Favorite Classic Westerns
Jeff Krause
It’s a new year and it’s time for a new favorites list. This month we are featuring a list of our favorite Westerns. Westerns are one of the oldest and most enduring movie genres. We sometimes forget that the movies started not long after the Old West ended. It was a natural theme for early motion pictures and several figures from western folklore, like Wyatt Earp, consulted on early Westerns. Those early films were escapist entertainment but, eventually, Westerns evolved into much more as directors and writers realized the settings of the Old West could serve as the backdrop for complex stories and themes.
Here is the list of our favorite, must see Westerns by order of release. Remember, our favorites lists are never quantitative. These are not the biggest or highest grossing Westerns of all time. These are the classics that we have watched many times and keep going back to. In keeping with our classic theme, our selections were all released at least thirty years ago.
Stagecoach (1939)
Stagecoach was not the first western, nor was it the first western to be nominated for Best Picture. However, despite Cimarron (1931) taking home the Best Picture Oscar in 1931, westerns were generally considered B movies prior to this film. Stagecoach tells the story of a varied group of passengers sharing a stagecoach as a war is about to break out with the Apache. While it included many of the classic western action scenes, it focused on the interrelationships of the characters. This John Ford classic earned respect for the genre and created two stars. John Wayne had appeared in many B grade westerns, but Stagecoach made him a star for the next four decades. In addition, the landscape of Monument Valley became a fixture in future John Ford westerns and became an iconic representation of the west for a generation of moviegoers.
Winchester '73
Winchester ‘73 follows the adventures of a rifle stolen from its rightful owner. As the rifle passes through the hands of different characters, the audience is taken through a series of different stories linked together by its owner’s obsession with reclaiming his property. This film was the first pairing of James Stewart and director Anthony Mann and was a departure for both. Stewart, famous for playing everyman characters, plays the obsessed gun owner on a collision course with his past. Mann, whose reputation was built in the film noir genre, brought new levels of suspense and character depth to the western genre. The two went on to collaborate on several notable westerns including Bend of the River (1952), The Naked Spur (1953) and The Man from Laramie (1955). Read about our Star of the Month, James Stewart.
High Noon (1952)
Gary Cooper is an aging lawman about to ride off into the sunset with his new bride, Grace Kelly. Unfortunately, his plans are interrupted by news that an outlaw who he put in prison is arriving on the noon train to kill him. Cooper finds the town he has protected for years wants no part of the violence that is coming and that he must confront the outlaw and his three henchmen alone. It is likely that more has been written about and read into High Noon than any other western. The film was released during the height of the red scare and at a time when writers and directors were being blacklisted. While director Fred Zinnemann believed the film was simply about “conscious,” much has been read into this film based on when it was released. Read into it what you will or put all of that aside and just enjoy this film. It is relevant to almost any time and place where an individual must do what is right even if they must do it alone. Read our review of High Noon.
The Searchers (1956)
Nearly two decades after Stagecoach, John Ford brought along John Wayne when he returned to Monument Valley to film parts of The Searchers, this time in brilliant Technicolor. Like Stagecoach (1939), The Searchers focused on themes much deeper than stampedes and shootouts. John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter set out on a years-long quest to avenge Wayne’s murdered family and find his kidnapped niece, played by Natalie Wood. Along the way, Ford explores themes of racism and revenge. John Wayne plays the bitter “hero” who hates the Comanche and intends to kill his niece if she has become one of them. The Searchers was arguably John Wayne’s greatest performance and an interesting change for Ford as well in which he began to turn the genre he had perfected on its head.
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
In this classic, John Sturges directs a cast that is a who’s who of Hollywood action stars, many in the early stages of their career. Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen lead a group of seven that includes early roles for Charles Bronson and James Coburn. As westerns go, The Magnificent Seven feels both traditional and transitional. Like most traditional westerns, there are good guys and bad guys in this film. However, here the good guys are seven down-on-their-luck gunfighters hired to protect a Mexican village from bandits. We don’t know much about their individual pasts, but we suspect many of the seven have not lived a life much different than the bandits. Like The Searchers (1956), The Magnificent Seven feels transitional. It was one of the first westerns to suggest good and evil are situational or that the hats the heroes wear are gray, rather than black or white. Read our review of The Magnificent Seven.
Ride the High Country (1962)
Ride the High Country is another film that shows the transition of the western genre. The film features two of the genre’s most popular stars near the end of their lengthy careers. Randolph Scott retired after this film and Joel McCrea played only a few minor roles after this one. These two iconic western stars were directed by relative newcomer Sam Peckinpah, who went on to take violence in westerns to a new level in The Wild Bunch (1969). Similar to the stars who played them, the two main characters know they are near the end of their careers. One is trying to go out the right way while the other is looking for one last score.
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966)
While Once Upon a Time in the West is justifiably considered Sergio Leone’s masterpiece, it is hard to leave The Good, The Bad and the Ugly off any list of our favorite westerns. There are so many things about this film that are outstanding. Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach play the title referenced characters to perfection, the camera work is superb, and the score is one of the most iconic ever created. The final confrontation is one of the most suspenseful scenes ever put on film.
ONce Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Interestingly, some of the last classic westerns were not created in by an American director. Italian director Sergio Leone had three very popular “spaghetti” westerns under his belt when Paramount offered him the chance to do his dream project Once Upon a Time in America (1984), if he would first do one more western. The project turned into one of the best westerns of all time. Once Upon a Time in the West feels like both a tribute and a goodbye to the western genre. On one hand, references to The Searchers (1956), High Noon (1952), Shane (1953) and others pay homage to the genre that made this film possible. On the other hand, the film features three older gunfighters. The three men move through a film set in a time where the Transcontinental Railway is about to modernize the old west and turn all of them into relics of the past. The opening scene is classic Sergio Leone as three men wait for a train ala High Noon. Leone drags the scene out and forces the audience to notice every background noise and every nuance of the men’s faces. Adding to the brilliance of this film is the casting of Henry Fonda. It is hard to think of any performance more divergent from how an actor was previously typecast.
