Yes, I saw your poll. And I went through all the options and thought really hard and thought to myself, no, I’m going to abstain. That’s a rabbit hole that has no bottom, that is.
I think you already confirmed that you think Sierra Madre is a Western Film, though, at least.
I agree (and you should start it). I think most of these works cross genres and can’t be pigeon-holed easily. Unless you are Mr. Dive (who can’t abide a “mess”). :)
Good question. I think they’re western-adjacent but not full Westerns. I watched Road Warrior by chance a month or so ago and never had that ‘this is actually a western’ moment I did during the Rover. Ditto with Mad Max, Fury Road and the shall-not-be-named other one.
Is the plate signifying spaghetti westerns? Then the green beans are…?
Envious Westerns?
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid? (Beans…Lima beans…Turnips…beets…spinach…beans…)
Ahhh, westerns. Not a genre I’m passionate about, but one where the good ones are really, really good.
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Rio Bravo - John Fucking Wayne. And then Dean Martin. And a stunning Angie Dickenson. What more needs to be said, except it has probably the best song ever in a western picture. I can watch this anytime.
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Warlock - A terrifically tense psychological western directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda and Anthony Quinn. This one doesn’t get talked about much, and it’s too bad because it’s top-notch.
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Bad Day at Blackrock - Only sort of a Western, I guess, since it’s set in the contemporary '50s, but goddamn Spencer Tracy and Lee Marvin are amazing in this movie.
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Winchester 73 - Jimmy Stewart revenge tale and a gun that ends up cursing everyone who comes into contact with it. A noir-Western, maybe?
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Stagecoach - The role that turned John Wayne into a star, and you see why. He’s absolutely riveting in this one, and the stage chase scene still manages to be thrilling, 80 years later.
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McCabe and Mrs Miller, I guess…I dunno. Running out of movies…
So glad you are here, Mr. Trap
See above poll and debates throughout about what exactly is a “Western Film”.
I got poetry in me. I do.
Altman makes one Western and it ends up being one of my Top 6 and one of my all time favorite films. It’s isolated, glacial, and amazingly personal and intimate at the same time. And sparse. And cold…
I’m a little surprised no one has mentioned:
(My six-gun is already dry, but that’s why I keep this little derringer in my boot. For emergencies like this.)
Also, I remember liking “The Gunfight”, though I only saw a little bit on AMC once and a bad copy ripped to YouTube another time. Kirk Douglas and Johnny Cash are aging gunfighters that have no reason to duel each other, except money is tight and twenty bucks is twenty bucks.
Well in that case I’ll just throw in The Dark Tower, because everyone loves Idris Elba!
I’d definitely agree with Lonesome Dove its way up there. I replace Searchers with True Grit, and Silverado with High Noon although I liked both.
Here’s a fine Austrian western: The Dark Valley
All who are interested, just be aware that “Western Films” are welcomed in the rebooted Quarter To Three Movie Club:
I haven’t really seen enough Westerns but I am all about the cult of the new:
Unforgiven (1992) - Gene Hackman is the bad guy
Tombstone (1993) - Probably the most quotable western of all time
The Quick and the Dead (1995) - Gene Hackman is the bad guy
True Grit (2010) - Good
Meek’s Cutoff (2010) - Oregon Trail the movie?
The Salvation (2014) - Mads kicks ass
The Homesman (2014) - …
Oops that was seven.
Best Westerns (but um not motels)
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (I like young Duke pretending to be old more than actual old Duke)
Red River (hon. mention The Big Sky)
The Naked Spur (and pretty much anything that’s Anthony Mann + James Stewart is gold)
The Gunfighter
Once Upon a Time in the West
Unforgiven
Best Westerns That Aren’t Westerns (and aren’t No Country for Old Men, because somebody already picked the best example)
Yojimbo
The Asphalt Jungle
The Proposition
Hell or High Water
The Road Warrior
Die Hard (the yippie-ki-ay is a giveaway…)
I still need to see this.
And he was inspired by John Ford…
Completely agree on The Road Warrior.
Who then inspired Sergio Leone to remake Yojimbo as A Fistful of Dollars. It’s all cyclical.
Exactly. I’m not dissing Kurosawa, I find the influence and then the echo and then Leone’s echo back again as a Western set in the Old West fascinating.
Yojimbo’s actual plot is all Dashiell Hammett. Kurosawa just set it during the Bakumatsu.
A GREAT freaking read, by the way.
All the Continental Op stories are the best. I love that ugly bastard.
The four westerns that jump out as most memorable are to me, in no order:
Unforgiven
Once Upon a Time in the West
The Wild Bunch
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Also, for John Wayne movies I’ll take The Searchers and another of his great movies, Rio Bravo/El Dorado. I’ll let Chili Palmer in Get Shorty explain:
Bo Catlett:
You broke into my house, and I have a witness to it.
Chili Palmer:
What?
Bo Catlett:
Only this time it ain’t no John Wayne and Dean Martin shooting bad guys in “El Dorado.”
Chili Palmer:
That was “Rio Bravo.” Robert Mitchum played the drunk in “El Dorado.” Dean Martin played the drunk in “Rio Bravo.” Basically, it was the same part. Now John Wayne, he did the same in both. He played John Wayne.
Bo Catlett:
Man, I can’t wait for you to be dead.