a sauce of surrealism.
Despite the stars, Leone's the one doing the cooking here. He slices and dices the narrative to suit his artistic taste. His allegorical characters wander through a dreamlike landscape that includes archetypal "western" motifs and a cockeyed vision of the Civil War--basically "blue" against "gray" in the middle of the desert.
Yes, this is Leone's own special blend. In the famous, three-way showdown in the graveyard, he really demonstrates his chops. With rapid-fire editing of faces, guns, hands and eyes, Leone builds the tension to an epic--and classic--boiling point.
Kick it up a notch with spicy and exotic seasonings.
The dubbing--a necessity with the international cast and Leone's disinterest in speaking English--also enhances the film's otherworldly flavor. Then, of course, there's Ennio Morricone's amazingly strange musical score, with the bizarro, crying chorus that accents the wacked-out action. Also--BAM!--random explosions to add zest.
Presto! Enjoy your spaghetti western!
.
#5. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
...............<img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00003RQNJ.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg">
Considered the greatest antiestablishment western, this bittersweet film starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford is actually the most popular western of them all. It's the highest grossing, and there's nothing more mainstream than money. But Butch and Sundance is a crowd pleaser because it's the best buddy picture ever made.
The two incredibly handsome stars are undoubtedly the main attraction, and their chemistry is undeniable. Still, they benefit from William Goldman's witty, Oscar-winning screenplay and George Roy Hill's playful direction. Simply put: This movie tweaks the genre.
Antiheroes Butch and Sundance are the true good guys. Butch, in particular, is the most untraditional of movie outlaws. He has never killed anyone. Hellooo?
Sundance's sexy love interest, Etta (Katharine Ross), is no typical schoolmarm. Her swinging relationship with the two is completely liberated. Which brings us to the "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" interlude, where Butch and Etta romance on a bicycle. The Burt Bacharach-B.J. Thomas tune is delightful, but most self-respecting cowboys wouldn't have been caught dead in that scene.
It's a freakin' music video! This is definitely not your father's western.
But it is everyone else's. From the getgo, we're rooting for the pair of lighthearted individualists' evading their hunters. "Who are those guys?" they ask helplessly. At least we're not in the dark: We know who Newman and Redford are. They're our guys.
.
4. The Searchers (1956)
...................<img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6304696566.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg">
It's reported that after screening Red River, director John Ford said of his friend John Wayne, "I didn't know the big lug could act." His surprise isn't all that surprising. Lots of folks still don't know Wayne could act. That's why this masterpiece by Mr. Ford will astonish you.
Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a Confederate veteran who shows up at his brother's homestead in the Texas wilderness three years after the Civil War. Comanches raid the house and kill his brother and sister-in-law, then abduct his nieces, Lucy and Debbie. And--as any self-respecting, ex-army dude would--Edwards sets out to bring 'em back.
When he finds |
| E! Online's ranking of top ten best Western movies (Pt4). | Smokey
Jul 21, 2003 10:52 PM | | When he finds Lucy dead, the disturbing vision of her corpse is reflected only in the wrathful look shining in Wayne's eyes. Debbie (played in later scenes by Natalie Wood) becomes the lone object of his quest, and Edwards will find her "just as sure as a turning of the Earth."
Fair enough, but the search goes on for years. Maniacal Edwards just
never lets up. What's with this guy? Only God (or maybe John Ford) knows.
The Searchers will assuredly leave you searching for answers. This is no cowboy-and-Indian movie--Ford demonstrates that much. As for Wayne, the depth of character he brings to his haunting Ethan Edwards should put to rest any question that "the big lug" could, in fact, act.
.
#3. Stagecoach (1939)
.......................<img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6304696582.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg">
There was a lot of relocating going on in the movies of 1939. Dorothy was off to see the Wizard; Mr. Smith was off to Washington; Scarlett's Old South was Gone with the Wind. Meanwhile, John Ford loaded up a stagecoach for a wild ride through hostile Apache territory, and the western, like the world itself, would never be the same.
Aboard the stage are Dallas, the requisite prostitute with a heart of gold, and the drunken Dr. Josiah Boone--both of whom have been banished from the town of Tonto, where the journey begins.
Also crammed into the tiny coach are a pompous banker; a "notorious" southern gambler; Mrs. Mallory, a pregnant Army wife; and prim whiskey salesman Mr. Peacock. Up front, there's the nervous-Nellie driver with Marshal Curly Wilcox riding shotgun. Of course, John Wayne is along for the ride, too, in his breakout role as escaped convict Ringo Kid, who aims to get even with the boys who sent him up the river.
The stage rolls on with alternating scenes of action-adventure and social drama revolving around the inevitable romance between Dallas and Ringo. We get a great B-movie-style fight against the Apaches, and the delivery of Mrs. Mallory's baby delivers the emotional goods, as outcasts Doc and Dallas save the day. As entertainment, Stagecoach goes the extra mile.
With this film, Ford invented the modern western. It's a vehicle that expresses a hopeful American vision. Redemption is possible in the wild wide-open spaces, which, in 1939, exploded into world war. As Ringo and Dallas ride off into the sunrise following the inevitable showdown, our hearts go with them.
.
#2. Unforgiven (1992)
................<img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0790729644.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg">
Loosely summarized, Clint Eastwood's 1992 Oscar winner tells how former cold-blooded killer William Munny--Clint, of course--got his groove back. It also points out an undeniable truth about westerns: Guns are phallic symbols.
The trouble all starts over a very little thing: a cowpoke's minuscule manhood. It's giggled at by a prostitute, and the angry cowboy reacts by cutting up her face. Lusting for revenge, the stable of whores get no satisfaction from Sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett (Oscar-winner Gene Hackman), so they post a bounty on the culprit. The brash "Schofield Kid" (Jaimz Woolvett) proposes a partnership with Munny to collect the cash.
The bounty hunt performs like psychic Viagra for Munny, who has been living as a widowed pig farmer with two kids to support. He even gets his old friend, Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman), in on the action. The two catch up to the Kid on the trail, and the threesome heads to town.
Then things get really interesting. "Little Bill" symbolically castrates every gunslinger converging on the town by making them surrender their pistols. Munny, Ned and the Kid ambush the cowpokes in a canyon, but when Ned can't get it up--his rifle, that is--Munny becomes the master of his domain and fires away.
Later, when the disfigured prostitute offers him "a free one," the celibate Munny man rebuffs her. He gets his kicks another way. In the |
| E! Online's ranking of top ten best Western movies (Pt5). | Smokey
Jul 21, 2003 10:53 PM | | Later, when the disfigured prostitute offers him "a free one," the celibate Munny man rebuffs her. He gets his kicks another way. In the climax in the Big Whisky saloon, "Big Bill" stands erect over a prone "Little Bill," pointing an amazingly long shotgun at his head. Whoa there, big fella! We get the picture.
The film closes with a postscript about Munny's mother-in-law visiting her daughter's gravesite: "There was nothing on the marker to explain to Mrs. Feathers why her only daughter had married a known thief and murderer, a man of notoriously vicious and intemperate disposition."
.
#1. High Noon (1952)
...................<img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00006JMRE.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg">
"It's no good. I've got to go back, Amy. They're making me run. I've never run from anybody in my life."
And so, Marshal Will Kane (Oscar winner Gary Cooper) turns his buckboard wagon around and heads back to the town of Hadleyville for the ultimate showdownÉon this, his wedding day, in this, the greatest western of them all.
The plot here is simple. Pardoned killer Frank Miller will be arriving on the noon train. His three-man gang awaits him at the depot. The bunch is bent on revenge against Kane, who brought the evil Miller to justice. Newlywed Kane, who was due to retire as marshal that very day, feels duty bound to stay and face down the bad guys. But, oh my darlin' (so the Tex Ritter theme song goes), the good people of Hadleyville--even his new wife, Amy (Grace Kelly)--refuse to stand with him.
When high noon strikes on the ticking clock, the solitary Kane walks out to meet the Miller gang on the deserted streets. Credit director Fred Zinnemann for the staging of this memorable moment. It'll make your knees weak.
Blacklisted screenwriter Carl Foreman was caught up in the McCarthyism of the period, and the tension he felt is branded into the film. As a classic, though, High Noon goes way beyond a specific time and place. The story perfectly captures the essence of the best of the great westerns: an outnumbered hero, a tense showdown and a socially conscious theme--simple, direct and devastating.
When the townsfolk gather around Kane after the Miller gang is shot down, he looks them over, then tosses his marshal's badge to the dust.
Of course, there's another view of this final social comment. In a 1971 Playboy interview, a cantankerous John Wayne said High Noon was "the most un-American thing I've seen in my life." Sorry, Duke. You don't have the last word here. High Noon, like Marshal Kane, stands alone.
http://www.eonline.com/Features/Live/Wildwest/Toptenwesterns/index.html |
| |
