The MoFo Top 100 Westerns: Countdown

3:10 To Yuma is one I've never watched all the way through---not for lack of interest, just because of circumstances. I'll get there one day. Needless to say, no vote.

I absolutely love El Dorado and it's because it's just so dang much fun! The whole cast works for me. Love The Duke and Robert Mitchum team-up and Mitchum has rarely been as comical, especially during the hangover remedy scene. I liked James Caan just fine in the movie, and if he as an actor seemed like a fish-out-of-water in the movie, well, that's what his character was, so he worked for me. I especially loved Arthur Hunnicutt as Bull. That guy was just made for Westerns. One of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes starred Hunnicutt. Michele Carey was sexy as all get-out as the trigger-happy daughter of a local rancher. This reworking of Rio Bravo is my favorite of the three basically same stories that Howard Hawks filmed. And it's my favorite John Wayne Western. Therefore it made it to #2 on 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: 10 The list proper: 53
El Dorado Me: 2 The list proper: 47

__________________
"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Set in late 19th Century Queensland, Australia The Proposition of the title has a police Captain (Ray Winstone) task a captured dangerous outlaw (Guy Pearce) with killing his even more violent and depraved older brother (Danny Huston), a man who even the aborigines fear with his almost mystical bloodlust. If he can accomplish this assassination the Captain will let him and his younger brother go free, despite their crimes. If he does not or cannot the younger brother will be summarily executed. This bloody and visually stunning Down Under Western also features John Hurt, Emily Watson, Noah Taylor, and David Gulpilil with a script by musician Nick Cave.

The Professionals are four mercenaries (Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Woody Strode, and Robert Ryan) hired by millionaire rancher J.W. Grant (Ralph Bellamy) to venture into Mexico and save his wife (Claudia Cardinale) who has been kidnapped by notorious bandit and revolutionary Jesus Raza (Jack Palance). Dolworth (Lancaster) and Rico (Marvin) fought with Pancho Villa in the early days of the Revolution and admire Raza, but a buck is a buck so they accept the dangerous assignment. Double crosses and shifting allegiances are coupled with explosive action and wonderful characters in one incredibly satisfying and humorous adventure by director Richard Brooks (Elmer Gantry, In Cold Blood). Both films wound up with 107 points but The Professionals were on eight ballots – five top ten placements with a tenth, an eighth, two sixth, and a fifth – while The Proposition was on seven ballots – including a third, a sixth, and a seventh place nod.

The Professionals just had to be on my list, though it is down at number twenty-three. It became a favorite when I was a kid. The Professionals and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were the first Westerns not made specifically for children that I loved, and I still love ‘em today. The Professionals are just so damn…cool! That jaunty theme by Maurice Jarre, including castanets and bass drum, makes me want to saddle up with my bow and arrow, some dynamite, and go on a mission.

That makes eight of mine to show.

HOLDEN PIKE'S LIST
7. The Ballad of Cable Hogue (#83)
10. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (#52)
13. My Name is Nobody (#79)
14. The Grey Fox (#66)
16. Hombre (#88)
18. Pursued (#73)
23. The Professionals (#45)
25. Support Your Local Sheriff! (#89)

The Professionals is worth watching just for, um, the scenery.

__________________
I may go back to hating you. It was more fun.

Actually don't know if I ever watched The Proposition, I thought I had but the more I think about it the less sure I am, certainly it was on my list to get round to for this but sadly I wasn't able to. The Professionals is worth watching for Claudia Cardinale alone but it's not a favourite of mine and was never in contention for making my list.

Seen: 30/56 (back to ploddin')

Faildictions (yee-haw version 1.01):
44. The Sun Shines Bright
43. High Plains Drifter

Love Winchester '73 and had it somewhere in the bottom half of my list, another great Anthony Mann film.

Three Burials is a very good film that I enjoyed, but I've only seen it once and it didn't leave a strong enough impression to make my list. I recently watched The Homesman by Tommy Lee Jones and thought that it was great too.

3:10 to Yuma I liked when I watched it, but think I found it a little bit underwhelming. I hadn't watch many old Westerns by that point and was a bit surprised just how much different it was to its remake. I really want to revisit it and I think it cold become a favourite, it looks like something I would normally love.

The Professionals I have seen and enjoyed, good solid film from what I can remember.

El Dorado was my number 7! What a fantastic movie!

I remember being cautious going into it because I had heard that it was one of Hawks' lesser works, but then I absolutely loved it. There's some added stuff at the beginning but the film is pretty much a remake of Rio Bravo but with Mitchum and Caan (two of my favourite actors). I think it might even be funnier than Rio Bravo. Those are two movies I could watch over and over, whenever they're on TV I always turn over and watch them. So enjoyable.

__________________

I liked The Professionals and thought The Proposition was disappointingly average.

I feel like the Proposition is another that should be a lot higher. Haven't watched it in years but it's great imo.

__________________

I'm pretty sure there have been six films since I last posted.

The Cowboys I haven't seen and I'm only familiar with it through these forums. Hud is on my watchlist (I had a hunch I wouldn't consider it a western so I didn't worry about getting it done before this). I've only seen the remake of 3:10 to Yuma (more about that later as I'm quite confident it'll show up).

I have no idea if I've seen El Dorado (even the pictures look like they're from Rio Bravo so how am I supposed to remember). The same uncertainty applies to The Professionals which somehow seems familiar but I don't really know; could just as well be the familiarity of Lee Marvin's face and a bunch of other westerns taking place in Mexico that ring my bell.

One thing I've surely seen though is The Proposition which was #6 in my ballot. It's sweaty, brutal, poetic, and beautiful. I also really like Nick Cave's soundtrack and suddenness of the violence. It's almost too slow but it just fits the film. I was hoping it would be higher.

Seen 18(+2)/56

__________________

True story

__________________
Letterboxd

I will watch The Proposition someday, but haven't pulled the trigger yet.

The Professionals was a HOF nom that I quite enjoyed.

I had The Professionals at 6. I really dig that movie.

It seems that my number 7 won't make it now.

I seen The Professionals once upon a time, don't think that I love it, seemed OK though. Not seen The Proposition.

The Professionals actually didn't interest me very much. I haven't seen it, and I don't plan on seeing it, ever for that matter. I've read a little about it, seen trailers, and it just seems cliche. A beautiful woman has no effect on me in terms of being enticed to see a film, not when there are more great movies than I have enough time to see in my entire lifespan. I need something way more compelling than a beautiful woman. Superficial sex appeal is such a primitive form of enticement. Life is too short for that.