The MoFo Top 100 Westerns: Countdown

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"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





Just as John Wayne kicked off the bottom of the list at #100 he kicks off the bottom of the second half as well with The Cowboys which may as well be subtitled The One Where Bruce Dern Shoots John Wayne in the Back. Directed by Mark Rydell (On Golden Pond, The Rose) who originally wanted George C. Scott for the main role, but Wayne fought for the part. At the time his conservative politics, including continued support for the Vietnam War, were separating him even further from the younger filmmakers and actors beginning to take over the industry. By both sides deciding to work with the other the result is one of Wayne’s better movies from the end of his career. This time The Duke is a Montana rancher who winds up hiring a pack of inexperienced schoolboys (including Robert Carradine in his film debut) for a big cattle drive after all of his hands head to California for a gold rush. He is suspicious of some older hands who attempt to sign on, led by Bruce Dern, so he dismisses them. His instincts are correct as they are rustlers who shadow them on their perilous journey. It leads to the infamous moment when Dern’s long-haired character shoots the unarmed Wayne in the back, and a finale where the boys, now experienced hands, take the herd back by force.

It was not the first time one Wayne’s characters died in a film, though two of the rare former instances were War movies (Sands of Iwo Jima and The Fighting Seabees) and the only two Westerns where he bit it were The Alamo, which was based on an historical battle where everyone died, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance where his death is not on screen and revealed years later. To have his paternal figure not only shot but shot while defenseless and walking away was a big change from the invincible Wayne who remained unbeatable even as he aged. As the story goes Wayne warned Dern that he would be forever hated by his loyal fanbase to which Bruce replied, "Yeah, but they'll sure love me in Berkeley." Dern, who was already an established Western presence himself by then having appeared in many television oaters coming up as well as comedies (Waterhole #3 and Support Your Local Sheriff!) and Hang ‘em High with Eastwood, Will Penny with Chuck Heston, and The War Wagon with Wayne and Kirk Douglas, he did receive scorn and even some death threats in the years following the release of the film, presumably from generations closer to Wayne’s age than Dern’s.

Featuring a rousing John Williams score The Cowboys received only seven votes but an impressive five of them were top tens with a six, a seventh, a ninth, and a pair of tenth place nods.




Directed by Martin Ritt (#88 Hombre) his fourth of six films with Paul Newman is still considered one of the icon’s best performances. Newman plays a good looking cad, the titular Hud Bannon, the son of Homer Bannon (Melvin Douglas) who is an honest and deeply principled Texas rancher. Hud seems to have few of the principles his father cherishes and spends most of his time drinking and bedding inappropriate women rather than helping with the cattle. Hud’s teenaged nephew Lonnie (Brandon deWilde) also lives on the ranch as does Patricia Neal’s Alma Brown, a trusted housekeeper. The contention between Hud and his father has mainly to do with the death of Hud’s brother, and Lonnie is caught in between the influence of these two powerful figures. For those who found the ten-year-old deWilde’s central performance in Shane too shrill (you can’t see me, but I am enthusiastically raising my hand) he gives a very good performance ten years later here in a very different kind of Western. Hud was nominated for seven Oscars including Best Director and Best Actor and it won three for the master James Wong Howe’s gorgeous black & white cinematography, Melvin Douglas as Best Supporting Actor, and Patricia Neal as Best Actress. It was Newman’s third of what would be nine nominations as an actor and he wouldn’t win until his seventh for The Color of Money twenty-three years later, but the troubled and largely unlikeable yet charming Hud is surely one of his greatest roles.

Hud was on eight ballots – one more than The Cowboys – including a third, a fourth, and an eighth place as well as three twenty-fourth place votes, oddly enough.



The Sons of Katie Elder, North to Alaska, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Shootist, Red River,
The Cowboys, Two Mules for Sister Sara
, and Pale Rider



Not much of a fan of The Cowboys tbh, surprised it's featuring so high here. Haven't watched Hud for decades and sadly didnae get round to it for this, so neither on my ballot nor counting it as 'seen'.

Seen: 27/52 (back to plodding along)
My list:  

Faildictions (yee-haw version 1.01):
48. Hostiles
47. Last Train From Gun Hill



The Cowboys was my #6 and the 5th to make it.


Might be a little controversial saying this, considering some of his other movies are incredibly beloved and revered, but I've never been a massive fan of John Wayne with exception to only a couple of movies... and The Cowboys I reckon is definitely his best and tends sometimes to get overlooked.


01. Young Guns (1988) --- 61st
.
06. The Cowboys (1972) --- 50th
.
.

11. The Sons Of Katie Elder (1965) --- 100th

.
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18. Westworld (1973) --- 69th

19. Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid (1973) --- 67th



The Cowboys... above Red River... hmmm, not so sure about this list now. Don't get me wrong, I love The Cowboys. But I'd place it farther down the list and Red River further up. On one other note, Hud is on here, and that's decent. Glad that film made the cut.
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Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception. How many colors are there in a field of grass to the crawling baby unaware of 'Green'?

-Stan Brakhage



Giant is a top 100 film for me, but I didn't consider it for my list...though I've considered it for HoFs many times!
Dang, you must have a ton of Westerns in your 100.
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HUD was towards the end of my list. Saw it last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. Due mainly to that Newman performance. I think I under rate Newman. He's nearly always the best thing about any movie he's in.



HUD will be one of my favorite movies to show up. I don't see it as a western so I didn't vote for it.

The Cowboys wasn't on my radar until Ed nominated it for a HoF. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and strangely it reminded me of Stand By Me. Loved the unexpected.

11. The Shootist (1976) (#57)
18. Day of the Outlaw (1959) (#77)
19. Red River (#56)
21. The Cowboys (#50)
24. The Furies (1950) (#84)
25. Winchester 73 (1950) #53



I found the Cowboys to be just okay. Haven’t seen the other one.

Seen: 10/52
- 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)

My ballot:
19. Red River
21. Bone Tomahawk



How many Westerns did John Wayne star in?



That is about 150 movies, among which two thirds at least are westerns. When we are done with the present list, we could do

The MoFo Top 100 John Wayne Westerns!



...Might be a little controversial saying this, considering some of his other movies are incredibly beloved and revered, but I've never been a massive fan of John Wayne with exception to only a couple of movies...
I'd guess that most MoFos aren't fans of John Wayne, well Daniel M is but I can't think of anyone else who really likes him. I didn't like Wayne as an actor until I started watching a bunch of his westerns for this countdown, then something clicked and I seen just who good he can be. He's real good and very human in The Cowboys.

The Cowboys... above Red River... hmmm, not so sure about this list now. Don't get me wrong, I love The Cowboys. But I'd place it farther down the list and Red River further up...
I'd say that's because most who sent in a list hadn't seen Red River, where as The Cowboys is a movie that got played on TV a lot so people remembered that from their youth.

2 more I've not seen
...you've seen one, Red River was your nom in the 1st Western Hof hosted by Sean.

Dang, you must have a ton of Westerns in your 100.
I'd have a few that's for sure. I didn't realize how much I love westerns until I started watching them for this countdown.



Seen both The Cowboys and Hud, enjoyed both! But neither made my list. Very few of the westerns from my list are going to make the countdown.


The Cowboys (Mark Rydell 1972)

John Wayne has more dimensions to him than meets the casual observers eye. Here in The Cowboys we see he's tough as nails on the outside while having a soft spot for the boys he hires (hmm, that sounds odd!) What I mean to say is: he's lost his own two sons and has now grown old and alone. His concern is for his wife's well being and later for the welfare of the boys he hires to work for him. He comes to think of them like his own sons. So unlike Duke's other films we see a softer side, we see a man who loves his wife and is even gentle and kind to her.

I loved the way the film takes it time and never rushes. It allows us to spend time so that we can feel we're a part of the story. A lot of movies just don't linger on the moment, The Cowboys does and does so at the right times.

The other impressive thing is the actual cattle drive. Think about it, this isn't CG crap and it's not just close ups of three cows in somebodies pasture. We see a large cattle drive in stunning wide angle, distance shots as they travel through the vast country side. We see a lot of terrain, and it's easy to forget how hard on-location shooting is for the film maker, especially when done in so many different and rugged landscapes. Most films today would not have spent the time and money to do this.

Oh, big shout out to the best psycho-bad guy around, Bruce Dern, Damn he was impressive as the unhinged cattle rustler...very believable and so very daunting, yikes!

+



I know we're past talking about Red River now... but I got to show my Red River love
Wow, you do love Red River. What did you think of the brief appearance of Coleen Gray ? I thought she was amazing in just those couple minutes that she was on screen.



Wow, you do love Red River. What did you think of the brief appearance of Coleen Gray ? I thought she was amazing in just those couple minutes that she was on screen.
To me Red River is one of those few flawless films ever made. The acting on all the parts of the players is simply magnificent for the time, and as I mentioned I think it's John Wayne's peak performance. Hawks not only get's the best out of his actors, (and I may say this is his best film too in my opinion), but also out of the landscapes. Even the score is brilliant. The editing is melodic and epic. It may be my favorite western actually.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
Hud is my #12 and has an archetypal Paul Newman role and performance (Joe Buck even has his poster in Midnight Cowboy). He is the centerpiece of a seemingly-lowkey film about family which also contains Oscar-winning performances by Melvyn Douglas as Hud's father and Patricia Neal as the family's "housekeeper/cook". Brandon De Wilde (Shane) is also excellent as are Elmer Bernstein's spare acoustic musical score and James Wong Howe's evocative B&W photography. Hud is a powerful film, full of strong dialogue and relationships. The mass cattle shooting scene is especially strong. Not surprisingly, since it's also based on a Larry McMurtry novel, it seems to foreshadow Bogdanovich's later The Last Picture Show and is equally as great.

John Wayne begged to be in The Cowboys and got his wish. I'm not sure why he wanted to be in it, unless it was because of his character's fate or a chance to be a surrogate father, both situations which would have changed his film persona to an extent. As far as the film goes, it's a surprisingly-simplistic take on the situation. It's over two hours long although nothing very surprising happens. It's got a solid Bruce Dern performance as a sadistically-smiling Baddie, and Roscoe Lee Browne is helpful as the wise cook. Most of the kids are played well-enough, but, like I said, the whole thing is awfully predictable, so you pretty much know what everybody will do or what will be done to them within ten minutes of meeting them. The photography is good and John Williams' score is evocative of Aaron Copland, and most people who like Wayne and westerns like it.

My List

10. Red River
11. Oklahoma!
12. Hud
14. Giant
20. The Ballad of Cable Hogue
22. Support Your Local Sheriff!
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