Western Movies
Director: John Ford
Writers: James Warner Bellah, Willis Goldbeck, Dorothy M. Johnson
Main Actors: James Stewart, John Wayne
An elder senator returns to the town he first came to so many years ago as a young idealistic lawyer. He came back for a man's funeral and starts the tale of how he became the man who shot Liberty Valance. Jimmy Stewart plays both the aged Senator and his younger self. While Jimmy's character represents the new and progressive west, John Waynes character is an old cowboy who represents wilder roots. Liberty Valance is the man in the black hat of this story as you might be able to tell and is wonderfully played by Lee Marvin. While Stewart's character attempts to create some civility Marvin's character is there to tear it down. Then Waynes character is there to tell Stewart's character how things are done in the West. As you might have figured out already by the title this leads down the road to a confrontation but of course it is not quite that simple. Also central to the plot is the love triangle that develops between the female lead played by Vera Mills and Stewart and Waynes characters. This is among one of the best westerns of all time and is superbly well acted by some of that generations greatest actors. It also helps that it is directed by the master John Ford.
Director: George Roy Hill
Writer: William Goldman
Main Actors: Paul Newman Robert Redford, Katherine Ross
The buddy buddy western of all time. The story follows two real life famous and strangley charming (at least in the movie) train robbers as they plunder from the American West to Bolivia. Paul Newman plays Butch Cassidy and Robert Redford plays the Sundance Kid. It is well directed and written but the chemistry that Newman and Redford have together is just truly magical. It has humor and wit that few movies have much less westerns.
Director: Simon Wincer
Writers: Larry McMurtry, William D. Wittliff
Main Actors: Robert Duvall Tommy Lee Jones, Danny Glover, Diane Lane, Robert Urich
Yes I know it is a TV mini-series but it is so good it deserves to be on this list. It is adapted from Larry McMurtry's excellent novel of the same name. The cast speaks for itself. Captain Augustus (Gus) McCray (Duvall) and Captain William Call (Jones) are ex-Texas Rangers who now run a run down old ranch with some of their ex-compatriots in the nearly non existant town of Lonesome Dove. When Urich's character arrives in town and visits his old friends he gives Call the idea of starting a ranch in the wonderous unspoiled land of Montana. Once Call gets an idea into his head there is no stopping him. One their trip north with the herd they gathered they encounter old enemies, former and new lovers, new friends and a few indians along the way. It is a truely epic movie that is really about two old friends and their last adventure.
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Writers: John W. Cunningham, Carl Foreman
Main Actor: Gary Cooper
The sheriff that tamed the town has just finished getting married and was looking forward to a quiet life when he learns a man he put away has been released from jail. Of course this man has pledged to get revenge and kill the sheriff. The train carrying the man is due in town at High Noon. The sheriff has a short time to face him and his compatriots. Will the now civilized town help him or will he face them alone. Gary Cooper is excellent as the sheriff and when I see him walking down the dusty street I think this is a western. Grace Kelly joins Gary Cooper as his young wife in her debut role.
Director: Sergio Leone
Writers: Sergio Donati, Agenore Incrocci, Sergio Leone, Furio Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni
Main Actors: Clint Eastwood Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach
The spagetti western (in my opinion) and the end of the man with no name trilogy. Set against the seemingly never ending war between the states three men are in search of Confederate gold. The good is played by Clint Eastwood, the Bad Lee Van Cleef and the ugly Eli Wallach. The good really isnt that good, the bad is pure evil and ugly is not very nice either. I guess not so nice is good when put up against pure evil. It is told in an epic style that is pure Sergio Leone (the director). One of the best parts of this movie is also the music. Leone's style is to have a simple tune that slowly grows in magnitude to the climax of the movie and what a climax it is. The grandness of the cinematography is also great. This series of movies propelled Eastwood into stardom and how grand has it been.
Director: Howard Hawks, Arthur Rosson
Writers: Borden Chase, Charles Schneeeone
Main Actors: John Wayne Montgomery Clift, Joanne Dru
Two men and a orphaned boy find themselves in Texas with a couple of cows and a dream to start a ranch. After a number of years the boy is now a man and the ranch has flourished. Now with thousands of head of cattle they set of an a dangerous cattle drive to get them to market. With ever growing doubt they head north to the railroad.
John Wayne is excellent in this movie. He tends to be his best when he is not being so good. Another example of this would be The Searchers where he becomes obsessed with finding his neice and will more than likely be on this list shortly. Mongomery Clift joins Wayne as the young man who ends up challenging Wayne's (owner of the ranch) authority.
Director: John Ford
Writers: Ernest Haycox, Dudley Nichols, Ben Hecht
Main Actors: John Wayne Claire Trevor
This is the original version of Stagecoach with a very young John Wayne. He eventually took a different role later in one of its remakes. A full stagecoach makes its way across the desert with a thief, drunk doctor, a pregnant lady, a gambler, among others. Throw in an outlaw by the name of Ringo Kidd (Wayne) and the impending threat of Geronimo on the warpath. &nbps; This is one of the true classic westerns that defines the genre.
Director: Kevin Costner
Writers: Michael Blake
Main Actors: Kevin Costner Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene
Kevin Costner's masterpiece of a western. After a Civil War battle a unlikely heroic soldier (Kevin Costner) is given the option of any post. He chose to see the frontier, but the only thing he found at the outpost was a deserted post. As he set up his lonely post, the local tribe of Sioux Native Americans took a curious watch over him. In time they befriend this man and give him the name "Dances With Wolves." One of the first movies I know of outside of Little Big Man that treated the Native American people in a good light as people not savages.