It occurred to me yesterday evening that, although I’d made lots of lists of the best (or, at least, my favorite) movies in a number of different genres, I’d never produced my list of the greatest westerns. When I began thinking about it I realized that I’d need to impose some caveats and restrictions on my list. You could come up with a list of ten great westerns that were all John Wayne pictures. In looking at various lists of great westerns it wasn’t hard to see that about a third of the lists were typically composed of John Wayne pictures. Or Clint Eastwood pictures.
So I decided to impose restrictions on my list. I don’t like “spaghetti westerns” so I’m limiting my list to American westerns. And I’m limiting my picks to one pick per lead actor. The list is in alphabetical order.
The Fastest Gun Alive (Updated)
I forgot to include this picture in my original list. An unlikely and unwilling hero played by Glenn Ford, a menacing, psychopathic villain played by Broderick Crawford, and an ending that’ll probably surprise you. IMO this movie is a neglected gem.
The Magnificent Seven
This re-working of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai is outstanding for any number of reasons including its Oscar-winning score and its assembling of a group of fine character actors, some of whom gave their best performances in this movie.
Open Range
This movie proved several things. It’s still possible to make a great western. Kevin Costner is capable of making a great western. Robert Duvall can do no wrong.
The Ox-Bow Incident
My Darling Clementine makes a lot of people’s greatest western lists but I think if you’re going to pick just one Henry Fonda picture it should be this one. I think it’s head and shoulders above My Darling Clementine if only because it doesn’t have Victor Mature in it.
Ride the High Country
I like this movie, about the end of the Old West and starring Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott, the best of all Sam Peckinpah’s films. Two of Hollywood’s handsomest leading men and iconic western stars and possibly Randolph Scott’s best performance. Joel McCrea is a sadly unappreciated actor these days and I’m not sure why. He excelled in practically every genre.
The Searchers
What can I say about The Searchers that hasn’t already been said? This may well be the best western ever made. It’s certainly the best John Wayne western ever made.
Sergeant Rutledge
This John Ford western was bold in its day. And Woody Strode was clearly one of our best western movie actors. Check out the pictures he was in.
Shane
Alan Ladd is simply poetry in this picture. Great performances. Great cinematography. Great climax. Iconic ending. It really gives a new meaning to “riding off into the sunset”.
The Sooner
The very first American movie was a western and the number of great silent westerns is huge. The Sooner is my favorite silent western. It stars William S. Hart who, as it worked out, had been both a cowboy and a Shakespearean actor. That’s a combination you don’t run into much anymore.
The Westerner
I don’t care for High Noon. No list of great westerns would be complete without a Gary Cooper movie and as it works out The Westerner is a better picture than High Noon anyway.
Unforgiven
I read an amusing anecdote about Unforgiven. As the story goes Clint Eastwood purchased the rights to this story back in the 70s and then waited until he got old enough to play the part to make the movie. One of only three westerns to win an Academy Award as Best Picture.
Winchester ’73
This picture was the first collaboration and between Jimmy Stewart and Anthony Mann. Theirs was one of the great partnerships in cinema, right up there with John Wayne and John Ford. And Shelley Winters’s pretty trashiness was a real asset in this picture. This picture might have more great heavies than any other western ever made. And check out Will Geer’s performance as Wyatt Earp. You may not recognize him as Grandpa Walton.
Which westerns do you think are the best? I’m sure your list is different from mine.
Any suggestions for a film to introduce a 14 year old boy to the genre?
I would go with–
The Naked Spur
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
El Topo
Red River
Ride the Hide Country (also my favorite Peckinpah western–Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia is my overall favorite)
Walker (with Ed Harris, more of a historical film (though with helicopters) about the overthrow of Nicaragua in the 1850s–if you are not tolerant you may not like it)
CStanley–Rio Bravo?
Pale Rider
Outlaw Josey Wales
Unforgiven
Searchers
Red River
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Magnificent Seven
Tombstone
Blazing Saddles
CStanley: I introduced my kids (though at a younger age) to Westerns with Magnificent Seven, and they really enjoyed it and wanted to see the sequels. Passed.
Before we went to Colorado we watched a bunch of movies with Colorado settings, and the boy liked Jeremiah Johnson the best of that selection. I would classify that as a mountain man movie.
Agree with Ellipses that Rio Bravo is the most approachable of Wayne’s movies and a favorite of Wayne fans. (Searchers was really the only Wayne movie with a Colorado connection, and kids didn’t find his character likable.)
The Wild Bunch
Peckinpah’s masterpiece. Also has the most beautiful version of La Golodrina I’ve ever heard. It wasn’t until I myself passed middle age that I really understood it.
Magnificent Seven
For all the reasons given. I once saw The Magnificent Seven and Seven Samurai on the same bill. An extraordinary experience.
Once Upon a Time in The West.
A great homage to the American western made by someone who deeply loved it. Ennio Morricone’s music is sublime. I have the iconic poster on the wall in my study. And to see Henry Fonda playing against type is worth the price of admission.
Stage Coach.
If only because, like Huckleberry Finn and the American novel, every western after it depended on it is some way or another.
Red River
John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, John Ireland, Howard Hawks…
Here’s the version of La Golondrina I mentioned.
Unforgiven, The Shootist, The Searchers, The Outlaw Josey Wales, True Grit (both versions, seen about one day apart, make a fantastic experience), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford is also a favorite of mine, but I can’t really recommend it without reservations to anyone because it is so very slow.
I’m about the last person to recommend movies for 14 year olds. I’m straitlaced in my tastes, sentimental, and have a bilious attitude about the younger generation. I think they have the attention spans of gnats.
That having been said in terms of recent movies two that stand out as intros to westerns would be The Mask of Zorro and Cowboys and Aliens. Both have lots of explosions, very attractive casts, lots of action, and aren’t too lurid. Cowboys and Aliens is right on the edge of my luridity tolerance.
In terms of older pictures, Rio Bravo has quite a bit of action. I find its treatment of women problematic, though. The Magnificent Seven is a good pick but it may be a little slow for today’s audience.
PD:
The reason that Blazing Saddles didn’t make my list was that I wanted to reserve it for a different genre: comedy westerns. There are a lot of great comedy westerns and of that genre it’s near or at the top.
I’m about the last person to recommend movies for 14 year olds. I’m straitlaced in my tastes, sentimental, and have a bilious attitude about the younger generation. I think they have the attention spans of gnats.
LOL, presumably they also need to get off your lawn.
But I take your point and my tastes and opinion of the younger generation are probably similar to yours. I am in the position though of trying to build the attention span of one of said gnats. Culture is a feedback loop that I have to try to manipulate.
Thanks to you, Dave, and others, for the suggestions.
(Searchers was really the only Wayne movie with a Colorado connection, and kids didn’t find his character likable.)
I’d be a bit wary of children who do find him likable.
Re: Joel McCrea–I’ve only seen him in three films–Ride the High Country, Palm Beach Story, and Sullivan’s Travels. These are all great films, so it’s hard not to like him. Looking at his Wikipedia page, I can’t believe how many films he was in. What are some recommendations?
PD, that was Modulo mentioning Rio Bravo.
I’ve never cared for The Searchers – John Wayne’s character is just too nasty for my tastes.
Skipping Spaghetti Westerns means missing two of the all-time best performances: Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West (which sam mentioned), and Eli Wallach as Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. That movie is actually Tuco’s more than Blondie’s, although no one seems to ever notice it. His is the only character with more than two dimensions. Some other great, non-Clint-Eastwood performances in that genre include Jason Robards in Once Upon a Time… and Lee van Cleef as Angel Eyes – a chillingly evil character.
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Dave, I think you’ve missed the boat on young people, a bit. I think 14 is a great age for sentiment in boys. You just need to isolate them from the heard for a few hours to let them absorb the movie in privacy.
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As for great Westerns, I don’t have much to add beyond what’s been mentioned. I’m glad to see Winchester ’73 on the list, though I think The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is more iconic for a reason. Good to see that someone mentioned The Shootist, too, although I’m not really sure it’s a great Western. But it’s a fine performance from Wayne.
Obviously the lists above are all about the Big Screen. But that means not mentioning the best Western of all, in my opinion: Lonesome Dove. After if you want to argue with me about it, I’m just not going to listen to you.
And what, no singing Cowboy movies? Yippee-ki-yay, moth… Ah, you know how it goes.
First, see Foreign Correspondent. It’s just a great movie. Dead End is an incredible picture (despite it providing a launching pad for the Dead End Kids). I think the version of The Virginian he starred in was the best screen adaptation of the novel (also for the very young Robert Preston).
There’s a little offbeat picture, directed by Jacques Tourneur, called Stars in My Crown I strongly recommend. It was McCrea’s own favorite of all of the pictures he was in.
You haven’t seen Come and Get It? You should see that for Frances Farmer alone.
Yeah, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a great picture. It didn’t make my list only because of my self-imposed limitation. It features John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Woody Strode with Lee Marvin as a special lagniappe.
Lagniappe! Now you’re just showing off!
I grew up in a Francophile town.
@Gustopher, I watched both True Grits within a year of each other and they both seemed to detract from each other because there were things one did better than the other. Might be a negative way to look at it.
Does remind me though, my kids did see True Grit — in the John Wayne version the Oklahoma/Arkansas frontier has the Colorado Rockies in the background. The newer True Grit is my wife’s favorite Western, and then she lumps the Spaghetti Westerns in there as well.
I seem to be an outlier in that I didn’t care for the recent True Grit. Even the one thing I was sure would be an improvement (Matt Damon instead of Glenn Campbell) did work as well as I’d hoped.
Hey, are we going to get the comedy Westerns list soon? I’m looking forward to that!
I must have tolerant kids with movies. They don’t like black and white movies. They don’t like scary movies (and they associate the two because of me in part). But older movies in the action/adventure epic genre they enjoy, like Spartacus, The Vikings, the Adventures of Robin Hood, and Lawrence of Arabia, some of which particularly the last one can be pretty languid in the storytelling at times.
BTW/ Dave have you done an “Epic film” list? It is bit of an ambiguous genre, sometimes posing simply as a “bigger” movie, but I usually think of it as a dedicated (though not necessarily entirely accurate) depiction of great historical events. But I do wonder if your personal preference is at the more personal level.
Dave’s list is good, but I would list High Noon as the Gary Cooper movie, and maybe 3:10 to Yuma as the Glenn Ford. Add Jeremiah Johnson.
Steve
I was thinking of putting together a “Swashbucklers” list. Maybe it’s too fine a distinction but I think that swashbucklers, epics, and sword-and-sandal pictures are different genres. Fall of the Roman Empire is an epic. The Longest Day is an epic (also a war movie). Hercules Unchained is sword-and-sandals.
It was nice to see Unforegiven on Dave and so many others lists. It’s themes captivated me as a reflection of people in real life in a way few movies do. Shawshank Redemption would be another that struck a chord.
As for you, Mr … Singing Cowboys?? What next, “westerns” starring John Holmes …….?
What next, “westerns†starring John Holmes …….?
Johnny Wad did Westerns?! Was their anything he couldn’t do?
My dad would say Gene Autry did the greatest singing cowboy movies, in particular ones with Smiley Burnette as his sidekick. But a lot of these movies were set in 1930s California, sort of extending cowboy ethos to modern life. They may not qualify as Westerns.
There was also a movie called “The Unforgiven” with Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, and Audie Murphy. Directed by John Houston. It’s worth seeing. Audie Murphy is an underrated actor, I think. In The Unforgiven he gives a compelling performance as as pure a bigot as you’ll likely ever see on the screen. But he plays a man whose bigotry is finally trumped by love of family. Look it up. Good movie.