I was watching For A Few Dollars More last night on Fox Classics and remembering what a great film it is; and so, in honour of that, here's a little list of my eight favourite Westerns. Why eight and not ten? Take your pick: laziness or a tribute to Paul the Psychic Octopus?8. High Noon. Carl Foreman's screenplay, Grace Kelly's close ups, the badge in the dirt, the action playing out in real time. If you don't like this film, I'm sorry, I just don't know who you are anymore.
7. The Searchers. Just about the only John Wayne film I can enjoy these days. Funny, dark, broody and beautiful. John Ford at the top of his game.
6. Paris, Texas. A guy is wandering in the desert. He has amnesia. The good news is that he was married to Nastassia Kinski. The bad news is that he tied her to a fridge and she set their trailer home on fire. His mission is to ride into town, bring mother and son together, ride out of town. BTW, there is no safety zone, apparently.
5. Unforgiven. Clint's mission is to ride into town, kill a couple of dudes, and, er, ride out of town. It all goes to hell and then it rains. David Peoples wrote the script, Richard Harris stole the show. Gene Hackman was pretty good too.
4. Blazing Saddles. Richard Pryor was the unsung hero here and with him this might have been the greatest movie of all time. Still there's the beans, the Nazis, the governor, Maddy Khan. What a flick. 1974 was some kind of Wunderjahr for Mel Brooks and then, alas, zilch.
3. For a Few Dollars More. Best of the spaghetti three. They laugh, they cry, they shoot each other's hats. . .Then the wonderful Gian Maria Volontè breaks out of jail, robs the bank at El Paso and after that it's all: laaah, laaah, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, dada, dah, dah, laaah, laaah, la, la, la, la, la, la, laaah etc.
2. The Wild Bunch. Sam Peckinpah says that this is what happens when men go down to Mexico. When I went down to Mexico I did some nice snorkeling and drank margheritas but when MEN go down there, they machine gun entire armies of baddies. In slow motion. Brilliant.
1. Blood Meridian. They havent actually made this film yet but the movie of it in my head is awesome.
60 comments:
Despite knowing of these films, I have seen just two of 'em -- Blazing Saddles and Fistful of Dollars -- and those when I was a wee nipper. They all sound pretty cool.
Sorry, I meant 'For a Few Dollars More'. I've sen all three (there are three, right?) spaghetti westerns with Messrs. Eastwood and Van Cleef but can't remember them individually if you know worra mean.
What? No Lone Ranger and Tonto?
Shane
The Magnificent Seven
Mike
If you want a real treat check em out.
Glenna
I cant really recall a Lone Ranger movie. I do remember the punch line to that joke "what do you mean, we, white man?"
Ala
Agreed. Fav bit in 7, the knife v gun fight.
Shane's a good novel too.
CNN's list of the best TV shows of the year:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/TV/07/06/best.tv.2010.ew/index.html?hpt=Sbin&fbid=AEoybCqZdwj
9 shows I havent seen, but #1 is Breaking Bad, of course.
Two odd comments, luckily the things tend to roam here a bit in the best way conversations should.
1) Have you ever read The Searchers by Alan Lemay? Dorchester released it in mass market paperwork like two years ago I think. Really good, different from the movie of course but still good. You can see on the page why Ethan was such a great character that was waiting to be filmed.
2) There was a band a few years back here, 90's maybe, on the East Coast (DC or Philly, can't remember which) called Go To Blazes. A harder edged alt-country/no depression styled band. Good stuff. They had a great song called Bloody Sam that was all about Peckinpah. I still have a copy of the CD I can send you a file of it or something if you're interested.
Ooh. I just looked and they have a myspace page with the song on it. Check it out.
http://www.myspace.com/gotoblazes
How about the old Lenny Bruce bit Thank You Mask Man
Yeah, Peckinpah, Pat Garret and Billy the Kid is a great movie.
I haven're read many western novels or shorts stories, but Elmore Leonard's collection of western short stories has some really good ones - some he wrote in the fifties that were turned into movies like, The Tall T (the story has a different title which I can't remember, but it's realy good) and some he wrote more recently like HUrrah for Captain Early that are aso really good.
And, it's a sweeping generalization to say that westerns, especally John Ford's, were mostly about the end of the frontier, but it's true that a lot of them are about the clash between that open frontier and the "civilised" world which is usually represented by the women showing up. So, it's interesting (to me, anyway) that Unforgiven is pretty much turning everything in John Ford's movies on its head - the women hire the killer and represent "frontier justice" not civilization and so on.
Paris, Texas was good. But then, Duvall is always reliable. I liked that movie he wrote, acted and directed too, The Apostle. Not a Western, though.
Maybe not yet, (except for T.V movies it looks like), but possibly soon.. Future Lone Ranger Movie
I have to say that a post-millennial Lone Ranger movie could be really, really interesting. It would be nice if Sherman Alexie would collaborate on the screenplay.
He says FNL is the greatest sports drama series on TV ever? Was there any other sports drama? The White Shadow?
Pretty good list, Adrian. Mine's a little more traditional maybe.
Red River
The Gunfighter
Unforgiven
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
High Noon
Bad Day at Black Rock
The Searchers
My Darling Clementine
Lonesome Dove
Fort Apache
Not too crazy about Johnny Depp maybe playing Tonto in the remake.
Cat Ballou.
Brian
I havent read the novel, but he's a great character in the movie version all dangerous, ironic, and dark.
Nice song. Do you know Tom Russell's work? I think Tonight We Ride might be my fav Western song.
Although all of Blood on the Tracks might qualify too.
John
Yeah I liked Pat Garrett too. Very much. So many lovely almost romantic scenes of violence. Remember the bit with the raft on the river? Nice stuff Sam.
Seana
You're thinking of someone else. Duvall did do the Apostle but he wasnt in Paris, Texas. At least, not the movie.
Glenna
Ah, I hadnt heard of that. Sounds a bit camp. But then TLR was always a bit camp I suppose.
Matt
Johnny Depp.
Ok that reminds me. I completely forgot about Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man. Brilliant. Almost as good as Ghost Dog.
Seana
ANYTHING with Lee Marvin.
Seana
ANYTHING with Lee Marvin.
You're right. I'm thinking of Tender Mercies--I think. I suck at movie titles. I looked it up, but I don't know if I saw Paris, Texas or not.
But now I'm reminded of a movie that's some kind of an indie road trip movie and all I remember is that somewhere towards the end, Dennis Hopper appears in some little desert place. It's not really a Western, but it does end up in the West. Anybody know it? That's all I can remember about it. It's like the fragment of a dream.
Just saw your comment, Matt. Yes, Dead Man was fantastic.
Seana
I watch Dead Man and Ghost Dog and Mystery Train and I love Jim Jarmusch. But then I watch Broken Flowers...
John
I saw Elmore Leonard's Hombre with Paul Newman and it had some interesting ideas in it. Newman was strangely lacking in charisma though.
John,
Nice point about Unforgiven, it's the ladies that hire Clint and co. But also remember that it was Clint's wife that "cleared him of drinking," and it's only after she's been gone for a few years that he can take up his gun again.
I actually kind of liked Broken Flowers at the time, I think, but I don't remember all that much about it. It's not in the same league with Dead Man, though.
Has anyone here seen Deadwood? My friends love it, but I've watched a couple of episodes and so far it's leaving me a bit cold.
Spain scores!
NEVER bet against the octopus!!!
Yeah, a lot of people love Deadwood but I found it relentlessly depressing and three or four episodes was enough for me.
Of course, that may be because in Canada "sad=deep" has pretty much been our motto forever so we haven't been as exposed to the relentless cheerfulness the way you Americans have.
And Adrian, will soccer ever get another official or two on the field so that when things happen like, oh let's say a ball goes off one of the guys on the wall defending the free kick it doesn't become a goal kick?
Sorry, couldn't resist.
John
Or when a Dutch guy gets sent off for a no contact foul and a Spanish guy scores from an off side position.
Seana
I would have liked Broken Flowers better if they had mentioned that he was a Don Juan personality just one more time in the opening fifteen minutes. I still needed that information underlined after the first seven or eight references.
And maybe the girl called Lolita could have been a real Lolita. That would have been hilarious.
Did he find out who his daughter was? I walked out into the crisp liberating evening air after the tenth white trash stereotype.
The New York Times's headline:
Spain Take Soccer's Big Prize
The Guardian's headline:
Spain Reign As Dutch Dream Ends In Pain
Ha, the Guardian headline is great.
I can understand not wanting video replay but it seems a bit much for three guys to watch 22 and make reasonable calls. Still, it was a good game.
Speaking of sports and westerns, a friend of mine pitched a screenplay about the origins of baseball in Civil War POW camps but it didn't go anywhere.
And yeah, Brian, Eastwood's character was "civilized" when his wife was alive, but he may not have been happy about it.
My wife (who wrote term papers about John Ford when she was in university) hated Unforgiven but I don't mind it.
Elmore Leonard's Valdez is coming is a good, tight book but I've never seen the movie.
Well, My Fair Lady was set in London, so of course the Guardian...
No,that's not going to be good enough, is it?
Are you trying to tell me Bill Murray played a Don Juan type? I thought he was just playing Bill Murray. In any case, I apparently walked out into the crisp, liberating air and erased all memory of it. Except I do remember a scene about a woman who could communicate with dogs telepathically. Only it will probably turn out to have been in some Robert Duvall movie.
John, I'm glad you felt the same way about Deadwood, although since they lent me the DVDs, I suppose I'd better see it out. I somehow think it was probably a lot like that, but not quite like that. And therein lies the difference.
I feel a little sad about Spain's win. It means that Paul is now definitely out of my league.
Great list, Adrian. Unforgiven is my No 1 western.
Movies already mentioned I'd also put in are Magnificent Seven, Cat Ballou, Hombre.
Also There was a Crooked Man, The Scalphunters, and Jeremiah Johnson.
The Blood Meridian in my head is pretty good, but for some reason I keep mumbling the word 'twaddle'.
I remember seeing Fort Apache dubbed into Welsh in the early days of S4C (the Welsh language channel).
To see Cochise greeting a fellow Comanche with "How! Shwmae heddu?" is still a catchphrase with my family.
John
I remember reading Mansfield Park and at one point they all go off to play baseball. That scene never makes the movies.
Seana
Oh I do like Bill Murray in nearly everything. But he was let down by the material this time.
Gerard
Yeah I remember Jeremiah Johnson. I quite liked that. Reminded me a bit of McCabe and Mrs Miller.
The movie in my head of Blood Meridian cuts the "lets make gunpowder out of urine, saltpetre and sulphur" scene because Mythbusters proved it was impossible in their show on the Star Trek episode "Arena". But I do keep in the really really weird last page.
Rob
You cant go wrong with Westerns dubbed in Welsh. Except maybe Carry On Cowboy.
This is a useful Welsh phrase I found:
Mae'n bwrw glaw. Again.
Nice list. I loved the Spag Westerns. Seen all Clint ones numerous times over the years. I would add The Shootist and the Good,Bad & Ugly to my list as well as the others mentioned.
Blazing Saddles with Richard Pryor? Hmmm. I remember Cleavon Little as the black sheriff, and Gene Wilder as the deputy. Great movie, but I don't remember Richard Pryor being in it. BTW: Love your books and I think Micheal Forsythe may be one of my favorite fictional characters ever.
Opps. I guess you stated if Pryor was in it... My bad. Still love your books though.
While lazing on a sun-drenched Fijian beach recently (had to throw that in), I read Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me which I hear has been filmed with Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, Ned Beatty and various others. If they've done it properly - if - it could be very good and while not strictly a Western, it falls into that quasi-Western category occupied by films such as Lone Star. Oh, and another very good Western, even though it's Australian, was The Proposition.
Adrian:
Good list. I would add:
9. El Topo
10. A Big Hand for the Little Lady
11. The Propostion
12. Once Upon A Time In The West
And I would like to see that Lone Ranger movie Seanna is pitching, but only if scripted by Sarah Silverman with score by Liz Phair
and starring Angelina Jolie as the masked man and M.I.A. as Tonto.
PKL
Sean
Yes I thought hard about that but for all its epic qualities I still prefer For A Few Dollars More over The Good The Bad and the Ugly. Good films both but Dollars just had that certain something.
Anon
Yes Pryor co wrote the script and was all set to be in it until quite late in the production when he pulled out.
David
Fiji. Nice.
However I'm shocked that you dont hang on my every word. Here's my take on the TKIM film:
http://adrianmckinty.blogspot.com/2010/06/killer-inside-me.html
Patrick
Its beginning to sound like Myra Breckenridge or something. Playing TLR for laughs? It might work, but for every Brady Bunch Movie there's a Starsky and Hutch movie.
How about just playing it straight but telling it totally from Tonto's POV? Too bad Lee Marvin isn't around to play the masked man. Nick Nolte, maybe?
Yep, posted on a Thursday, the one day I can guarantee a conga-line of tossers will be giving me grief.
Disappointing about TKIM. For some reason I hadn't read it and after finishing the book, I thought that it would make a good film. But then sometimes it's best not to see films of books you've enjoyed. Catch-22 for instance.
I'd forgotten The Proposition. Man alive, that was a depressing film but utterly beautiful to watch
Adrian, if you haven't already seen them, try and track down the two Westerns Monte Hellman made with Jack Nicholson in the sixties: 'Ride In The Whirlwind' and 'The Shooting'; their detractors, particularly for the former, tend to dismiss them as pretentious, or self-indulgent, and they may even have a point, of sorts, but I love both.
they're both on a great French DVD box-set, with 'Cockfighter', which stars the very wonderful Warren Oates, and a couple of interesting Hellman documentaries.
Like you I rate 'For A Few Dollars More' as the best of the trilogy; indeed Leone's best western.
And a propos your topic on the Herzog's wonderful 'Bad Lieutenant', two of my very favourites of his are 'Even Dwarfs Started Small',- as anti-PC as you can get but a good time was had by all, I'll wager; and 'Little Dieter Learns To Fly'
Celtic
I havent seen those Nicholson ones but I'll check them out.
Love Herzog. Little Dieter I watched when it was free on Google video. What a great story. I also like the one about the lady who was the sole survivor of the Peruvian air crash.
Adrian
You might also know that 'Rescue Dawn', starring Christian Bale as Dieter is a fictional film version of the Dieter story: I'm not usually a fan of Bale but I thought he was quite good, and fortunately not as 'intense', as he usually is.
But I much prefer the original.
I didn't much care for 'Paris, Texas' when I saw it back in '84,on its original cinema release, but I might give it another look, now that I've come to love Wenders' 'Road' trilogy.
Since somebody mentioned 'Hombre', I'll just mention two words: 'Richard' and 'Boone'
'Nuff said?
I like the list. I love your #1.
Celtic
Indeed.
Mike
the best bit of my head version is the attack on the wedding party. OMG as the kids say.
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