Thursday, June 14, 2018

The Ten Greatest Westerns*

By Nicholas Stix
 

10. True Grit (1969)

9. Destry Rides Again (1939)

8. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

7. My Darling Clementine (1946)

6. Ride the High Country (1962)

5. High Noon (1952)

4. Unforgiven (1992)

3. The Wild Bunch (1969)

2. The Searchers (1956)

1. Shane (1953)
 

*The first six are on my list of the 100 Greatest Pictures, with Shane at #6, after The Best Years of Our Lives (1946); Citizen Kane (1941); The Godfather (1972); The Godfather, Part II (1974); and It’s a Wonderful Life (1946).

However, a modern Western, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), is presently 27th on my list of the greatest pictures, barely ahead of The Searchers (#30) and The Wild Bunch (#31); and well ahead of Unforgiven (#54); High Noon (#64); and Ride the High Country (#83), even though they are all superior to it as Westerns. That is because Treasure is not great, as Westerns go, but is one of the greatest all-around pictures ever made.


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

No "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"?
(A variation of the western,comedy and romance the majority of the movie,but still enjoyable).
--GRA

Doctor Haight said...

How about "Stagecoach"? One of my favorites.

Andrea Daley Utronebel said...

Boyd Cathey wrote an article on best westerns too:

http://www.unz.com/author/boyd-d-cathey/

Mike Royko's take on Westerns:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1997-03-19/news/9703190027_1_westerns-pale-rider-cowboy-boots

Royko's review of True Grit:

http://www.hoboes.com/Mimsy/Books/mike-roykos-opinions/best-mike-royko-one-more-time/

Westerns I like:

Wild Bunch, Ride the High Country, Major Dundee, Ballad of Cable Hogue, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, For a Few Dollars More, Good Bad Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, Duck You Sucker, Johnny Guitar, Shane, High Noon, The Searchers, Red River, Big Country, Vera Cruz, The Long Riders, Wild Bill, Big Trail, Cimarron, Day of the Outlaw, Ride Lonesome,

Bradley Morris said...

How do you not have The Good The Bad And The Ugly or High Plains Drifter there?

Anonymous said...

Except for the Mexican bad guys I am not sure you would classify "Treasure" as a western.

Anonymous said...

jerry pdx
Yet another negro rapist, this time it's an ex NFL player and he appears he may be a serial rapist to boot. Kellen Winslow, former Cleveland Brown TE, was arrested in the San Diego community of Encinatas for burglary and police have announced they arrested him on two counts of kidnapping with the intent to commit rape, two counts of forcible rape, one count of forcible sodomy, one count of forcible oral copulation, two counts of residential burglary and one count of indecent exposure. https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/06/14/reports-former-nfl-te-kellen-winslow-jr-facing-rape-kidnapping-charges-involving-multiple-victims/23459484/

When the story first came out, his publicist claimed he was just house hunting for his mother in law. https://theblackdetour.com/kellen-winslow-jr-arrested-after-over-reactive-neighbor-calls-police/

Of course there are the knee jerks who immediately jump on the falsely accused black man story. A black "reporter" for Newsone, Nigel Roberts, immediately put out an article with the title: "Add house hunting to the list of things black folks can't do without raising suspicion". Wonder what Mr. Roberts would say to the rape charges. Hey Nigel, is hunting for (white?) women to rape something else black men aren't allowed to do without raising suspicion? https://newsone.com/3808484/nfl-player-kellen-winslow-arrested-house-hunting-while-black/


Here's more damage control PR put out by Winslow's "publicist", which actually supports my theory he was looking for (white?) women to rape, saying he has no need to burglarize and that a neighbor "overreacted" to Winslow being in his home. Overreacted? You can sense the set up for the "profiling of the black man" campaign. http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/sd-me-winslow-follow-20180609-story.html

Oh yeah, as for the "house hunting" for mother in law excuse: A trailer park home for mom? He must not love her very much, but check out his wife below, that's high maintenance so the idea he was buying her a trailer park home is kind of ridiculous. Maybe that crack reporter Nigel Roberts should have figured that out.

Here's a picture of Winslow with his wife, Janelle: http://theballerlife.com/2009/06/18/nfl-kellen-winslow-jrs-wife-janelle/
Very beautiful lady, looks white though a bit ambiguous, wonder if she sticks by her man.

The rape story has gotten features on Foxnews and AOL but I can't find it on any of the other biggies, it has appeared on various local outlets and plenty of new aggregator sites though. Story has been out for about a week so why only two national outlets have picked it up must have to do with the race crime reporting quota system, guarantee if it was a white ex NFL player every national outlet would have it on heavy rotation 24/7 the moment it hit the news wires. If you google Kellen Winslow jr. and "black man" a large number of articles featuring the "falsely accused black man" appear, including a feature by CBS, in fact there seem to be more of those articles than about the rape charges. So far anyways, much of the media already committed to the falsely accused black man story so now they're trying to figure out damage control, hopefully the story will pick up enough steam they won't be able to ignore it.

phillyguy said...

You should reconsider replacing She Wore a Yellow Ribbon with Fort Apache which was the best John Ford Calvary Trilogy movie should reconsider replacing she wore a yellow ribbon with for Apache which was the best job Ford Calvary trilogy movie. Also The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance should be included.