Time Out's 50 Greatest Westerns: Now Disc. 1. McCabe & Mrs Miller (1971)

You can also find it on DVD (for those who don't get TCM). The DVD has a nice commentary.

 

The film strikes me as more experimental than anything - Ford using stock players Harry Carey Jr and Ben Johnson as leads. I'm glad eventually must have realized that there's a good reason those two guys aren't leads more often. The film's a real bore.

 

I noticed that, and you're right; they don't have the necessary presence for stardom. Ford was trying to give them a chance, I guess. Carey's father was a big star in silent pictures, and an old friend of Ford's (before they fell out, as Ford was wont to do with nearly everybody, as he had a wicked temper and an odd outlook). When Carey, Sr., died Ford did attend the funeral and promised the widow he'd give Jr. a shot. And he kept the promise in "Three Godfathers", "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" and this film. Jr. wasn't bad; it was just that he didn't grab the audience. He continued in Ford's films, but his roles got smaller and smaller. But he did write a fascinating book about working with the Ford Stock Company--called "A Company of Heroes". Which I can recommend.

Ben Johnson was originally a stunt man, and Ford liked him, but he talked back to him on a subsequent film--major sin in Ford's eyes--and was banished forever. Of course, he would eventually win a Best Supporting Actor in "The Last Picture Show".

I don't know about you, but I kept imagining John Wayne in Ward Bond's role.

 

39 Requiescant (aka Kill and Pray) (1967)

Dir Carlo Lizzani (Lou Castel, Mark Damon, Pier Paolo Pasolini)

Top Marx!

"To compile a list of the most interesting spaghetti westerns would require a list five times this size ? and a panel of experts far better versed in that most obscure and overloaded of subgenres. So we?ll just have to let a few key titles speak for the rest, including this inventive oddity from critic, writer and staunch socialist Carlo Lizzani. A believer in bringing political ideology to the masses by any means necessary, Lizzani constructed his film both as a riveting, gore-splattered exploitation movie and as a treatise on aristocratic inhumanity, biological destiny and religious hypocrisy: iconic Italian filmmaker and political revolutionary Pier Paolo Pasolini even appears as a machine-gun packing priest. Sweaty, sadistic and wildly OTT, ?Requiescant? has to be seen to be believed. TH"

 

38
A Man Called Horse (1970)

Dir Elliot Silverstein (Richard Harris, Judith Anderson, James Gammon)

Why the long face?

"A strange beast, this ?Horse?: part Victorian memoir of ?Life Among the Savages?, part mystical ethnographic head trip. The original short story, by Montana journo Dorothy M Johnson, whose clipped, Hemingway-esque prose also gave us ?The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance?, was published in 1950, but this is a movie that could only have been shot in the late 1960s. Richard Harris is remarkably restrained as bored English aristo John Morgan who seeks a very counter-cultural spiritual awakening in the far west of the 1820. He becomes the property of a tribe of Sioux and works his way up the greasy totem-pole from slave to brave. The clash of derring-do narrative with acid-tinged flourishes makes for a giddy ride that?s uneven but mind-blowingly memorable. This is ever more so than in the central scene in which Morgan becomes a Sioux during the Sun Vow ritual, which takes on a wildly hallucinogenic edge as the Englishman meets his spirit animal in an ecstasy of pain. It?s a moment that wouldn?t look out of place in a Dario Argento slash-fest and typifies the dreamlike melancholy that makes ?Horse? such a pleasure. PF"

 

36. Vera Cruz (1954)

Dir Robert Aldrich (Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster, Denise Darcel)

Aunque el destino cambio mi vida, en Vera Cruz morire?

"Despite informing the look and swagger of ?The Magnificent Seven?, the scope and violence of ?The Wild Bunch? and the arch cynicism of Sergio Leone?s soupy Spaghettios, ?Vera Cruz? is not as well remembered as many of its contemporaries. Perhaps it has to do with the departure from traditional western themes. We take our leave from railroad ramifications and range rivalries for a rip-roaring adventure set amidst the Franco-Mexican War. A world-weary, conflicted Gary Cooper and a grinning Burt Lancaster team up to smuggle millions in Mexican moolah out of the country. Bright, brash, ludicrously enjoyable and ever so cool, ?Vera Cruz? is a daring western too often excluded from the canon in favour of worthy oaters and rote revengers. ALD"

I think it's Gary Cooper, who has managed to ruin more movies than I can count on two fingers: "Love in the Afternoon" (in a role designed for Cary Grant), "The General Died at Dawn", "Beau Geste", "Bright Leaf", "Man of the West" etc. etc. If his role had been recast with James Stewart or Henry Fonda, this was a winner. Lancaster is lots of fun and the plot is interesting.

 

It's got a magnificent first act, that the rest of the film unfortunately doesn't live up to. Still, it's a great bit of early Aldrichian oddness, which I always enjoy.

 

36. Little Big Man (1970)

Dir Arthur Penn (Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, Chief Dan George)

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?

"Was there ever a western more of its era than ?Little Big Man?? Released during the height of the Vietnam War into an America reeling from the hangover of the Civil Rights Movement and a post-Altamont hippie comedown, its reflections on the futility of war, the perversity of racism and dashed liberal ideals couldn?t have been more timely. Dustin Hoffman plays Jack Crabb, a white man taken in by the Cheyenne and raised by Indians ? who memorably refer to themselves as ?human beings? throughout ? and who spends a fractured life criss-crossing the racial divide as a gunslinger, drunkard, mule skinner and Native American warrior. It?s an agreeably daft, picaresque, rambling, gentle, episodic film that somehow blends into an extraordinarily deft portrait of the west, as well as a sly and sophisticated satire on contemporary America. ALD"

It's a silly, anachronistic movie with one chilling, extraordinary scene: the slaughter of the Indian village to the tune of "Garryowen". Otherwise, you have to tolerate Dustin Hoffman's mannerisms, which for me is difficult.

 

The only thing about it that I can really remember is the Mulligan performance.

 

35. Rancho Notorious (1952)

Dir Fritz Lang (Marlene Dietrich, Arthur Kennedy and Mel Ferrer)

I lieb you, I lieb you! Now lieb me alone

"No one was expecting a rootin? tootin? happy-time frolic with Fritz Lang?s name on the credits. Yet, below myriad layers of cynicism and despair is arguably one of the director?s liveliest works. Not markedly different in tone from the sinister noir thrillers he?d been making in Hollywood since the mid thirties, it sees western stalwart Arthur Kennedy dedicating his life to tracking down the man who slotted his missus-to-be and uncovering a secretive den of thieves in the process. Matters stray off the reservation when amorous sparks begin to fly between Kennedy and madame-turned-crime boss Dietrich (who, in one remarkable scene, is literally seen riding drunken men like horses), whose policy at the ranch is that no crook discuss his past sins. More than just a gumshoe movie with added saddle baggage and spurs, Lang deviously pulls the mystery of the killer?s identity out of the frame in the final act to emphasise the subtle allure of corruption and vice. And his decision to radically alter the gender roles dictated by western convention makes this the ideal riding partner for Nicholas Ray?s sublime ?Johnny Guitar?. DJ"

Dietrich is an acquired taste; she has no discernible talent as an actress, singer or dancer, and every appearance by her is sort of a triumph over those facts. Sometimes. In this case, it's iffy. It's an interesting film, without being--IMO--a good one.

 

35. Ride the High Country (1962)

Dir Sam Peckinpah (Randolph Scott, Joel McRea, Ron Starr)

Hey, old timer

"Few genres tackle ageing as convincingly as the western. A masculine genre fixated with self-sufficiency and isolation, the western often forced us to ask what comes at the end of a life lived by the gun ? but when it does, the answers are rarely pleasant ones. Sam Peckinpah?s second film ? and first masterpiece ? is the simplest and most heartfelt of all the ?geriatric westerns?. It?s less obsessed with violence than ?The Wild Bunch?, sweeter and less pessimistic than ?Unforgiven? and emotionally richer than either version of ?True Grit?. Scott and McRea play old-time gunslingers, once feared lawmen now turned to pageantry and mercenary work, whose decision to re-team for one last lucrative job leads to in-fighting, betrayal and the final, irrevocable breaking of their partnership. And just around the edges, we can feel the first tentative flourishes of what would come to be called ?western revisionism?: the town of Coarsegold, populated by spit-hawking, ball-scratching Peckinpah regulars like LQ Jones and Warren Oates, is as convincing a vision of hell as anything in Bloody Sam?s later work, a hint that this world of high adventure on the high sierra wasn?t quite as rollicking as your average 12-year-old audience member might dream it was. TH"

This is one of my favorite movies, and this rank is criminally low. The casting was originally Scott in the McCrea role, but during filming, Peckinpah switched them. You might think he was wrong; McCrea was always a rather lightweight actor. Not this time, though. He's very moving as the aging man who thinks he has missed his best opportunities in life and is condemned to contempt from lesser men. His honour is the only thing he has left; he clings to it like a lover.

It was the last film for both Scott and McCrea, and they knew the quality of it, even if nobody in the audience or at the studio did. They wanted to go out in glory, and they did.

 

The Magnificent Seven (1960)

Dir John Sturges (Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Eli Wallach et al)

Samurai Steve! Bushido Brynner! Katana Coburn! Erm? Wasabi Wallach!!!

"The iconic elements of John Sturges?s adaptation of Akira Kurosawa?s seminal sword-swisher ?Seven Samurai? might be the blistering horns of Elmer Bernstein?s iconic ? and much-abused ? theme tune or the rousing climactic shoot out, but it is, perhaps, the gentler moments that make it such an enduring favourite. The subtle interplay between the well-delineated Yanqui gunslingers who come to the aid of a besieged Mexican village is a joy. At odds behind the scenes, star Yul Brynner and upstart Steve McQueen consistently try to outdo each other, but never to such a degree that they upstage or unbalance either the film or the group dynamics. Eli Wallach writes the book on sweaty banditry, while James Coburn stays cool as a rule as the seven?s laconic knife man. But our favourite is Robert Vaughn?s fancy, petulant riverboat gambler-type who comes across like Stewie Griffin channeling Han Solo. ALD"


A lot of people waste time--myself included--comparing it to the original. Lots of fun.

 

34. The Great Silence (1968)

Dir Sergio Corbucci (Jean-Louis Trintignant, Klaus Kinski, Frank Wolff)

Softly, softly, catchee Kinski

"Growing in stature as the years pass, the bleak majesty of Sergio Corbucci?s dark, complex meditation on the human cost of progress threatens to outstrip the bleached, hallucinatory, hyper-violent ?Django? as his crowning achievement. Set in Utah during the Great Blizzard of 1899, it follows the mute Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a hired gun with a particular interest in the state-sanctioned bounty hunters ? exemplified by Klaus Kinski?s mannered, controlled, entirely deadly Loco ? who are clearing the land of anyone who doesn?t have their finger in the pie. Though overflowing with theological subtext and social indignance, it?s an uncommonly reserved film by spaghetti western (and Kinski) standards, but when that silence is broken, the noise and fury are truly something to behold. ALD"

"Social indignance?" What's that?

Not seen this, but Kinski is always interesting.

 

31. High Plains Drifter (1973)

Dir Clint Eastwood (Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Mitch Ryan)

Hell is other people

"Upon release, many critics read the appearance of a pair of gravestones midway through Clint?s sophomore film which read ?Leone? and ?Siegel? as a fond farewell to his two cinematic fathers, a fact seemingly borne out by his third movie, lighthearted romcom ?Breezy?. But it was only three years before Clint was back in the saddle with ?The Outlaw Josey Wales? and only four before he was taking up Don Siegel?s mantle with ?Dirty Harry? knockoff ?The Gauntlet?, so it seems fairly safe to say his intentions were misread: ?High Plains Drifter? was less a goodbye, and more of a tribute. On which level it succeeds masterfully, fusing the flyblown, sweaty sweep of Leone?s vision with the monstrous cynicism of Siegel to create a world entirely without rules ? even those governing the living and the dead. TH"

 

The manly Eastwood supernatural film. Matt Damon need not apply.

 

30. 7 Women (1966)

Dir John Ford (Anne Bancroft, Sue Lyon, Mildred Dunnock)

It?s a difficult position?

"John Ford?s direly underrated swansong sees him doing for women what he did both for African Americans in ?Sergeant Rutledge? (1960) and for Native Americans in ?Cheyenne Autumn? (1964): requesting forgiveness for helping to fuel unconstructive stereotypes in his earlier classics. Not a western in the strictest sense, its setting and story still play through some of the timeworn conventions of the genre, notably a strenuous search for moral equilibrium when defending against a common foe. The film is set in a Christian mission in deepest, darkest Mongolia and it?s hard-drinking, hard-smoking and hard-swearing Doctor Cartwright (Anne Bancroft) who has to fight the hard humanitarian fight in the face of Margaret Leighton?s head missionary, a woman who?ll take death before besmirching the holy sacraments. Surprisingly, the two warring women never bury the hatchet, even when the fate of the mission hangs on the whims of a hoard of sweaty Mongolian barbarians. As Cartwright eventually gives her life over for the good of her colleagues, she utters the immortal final line, ?So long, you bastard!?, which can also be read as Ford?s defiant parting gesture to his dwindling audience. DJ"

It is *not* a Western, and shouldn't be on this list.

 

It is *not* a Western, and shouldn't be on this list.

You're probably right, but maybe it was set in WESTERN Mongolia.

(sorry, couldn't resist!)

 

mutter, mutter...

29. "The Naked Spur" (1953)

Dir Anthony Mann (James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan)

Love comes in spurs

"Ben Vandergroat (Robert Ryan) is a cocky son of a gun, on the run with fancy woman Lina (Janet Leigh) in tow and wanted for the murder of a marshal in Abilene, Kansas. Bad luck for him that Jimmy Stewart?s inexplicably determined gentleman mercenary, Howard Kemp, is on his tail and has a beady eye on collecting the not-insignificant bounty on his head. Anthony Mann?s mighty 1953 film ? his third in collaboration with Stewart ? offers a ridiculously taught, dynamic and satisfyingly hectic yarn that is less interested in chronicling the capture of the crim than the logistical nightmare of returning the man to civilisation and administering his deathly just desserts. Lina is the key player, and the only person able to reach out emotionally to Kemp, a man subsumed in anger, regret and the sub-conscious recognition that his reasons for taking on this perilous mission may be dubious to say the least. Mann, along with scriptwriters Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom ask, ?Is a buck still a buck if it?s sodden with blood?? DJ"

Ryan, Stewart and Leigh are all excellent.

 

27. Rio Bravo (1959)

Dir Howard Hawks (John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson)

Oh, Dino

"The wordless tableau that opens ?Rio Bravo? is a vicious little parade of cruelty as Dean Martin?s pathetic drunk, Dude, is publicly humiliated and beaten, and an innocent bystander gets a gut shot ? in close-up ? from laughing villain Joe Burdette. Everything you need to know about Howard Hawks?s siege western is contained in the scene. The inspiration for John Carpenter?s ?Assault on Precinct 13? has barely an ounce of fat on it and any gabbing ? let alone exposition ? is reserved solely for women and Mexicans. The plot is a ticking clock: John Wayne and his dipso deputy Martin hold Burdette for the US Marshal while the murderer?s henchmen gather in town like crows on cattle wire. Wayne?s love match with Angie Dickinson?s shady gambler misfires, with even the sparky dialogue from Leigh Brackett, who scripted ?The Big Sleep?, unable to overcome the faintly queasy May to December vibe. But as the fragile, self-pitying, alcoholic Dude, Martin was never better. And in ?My Rifle, My Pony and Me? and ?El Guello?, we?re treated to two of the most atmospheric western theme tunes in cinema. PF"

Martin is very good, and certain scenes have a real kick.

 

I saw this film years ago, but can barely remember anything of it - every time I try to remember Wayne and Martin together I always think of The Sons of Katie Elder.

 

Remember the scene with the flowerpot through window?

 

26. The Ox-bow Incident (1943)

Dir William Wellman (Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Anthony Quinn)

Nice day for a lynchin?

"A brilliant morality play with a literal killer twist, William Wellman?s simple admonishment of ?the angry mob? and sloppy information gathering ? based on the 1940 novella by Walter Van Tilburg Clark ? may be the definitve Iraq War movie. It presents a workaday Wild West situation and runs it through to its depressing natural conclusion. Nevada, 1885: the patrons of a local saloon discover via messenger that some cattle rustlers have killed a local rancher and so take it as their God-given duty to tool up and hit the dusty trail in search of retribution by rope. They find three men who?ve bedded down in the Ox-Bow Canyon: they?ve got steer and no receipt and so a kangaroo court swiftly sentences them to death by hanging. But were the men really guilty? It?s an extremely worrying movie, and its conjectures on the nature of truth and influence still hold plenty of water. DJ"

 

Never before nor since has a hat brim been used more effectively in cinema.

 

Thought you didn't like Wellman?

26. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Dir Sergio Leone (Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale)

Heap big trouble in the land of plenty

"?Looks like we?re shy one horse!? ?No, you brought two too many?? After 15 minutes of dripping water, squeaky windmills and buzzing flies, Sergio Leone has Charles Bronson dispense a line that?s not only one of the coolest ever delivered in the history of the Wild West, but one which reassures us that what he?s got in store will be well worth the wait. Bronson?s existential zinger also hints at the film?s thematic preoccupations. This is an iron-horse opera: the railroad is presented as an implacable force that will eradicate the cowboy way. There?s no rerouting, delaying or impeding Leone?s locomotive. The characters all play out their roles as bystanders to the rush of progress ? killing, bribing, seducing, deceiving each other even while the railhead pushes inexorably on, regardless of the human collateral. Even the tycoon behind the venture doesn?t make the distance. The sweep of modernity through the Wild West has never been so pitiless, nor, in Leone?s vision, more terribly glorious. ALD"

This seems like a very low ranking for this movie...26?

 

I agree it is certainly very low. I would without a doubt rank it top 5 or 10 in the best westerns ever.