The MoFo Top 100 Westerns: Countdown

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@John-Connor, I tried viewing your Western watch-list, but you have it set as "private".
It's set to public (big green box that says 'public') but I guess the beta version isn't ready to be shared like this yet. Better wait with sharing until yoda finalizes it.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
It's set to public (big green box that says 'public') but I guess the beta version isn't ready to be shared like this yet. Better wait with sharing until yoda finalizes it.

@John-Connor, Thanks for the info. Since you said your list was "public", I tried seeing your list through the Lists link on your Profile page, and I was able to see your list. I think we found a bug in the Custom Lists. I posted about it to @Yoda in the Custom Lists thread.
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The Magnificent Seven is one of my favorite movies ever, Western or not. The entire cast is, um, magnificent, especially Brynner, McQueen, and Buchholz. But the rest are great also. The action is super and the score by Elmer Bernstein is one of my favorites of all-time. A friend of mine and I used to quote the dialogue every time we met. Stuff like:
Vin: We deal in lead, friend.
Calvera: Then we're in the same business.
Vin: Only as competitors.

Villager: Very young and very proud.
Chris: Well, the graveyards are full of boys who were very young and very proud.

Vin: You elected?
Chris: Na. I got nominated real good.
It just goes on and on. It all works. There's not a time it comes on that I don't stop and watch it, no matter where in the movie it is. A classic in my book, it made #5 on my list.

Stagecoach is a great movie and a bona fide classic. I came close to including it but chopped it out at the last minute. I knew it would be on the list and hoped it would end up around this position or better.

My list so far:
Hombre Me: 13 The list proper: 88
The Naked Spur Me: 25 The list proper: 86
Ride the High Country Me: 10 The list proper: 63
Winchester '73 Me: 20 The list proper: 53
El Dorado Me: 2 The list proper: 47
The Professionals Me: 23 The list proper: 45
Shane Me: 12 The list proper: 43
True Grit Me: 4 The list proper: 38
Open Range Me: 19 The list proper: 36
Tombstone Me: 15 The list proper: 28
The Big Country Me: 9 The list proper: 27
The Magnificent Seven Me. 5 The list proper: 24
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Like 3:10 to Yuma, Joel & Ethan Coen’s take on Charles Portis’ novel outpaces the original film adaptation that won Duke Wayne his Oscar. The second True Grit stars Jeff Bridges as the one-eyed, cantankerous Deputy U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn, hired by the young and fiercely determined Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) to chase and apprehend the criminal Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) who murdered her father and has disappeared into Indian Territory with a gang led by Lucky Ned Pepper (Barry Pepper, no relation). Matt Damon rounds out the main cast as Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, tracking Chaney for a different crime and a reluctant team with Cogburn. The classic tale is retold well and embellished by Coen trademarks like dark, quirky humor and gorgeous cinematography. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actress though it won none of them (the year that The King’s Speech ran most of the big awards). That didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of anyone here on MoFo where it received eighteen votes; no first place nods but three second place votes, a third, an eighth, a ninth, and two tenth place finishes.

The campfire scene. It was a logical extension of the fact that you always see cowboys eating beans around the campfire or from the wagon train. Digestive health has not changed significantly so it stands to reason that if you and I get gassy when we eat ‘em that means there had to be plenty of farting going on in the Old West. But we never heard John Wayne or Walter Brennan let one rip. That joke kind of tells one all one needs to know about the level of humor and spoofing going on by Mel Brooks and company in Blazing Saddles. From the moment THE Frankie Laine, who crooned the title songs for big screen oaters like Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and 3:10 to Yuma and small screeners like ”Rawhide”, bellows out, “He rode a blazing saddle….” You know you are in for some fun. With a legendarily irreverent script by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Norman Steinberg, and Richard Pryor and a cast led by Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn, and Slim Pickens Blazing Saddles is a rapid fire laugh machine. Some of the humor seems to come straight from Looney Tunes, some more from Pryor’s nightclub act, with references to everything from High Noon, Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Rio Bravo to The Blue Angel and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It is the raunchy, R-rated comedy that gave birth to them all. Sheriff Bart, The Waco Kid, Lili von Shtüpp, Hedley Lamarr, Mongo, Taggart, Governor Le Petomane, and all the Johnsons of Rock Ridge got the support of seventeen MoFos including two first place votes, a second place, a fifth, three seventh, two eighth, and a ninth placer. What in the wide, wide world of sports is a-goin’ on here?



Our Top Twenty awaits!



True Grit (2010) was my #8


Had it next to the original on my list, 1 place up though, pipping the original by a nose as I found it a more solid movie overall.
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Neither were on my ballot. The remake of True Grit is a decent film but I'm still one that prefers the original. Blazing Saddles has its moments but not enough of them for me to regard it as anything more than just above average.

Seen: 45/80
My list:  

Faildictions (yee-haw version 1.10):
20. Three Violent People
19. The Hateful Eight




Just finished watching Wyatt Earp'94 it was a really good watch, a bit long but overall very entertaining.
Would it have made my ballot? no, do I think it deserves a place in the top 100? F@kk yes! (as Ed would say it )
Giving it a 72/100
+
Almost the same rating I gave Gunfight at the OK Corral'57 (also missing in the top 100 so far).

Wyatt Earp does a lot of things better than Tombstone like the landscape cinematography, the melodrama/romance, camerawork and overall film making. It's visibly the bigger budget movie. It also has a slightly cuter Josie.
Still Tombstone wins it for me on pure machismo, coolness and badass-ness of the cast.

My write-up from the 19th HoF;
Tombstone 1993 (re-watch)
nominated by: Citizen Rules



This is the first time I have revisited Tombstone since I saw it on the big screen in ‘93. I loved it back then and it has never left my all time Western top ten since.

Star packed cast movie with very well balanced never too serious or dramatic performances. Features some of my favorite actors in great roles; Powers Boothe, Michael Biehn, and Kurt Russell. Although not one of my favorite actors, Val Kilmer really stole the show, haven't checked his catalog in awhile but I think this may be my favorite Kilmer performance.
A classic and simple story, with like-able characters, delivered in a fast pace for western standards, so it’s never boring. Love the opening and ending title sequence font.
Locations are very town based, it's a bit light on cinematographic wide open landscape shots we usually get from Westerns. (Could also be I was just too spoiled by my last Western nom viewing Open Range which had this aspect in abundance.)

When re-watching a movie after so many years there is always that fear it may have aged in some aspects , but i'm happy too say it stood the test of time and still very much lived up to my memory of it.
Excellent re-watch and nomination.
82/100.



Love the Coen's True Grit, it was high on my list. I haven't seen it since it's release though so I don't have much to say.

Still haven't seen Blazing Saddles for some reason. I think I may rectify that right now since I am sitting here thinking about what to watch.
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True Grit was pretty average for me. I thought Matt Damon or his character was a major detriment for a good portion of the movie until there was some improvement in the late going.

Blazing Saddles is a brilliant comedy but I don't see it as a western at all. I think there's a big difference between a genre with comedic elements and a comedy that uses another genre for its comedy. That's what Mel Brooks does. He's not Kubrick, he's a comedy director, and one of the best. Speaking of Kubrick, it's too bad that he didn't make a western. Anyway it's just how I feel. Don't break my balls or else I'll vote Stripes #1 when we do a war movies countdown

I watched North to Alaska. I hated the first 15 or 20 minutes and enjoyed the next 15 or 20, and then it settled into a pretty likable but average watch. I liked the actress who was in it and it was refreshing to see a lighter side of John Wayne. The movie reminded me more of a Cary Grant type rom-com than a western from this countdown. That would definitely explain why Goodies liked it.

Speaking of Wayne, there's been a lot of talk about how he was a terrible person. It's understandable but yet I don't think it is the ideal if we want to continue to make the world a better place. What he said was without a doubt racist, but it appears to be out of ignorance based upon the time that he grew up. For those judging, you probably have near and dear relatives who accepted his remarks at the time. It was a different world, and I'm more concerned with what the guy did and how he treated others. Maybe he was a piece of crap, but I think it's unfair to go back many decades and judge somebody based on thoughts and words. Tolerance comes in many forms, so look in the mirror because you never know when it might be a benefit to you. Forgiveness and understanding are wonderful gifts not only to others, but also to oneself.



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True Grit (2010) was on my list at #23. Like almost every one of the Coens' films, it's a solid watch, though I admittedly haven't watched it since theatres. Think I might have to rectify that (which is true of at least a third of the titles on here).

I had Blazing Saddles at #14. It definitely has its issues, but it's arguably the best comedy Western out there. I do love a good parody that could easily pass for the genuine article with just a few tweaks.
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I’m a big Coen fan but True Grit just doesn’t do it for me. It’s certainly a Coen film, yet it is sort of missing something. I always walk away from it slightly empty and disappointed even though it’s well made...

I still have yet to see Blazing Saddles.



True Grit was great, but barely missed out on making my list. Blazing Saddles, before this countdown, I considered my favorite Western of all time, and it didn't sink much lower than that on my ballot!

Seen: 22/80
- Slow West (#95)
- The Big Gundown (#85)
- The Furies (#84)
- The Shooting (#71)
- The Grey Fox (#66)
- The Great Train Robbery (#60)
- Meek’s Cutoff (#58)
- Red River (#56)
- Bone Tomahawk (#54)
- The Cowboys (#50)
- Rango (#41)
- The Gunfighter (#40)
- Open Range (#36)
- Hell or High Water (#35)
- The Great Silence (#34)
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (#33)
- Johnny Guitar (#30)
- Tombstone (#28)
- The Revenant (#25)
- Stagecoach (#23)
- True Grit (#22)
- Blazing Saddles (#21)

My list:
8. Blazing Saddles
12. Johnny Guitar
14. Hell or High Water
16. The Revenant
19. Red River
20. The Gunfighter
21. Bone Tomahawk
23. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
24. Stagecoach
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Favorite to 8 is a bit of a drop though
true, i didn't think i would watch so many that I would love