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Twestern is one of the most popular genres.
It seems to be making a comeback of sorts in recent years. Just a few years ago, Chloé Zhao set her free an exceptional rodeo film The Riderwhile in 2016 Westerners had to contend with Antoine Fuqua’s remake The Magnificent Seven. John Sturges’ ever-popular original was a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 classic. Seven Samurai.
Below is a reminder of some of the greatest records in the Western canon.
20. Ride Lonesome (Budd Boetticher, 1959)
Boetticher and Randolph Scott’s selection of the ultimate seven-film collaboration follows the lonely, stone-faced Scott’s obsessive quest to avenge his wife’s murder. Filmed entirely on breathtaking locations in the Sierra Nevada, it’s also memorable for the classic western line: “There are some things you just can’t ride around.”
19. Vera Cruz (Robert Aldrich, 1954)
Plenty of double and triple crosses as mercenaries Burt Lancaster and Gary Cooper team up in revolutionary Mexico to steal a stash of gold. Pretty much dismissed upon publication, Vera Cruz it can now be seen as an exciting forerunner to the Spaghetti Westerns of the sixties.
18. Winchester ’73 (Anthony Mann, 1950)
James Stewart proves he can ride, shoot ’em and trade blows with the best Western icons in his episodic quest to recover his stolen iconic rifle. Great movie villain Dan Duryea almost steals the movie as the sneering, sadistic Waco Johnnie Dean.
17. One-Eyed Jacks (Marlon Brando, 1961)
Brando fell out with original director Stanley Kubrick, leaving the star to helm the only film he directed, The Legend of Billy the Kid. One-eyed Jacks made famous by Brando’s excesses with an original runtime of over four hours, but is now considered a fascinating, brooding masterpiece, and thanks to its stunning locations in Monterey and Big Sur, one of the most aesthetically beautiful westerns ever made. The restored version was shown at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
16. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)
John Wayne’s sheriff faces an army of bad guys with only a drunk, a young gunman and a crippled old man. The interplay between Wayne, Dean Martin and Walter Brennan is a delight, and Dino can even sing. Great fun all round.
15. My dear Clementine (John Ford, 1946)
A very romantic take on Wyatt Earp and the events of the OK Koral with Henry Fonda as Earp. Lyrical, poetic and with many iconic scenes that will live long in the memory, such as Fonda lounging on the porch overlooking the city, and his stiff-legged dance with his “fair lady” at the dedication of Tombstone’s new church.
14. The Ox-Bow Incident (William A Wellman, 1943)
Henry Fonda’s hero is powerless to intervene as three innocent men are lynched by a mob for a crime that never happened. Social commentary in a Western setting, which gained additional poignancy and resonance with the knowledge that Fonda witnessed a lynching as a young man.
13. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill, 1969)
An Academy Award-winning buddy movie featuring the wonderful chemistry between Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Throw in William Goldman’s sparkling dialogue and Burt Bacharach’s famous soundtrack, and we have an irresistible slice of late-sixties cool, tempered with newfound revisionism.
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12. The Gunfighter (Henry King, 1950)
With a theme that resembles a Greek tragedy that has evolved into one of the great Western clichés, aging gunslinger Gregory Peck tries to put his bloody past behind him only to discover that there’s always another little squirt kid to outdo.
11. Ride the High Country (Sam Peckinpah, 1962)
An elegiac lament for the death of the old West and the perfect tribute to two genre stalwarts, Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott, as a pair of veteran lawmen who have outlived their usefulness.
10. Magnificent seven (John Sturges, 1960)
Great story, great cast, unforgettable music and a series of unforgettable vignettes including Yul Bryner and Steve McQueen’s opening hearse scene and James Coburn’s knife and gun duel. What more could you ask for in a western?
9. Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)
An epic western from a great filmmaker who gave John Wayne the role he excelled in as a stubborn, driven rancher determined to see the cattle drive to the bitter end, even if it means killing the foster son (Montgomery Clift) who takes the herd away from him .
8. High noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952)
Known as an allegory of the McCarthy witch hunts in Hollywood, High noon it’s primarily to be enjoyed as a cracking Western set more or less in real time, with angsty lawman Gary Cooper abandoned from his town as he takes on the bad guys alone.
7. Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939)
The iconic Western that defined the genre and made John Wayne a star. Part character study mixed with thrilling action sequences thanks to famed stuntman Yakima Canutt, with stunning use of Monument Valley on the Arizona-Utah border, the most recognizable location in Western movies.
6. Once upon a time in the west (Sergio Leone, 1968)
Once audiences got over the shock of Henry Fonda as a cold-blooded killer, they witnessed a Western full of stunning imagery, and one that has never been equaled in scale, scope and ambition. Leone covered almost the entire history of Westerns in this gripping epic about the coming of the railroad and the modernization of the West. Enni Morricone’s wonderfully evocative score has rarely been bettered.
5. Shane (George Stevens, 1953)
Jack Schaefer’s beloved adaptation of the wonderful novel, with Alan Ladd perfect as a gunslinger who tries to hang up the six-pack but discovers that he “doesn’t live to kill.” Memorable for many reasons, from the Oscar-winning cinematography and Jack Palance’s exuberant bad guy to the still-echoing lump-in-the-throat ending as little Joey pleads “Come back, Shane!”
4. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992)
A ruthless killer-turned-pig farmer reluctantly takes on the last job and the slaughter ensues. Eastwood deconstructs the myths and legends of Westerns and the result is a revisionist masterpiece that deservedly won the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director.
3. The good, the bad and the ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)
The most famous spaghetti western is an elegant, dazzling, visual treat, with Ennio Morricone’s famous soundtrack at its core. Innovative and extremely influential, with several memorable set pieces, including an authentic and moving Civil War sequence.
2. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)
Upon release, Peckinpah’s visceral masterpiece was infamous for its level of violence, and even now the amount of gore in the show still shocks. But look beyond the balletic beauty of the slow-motion carnage and it’s clear that Peckinpah is staying true to his recurring themes of the death of the Old West and people out of step with the times facing their imminent doom.
1. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
The saga of a racist outsider’s search for his kidnapped niece continues to amaze with its dark power, beauty and all-encompassing majesty. Complex, layered and troubling, with Wayne’s monumental performance as a fanatical anti-hero, the film brings back repeat viewings.