The MoFo Top 100 Westerns: Countdown

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I love The Gold Rush but didn't include it on my list as I don't really consider it a Western, although it definitely has a lot of relevant elements.

Day of the Outlaw was on my list, an absolutely fantastic film and as Holden has mentioned, undoubtedly an influence on The Hateful Eight. I'm pretty sure that in the opening pages of the Reservoir Dogs screenplay, Tarantino includes De Toth in a list of directors who he loves and influenced him.

I haven't been commenting much recently but I've seen a few more of the recent inclusions. The Naked Spur was on my list somewhere. I like Cable Hogue and enjoyed Three Amigos enough when I watched it years ago. Still a bit annoyed at some of these films making it ahead of Man of the West though

Edit:

Here's the De Toth inclusion in the Reservoir Dogs screenplay for those who haven't seen it before. What an eclectic list!

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I can't find my list but Judge Roy Bean is the first of mine to show. Can't believe the weirdness is what Cricket doesn't like and it's what I love about it. Really wasn't expecting a full on comedy when I finally pushed play, but I loved that about it. Really good movie.

I am sure I saw Pale Rider at some point with my dad, but have to watch it again to be sure. Like most Eastwood Westerns, I am sure I will think it's fine.
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The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean was #5 on my list.

I loved that movie to death. Of all the Westerns I've seen it was one of the most epic, craziest, and exciting. I'll never forget the shot of him carrying a pile of guns and bullets after killing everyone in the saloon. The scope of the story arc was so epic, the way it began in the wildest state of the west, and continued through to the next generation with is daughter all grown up. There were so many hilarious and legendary moments, like when Bad Bob rode into town. When he blew Bad Bob away and someone said, "He shot him in the back." Then someone else said, "Who cares, as long as he's dead." You just can't help but laugh. A truly epic movie.

It was also one of the Westerns that blew me away the most, because I didn't know a Western like that existed. I never expected to see a Western like that, that I had never heard of, but that I would love so much.



I have heard of neither

Seen: 3/26
- Slow West (#95)
- The Big Gundown (#85)
- The Furies (#84)

My ballot:
None
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I can't find my list but Judge Roy Bean is the first of mine to show. Can't believe the weirdness is what Cricket doesn't like and it's what I love about it. Really wasn't expecting a full on comedy when I finally pushed play, but I loved that about it. Really good movie...
I really liked Judge Roy Bean too. But as far as liking weirdness in westerns...you once told me how great Bone Tomahawk was, I watched that for the last western HoF, ugh!
Gosh I hope that one doesn't make the list.

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean was #5 on my list.

I loved that movie to death. Of all the Westerns I've seen it was one of the most epic, craziest, and exciting...
You said we had very different taste in movies...but not always as I thought Judge Roy Bean was really cool. I wanted to rewatch it but ran out of time. If I had it would've probably made my list. Glad to see it make the countdown



I prefer Pale Rider to Eastwood's Unforgiven. Watch Shane then Pale Rider back to back. Not only is the structure the same, some of the scene shots are the same too.

Pale Rider was on my list but got bumped for another film, probably an Anthony Mann or John Ford film. Still happy to see it make the countdown.



I haven't seen Roy Bean. Pale Rider I rewatched quite recently and it was really close to being on my ballot (and at the moment I'm thinking that maybe it should have been). It wasn't great but on the upper half of OK. And like others have already mentioned, it's quite a direct copy of Shane but I like it more than the "original".

Seen 7(+2)/26

My List  
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I had The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean at #18. Like Cricket and Holden I saw Pale Rider on the big screen (it was the drive-in) when I was 15, and like them I didn't vote for it. But I do like the movie quite a bit, better than Shane actually, not as much as High Plains Drifter where Clint also plays a sort of supernatural gunfighter figure.

My List:

18. The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (#76)
19. The Naked Spur (#86)
24. Support Your Local Sheriff! (#89)
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I liked Pale Rider better when it was High Plains Drifter.



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If I had found the time for a recent rewatch of The Life & TImes of Judge Roy Bean I MAY have made a serious attempt to find a spot for it on my list. It's been a decade, maybe even more since I've seen this, but, as a young'un, I'd see it quite a few times.

What sticks out from the film is him on the stoop, with that massive law book, passing out fines and hangings. His dedication and adoration to Lily Langtree and Grizzly Addams' bear.
I truly need to rewatch this for, not only nostalgia sake, but to see it through these old man eyes.

Pale Rider is one of the very limited watches of the several Clint Eastwood westerns that were always available to watch on night time TV, and then, rentals. It may have been around 2 or 3 times I've seen it.


Movies Watched 12 out of 26 (46.15%)
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I liked The Life & Times of Judge Roy Bean, but not enough for it to make my list. I did consider including it for a while, but it just kept getting pushed down the list as I watched more movies.

I'm not a fan of Clint Eastwood's westerns, but Pale Rider was one of the better ones that I watched. It wasn't good enough to make my list, but at least I didn't hate it.
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So who in the hell voted for The Gold Rush??? Everyone in this thread is disowning it as a western. I sure didn't consider it a western either. Great film though.

I had it on my list, got to be honest with you people not that impressed with what I've seen so far.


12. The Gold Rush




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Nine spots higher than The Ballad of Cable Hogue is Sam Peckinpah’s second appearance on the list with the sweaty and brutal Neo-Western Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. In the opening scenes the leader of a Mexican cartel (Emilio Fernández) discovers his daughter has been impregnated by a former trusted employee. He angrily puts a bounty on the man’s head. Literally his head. “Tráeme la cabeza de Alfredo Garica!” The villa and everything we have seen thus far suggest the 19th Century, but after his proclamation we see this is 1970s Mexico. The word is spread including by two Anglo assassins in suits, played by Gig Young and Robert Webber. While searching for Garcia they happen upon another American, an embittered piano player in a cheap bar named Bennie (Warren Oates). He knows Alfredo and when he finds out the prize is $10,000 he sees his way out of the dusty, drunken hole he has fallen into. His would-be girlfriend (Isela Vega) also knows Garcia, including biblically, and tells Bennie that the lothario died days before in a car accident. For Bennie this makes things even easier: He’ll just dig up the body, lop off the noggin, and cash in like a decapitated ATM. Of course it isn’t that easy.

Along with Straw Dogs this is considered Bloody Sam’s most sadistic and misogynistic flick, though those of us who love it connect with the dark humor and dogged determination of Bennie, surely one of Warren Oates’ greatest roles if not THE greatest. It was quite literally the last thing I cut from my own list and in my twenties this may have been top five material. It garnered four MoFo votes, including a seventh placer.

Directed by Raoul Walsh, whose career began in the Silent era and whose legacy is most closely associated with crime pictures like The Roaring Twenties, High Sierra, and White Heat, he infused a Noirish sensibility into Pursued. It stars Robert Mitchum – the same year he also made the Film Noir classics Crossfire and Out of the Past – as a man haunted by the slaughter of his family that he witnessed as a young boy. As he grows into a man he has also fallen in love with Teresa Wright (and who wouldn’t?), the daughter of the family who took him in. They were raised ostensibly as brother and sister, though clearly that ain’t gonna stop their love. The cast also includes Dame Judith Anderson and Dean Jagger. The psychological nightmares coupled with the melodrama on the high plains makes for quite a memorable and stylized Western that wound up with sixty points here.

Like the previous pairing these two had the same total and the same number of votes (four a piece), but Pursued had two top ten placements, a tenth and a third place. That third place spot is four higher than Alfredo Garcia’s seventh, landing it one slot higher on the countdown.





As I say, I am a huge fan of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia even though it didn’t make my ballot. What did make the cut is Pursued. I had it as my 8-point eighteenth choice, my fifth pick to show thus far. With Noirs and Westerns my two favorite genres I simply couldn’t resist this amalgam. The mystery aspect of the tale, as in who killed the protagonist’s family, isn’t the hardest to unravel. But this isn’t trying to be an Old West Agatha Christie, rather it is a very theatrical depiction of trauma and the hope that love might save you from it and exorcise those demons. For the more casual film fan who may only vaguely be aware of Bob Mitchum as the pitchman for beef (it’s what’s for dinner) or Bill Murray’s boss in Scrooged, the young Mitchum seen here was RKO’s coolest and sexiest male star. While the stoic, tough guy leads in Crossfire and Out of the Past made him a star, the fear, terrors, and rage that plague him in Pursued give a better glimpse of the actor’s range.

This was only Teresa Wright’s eighth feature, but she was already a star and an Oscar winner (for Mrs. Miniver) and had two of her most indelible roles early on in Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt and Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives. Mitchum and Wright would pair again seven years down the line for Track of the Cat, but their psychologically wrought romance here is the one that sticks with me. Screenwriter Niven Busch is also responsible for The Furies (#84) and Duel in the Sun, which were adapted from his novels, and the screenplays for The Westerner and The Postman Always Rings Twice. Pursued isn’t as famous as some of the other Westerns from the late ‘40s and early ‘50s but it is a gem that I am glad was uncovered for the collective list.

HOLDEN PIKE'S LIST
7. The Ballad of Cable Hogue (#83)
13. My Name is Nobody (#79)
16. Hombre (#88)
18. Pursued (#73)
25. Support Your Local Sheriff! (#89)



I rewatched Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia a while ago and thought it was sort of OK. I don't personally consider it a western, but even if I did it wouldn't have made my ballot. I haven't seen Pursued.

Seen 8(+2)/28

My List  



Two great entries!

I'm a fan of Alfredo Garcia but it didn't make my list, it could probably do with a repeat viewing.

Pursued was very high on my list, in my top five. Camo introduced me to it on here for some sort of competition and I was blown away by it. I love Robert Mitchum but what really struck me was the visual imagery; the use of mise-en-scene and shadows to tell the story. To me, this is what cinematic storytelling is. Walsh's direction creates such a haunting atmosphere. I've seen it a few times now as it's sometimes on TV over here and I'm always so impressed by it.

Here's an excellent video about it from Tag Gallagher.




Neither on my list - seen Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia a few times and remember it fondly but didn't rewatch it for this and if I've ever seen Pursued it was far too long ago for me to even remember.

Seen: 15/28
My list:  

Faildictions (yee-haw version 1.01):
72. Ride Lonesome
71. Yellow Sky