The MoFo Top 100 Westerns: Countdown

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Slow West (2015)

This easily would have made my top 10 if I'd heard of it in time. The patient pace, subtle and sometimes artful arrangement of detail, distinct and interesting characters, and purposeful violence were near perfection. Though the romance was somber, it promoted everything good and beautiful in life. The dialogue at times was poetic. I liked how the character, Jay, described the girl he loved, Rose, as "never wasting words", and "speaking with wisdom following wit."

I'm going to watch it, in fact I have the movie, I just need to find the time. I see Loner also watched it and gave it a
so it will be interesting to see where I place it at. I'll post about it when I do watch it.



I think I will plonk my list here once the countdown reaches #1.
Probably better to plonk it in a post toward the end of the thread like others do, nobody's gonna scroll back to here to find it




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First of all, PLEASE STOP YELLING AT ME. The last three titles - Oklahoma!, Duck, You Sucker!, and Support Your Local Sheriff! - all end in exclamation points. Calm the Fu*k down. I see you. Don’t be so desperate.

Jeebus.

Director Sergio Leone enters the countdown at #90 with Duck, You Sucker, which was at various times also marketed as A Fistful of Dynamite and Once Upon a Time…The Revolution to link them with his first four international hits. It is not a sequel to any of the others. Duck, You Sucker did not enjoy the same kind of reviews or attention as his previous entries, though its reputation has grown over the decades, including placing here. Leone would only complete one other film in his career, the epic Once Upon a Time in America which was released thirteen years later. DYS is more specifically part of a subgenre, the Zapata Western, which take place during the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Rod Steiger stars as Juan Miranda, a smalltime bandit who against his will becomes a “great, grand, glorious hero of the revolution” thanks to the prodding and trickery of James Coburn’s John Mallory, an Irish ex-pat and explosives expert hiding out in Mexico after some of the troubles back home. It features all of Leone’s trademark flourishes and excitement including another fantastic score by Ennio Morricone, with plenty of fun interplay between Steiger and Coburn.



While Duck, You Sucker! has some good, honest laughs among the explosions and bullets, Support Your Local Sheriff! is an all out comedy, a spoof of the genre starring Jim Garner as a capable but reluctant hero, a variation of his iconic turn as Bret ”Maverick” (1957-1962) on television. His good looks and effortless, exasperated charm aid him well as he contends with the looneys and heavies thrown in his path. Most especially highlighted in his interactions with Jack Elam’s town drunk turned deputy Jake, Bruce Dern’s local bully Joe Danby, and Walter Brennan as his vengeful Pa Danby. Not as crude nor impactful as Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles that would be released five years later, but darn nearly as many laughs. It’s like a Bugs Bunny cartoon come to life.

Dark Valley, Duck, You Sucker!, Oklahoma!, and Support Your Local Sheriff! all finished with 41 points each. Dark Valley and Oklahoma! were on three ballots a piece while Duck, You Sucker! and Support Your Local Sheriff! were on five ballots. By virtue of the tie breaks that moved them ahead in the countdown. Duck’s highest of its five votes was a thirteenth placer while somebody had Local Sheriff as their sixth overall pick, making it the king of the 41s.






Support Your Local Sheriff! is the first of the films from my own ballot to make the countdown. I only had it as my twenty-fifth pick, but ultimately my one little point boosted it four spots higher on the countdown than if I hadn’t named it at all. Every point counts, MoFos.

I don't know how old I was when I first saw SYLS but probably around seven or eight. On television, back in the pre-cable/pre-VCR days when you had to wait for one of your five or six local stations to run an old movie if you wanted to see one. I thought it was funny then, and having just rewatched it a few days ago prepping the countdown I still think it is funny now! I like "Maverick" but I adore "The Rockford Files" and have seen every single episode many multiple times, so Jim Garner's comic rhythms and persona were imprinted in me early on. He remains one of my all-time favorites and this movie is a perfect example of his cool and wit. Bruce Dern is best known for playing various psychopaths and damaged people over his long career (which he is great at, clearly) but he is just as good at this brand of comedy and every time I think about this movie it makes me wish he'd done a lot more of 'em. Good ol' Walter Brennan, who had been playing old coots since he was a young man, at seventy-five could not be funnier as the annoyed patriarch of the bad guys. On the strength of this flick Elam got a whole second career in the '70s and '80s as a comedian after decades of playing heartless villains in Westerns and Noirs.

There is a quasi-sequel, Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971), that reunites director Burt Kennedy, Garner, Elam, and Harry Morgan as similar but different characters in another spoof of the genre with Chuck Connors, Dub Taylor, Joan Blondell, and Suzanne Pleshette along for the fun this time, but it isn't as sharp nor as hysterical the second time around. Not a total dud, just not the consistent laugh machine that is Support Your Local Sheriff!.


Duck, You Sucker! I do like an awful lot, but it did not make my cut of twenty-five.


HOLDEN PIKE'S LIST
25. Support Your Local Sheriff! (#89)



Revisited both A Fistful Of Dynamite (aka Duck, You Sucker!) and Support Your Local Sheriff! for the purposes of this countdown but even though both are reasonably fun and do have their moments of hilarity I voted for neither. Of the two I'd personally give the edge to the latter.

Seen: 8/12
My list:  

Faildictions (yee-haw version 1.01):
88. The Great Train Robbery (1903)
87. Broken Arrow



Gonna watch The Dark Valley so I can see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps.
What happens is you become pals.

If we ever do a Music/Musical Top 100 Countdown...Oklahoma! might very well be my #1 movie.
Now there's a countdown I'm really going to struggle with. Even 10 might be a push and I did better than that with this one.

Not seen either of these, but Support Your Local Sheriff! is one of my friends favourite films and she's been telling me to watch it for most of our 27 years friendship. I still haven't, obviously. I even bought her a copy on DVD when it came out in that format here.

Duck, You Sucker! is a film I'm sure I'd have seen if it had've been a blaxploitation movie rather than a Western.
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I've watched Duck, You Sucker! quite recently and found it rather mediocre. It's my least favorite Leone (I haven't seen the historical films he made before his westerns though). Never heard of the other one.

Seen 2(+2)/12

My List  





First of all, PLEASE STOP YELLING AT ME. The last three titles - Oklahoma!, Duck, You Sucker!, and Support Your Local Sheriff! - all end in exclamation points. Calm the Fu*k down. I see you. Don’t be so desperate.
Wasn't me of course, but it is kind of funny. Too bad SilentVamp isn't around these days, she would've got a kick out of your hosting predicament



I haven't seen either of those, but I had them on my list to watch. In fact I have both ready to be watched when I find the time. I seriously doubt either would've made my list, thought they might be fun watches.



Seen neither but had tried to get to Duck, you Sucker! I do love Leone.

Seen: 1/12
- Slow West (#95)

My ballot:
None
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Probably better to plonk it in a post toward the end of the thread like others do, nobody's gonna scroll back to here to find it
Here I mean this thread in general!
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My Favorite Films



Heyyyyy... Just noticed this .. wasn't the cut off 50 points?