DVD: Divine Viewing Diversions - Best Westerns
You remember westerns. They were – and still are, when they’re not making themselves scarce – action-packed outdoor dramas set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in America’s Old West. On display were horses and guns and scenic backdrops, with constant conflict between law and order and the wild frontier. And with audiences flocking to them, they were a big part of our movie landscape in the 1930s and 1940s and 1950s and 1960s. Not so much of late, though. Which is a shame.
So, perhaps a nostalgic visit to the best of the West is in order. Here, then, are 12 terrific westerns – a dusty dozen doozies – that should provide hours of stimulating period entertainment.
My Darling Clementine (1946)
The great Henry Fonda stars for world-class director John Ford as legendary Marshal Wyatt Earp – with Victor Mature as Doc Holliday – in a low-key masterpiece of a drama – that climaxes with the storied gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Ariz. Beautifully shot, edited, scored and acted, this stirring, largely fictionalized work is eminently watchable. And don’t let the title fool you: Gunplay and violence are major components of the film’s fabric. But so are three-dimensional characterizations and acknowledged romance. Whatever else it is, this is certainly one of the best westerns ever made.
Fort Apache (1948)
Another epic gem from John Ford, set after the Civil War, also featuring Henry Fonda, this time starring opposite frequent Ford collaborator John Wayne. Fonda is cast against type as a stubborn, off-putting, by-the-book lieutenant colonel, with Wayne as a cavalry captain the other men do connect with. Deliberate, absorbing and exciting, convincingly capturing period life at a remote Army outpost, this first installment of Ford’s cavalry trilogy – to be followed by “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” and “Rio Grande” – features the top director’s familiar landmarks and landscapes in a masterfully photographed film.
Red River (1948)
John Wayne and debuting Montgomery Clift star as guardian and adopted adult son in director Howard Hawks’ enormously entertaining drama with a narrative similarity to “Mutiny on the Bounty,” but on a long cattle drive rather than on the high seas. This earned it an Oscar nomination for Best Story. The imagery is nothing short of spectacular and the Dimitri Tiomkin score is superb – as are Wayne in an unsympathetic role, Clift in the sympathetic role, and an ensemble cast that includes Walter Brennan, Joanne Dru, John Ireland and Harry Carey Sr. For western fans, this one holds up under umpteen repeat viewings.
High Noon (1952)
Gary Cooper stars as Will Kane, a town marshal who must face off against four gunslingers on his wedding day, with Grace Kelly as his Quaker intended. No one in town will help him in an intense western that doubles as a social commentary about cowardly behavior during the Hollywood blacklist era. Oscars went to Cooper as Best Actor, Best Song (“Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin’), the Dimitri Tiomkin score, and Best Editing, with Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Fred Zinnemann for Best Director, and Carl Foreman for Best Screenplay. One unique device: On-screen clocks help us chart the intended suspenseful countdown as the gripping story unfolds in “real time.”
Shane (1953)
Westerns don’t come much more iconic than this one, with Alan Ladd playing the title character, a loner and drifter who’d like to settle down. Shane is a former gunfighter who comes to the aid of homesteaders Van Heflin and Jean Arthur, whose young son (Brandon de Wilde) idolizes him as he takes on unforgettably murderous villain Jack Palance. This influential, visually magnificent western took home the Oscar for Best Color Cinematography, and scored nominations for Best Picture, Best Director (George Stevens), Best Supporting Actor (both de Wilde and Palance), and Best Screenplay, as its tale is told from the child’s point of view. Richly rewarding during repeat viewings.
The Searchers (1956)
Director John Ford and western superstar John Wayne team up on this masterfully dark epic about the relentless search by Ethan Edwards – a compulsive loner, a former Confederate soldier, a hard-hearted frontiersman, and one among many of the actor’s vividly drawn protagonists – for his niece (Natalie Wood) after she is kidnapped by Comanches. Set three years after the Civil War, it’s a complex and insightful exploration of racism and civilization that’s visually compelling and remarkably thought-provoking. Many viewers consider this Ford’s very best western, and more than a few see it as the best western ever made. It’s up there.
Rio Bravo (1959)
With Howard Hawks in the director’s chair, John Wayne and Dean Martin co-star as sheriff and deputy, respectively – with able support from Walter Brennan, Angie Dickinson, Ricky Nelson, and Ward Bond – in an involving and entertaining thriller in which the lawmen in a Texas border town try to prevent a killer from escaping from the jailhouse with the help of hired gunmen. The starry cast is first-rate and the tone is loose and relaxed, with a sense of humor nearly always on display, but with sufficient suspense anyway. Still, this semi-satirical actioner calls for a light touch, and that’s exactly what Hawks brings to the party.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Vance (1962)
“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” That’s a line in the script and the film’s classic theme of civilization coming to the West. John Ford directs James Stewart and John Wayne as, respectively, a tenderfoot lawyer with a political future and a fearless, gun-toting rancher, in a tale of conflict and bullying involving the titular villain played by Lee Marvin in the town of Shinbone. Intriguing casting of big stars is part of the natural appeal of this fascinating tall tale about the secret of senatorial success. This is the movie that started John Wayne calling people “pilgrim,” and it’s abundantly layered so that each screening of it delivers something fresh.
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Slow-motion bloodletting and poetic violence – controversial at the time but often imitated in the wake of this influential western set in Texas and Mexico – were powerful weapons in director and co-screenwriter Sam Peckinpah’s arsenal. So was an ensemble cast that included William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O’Brien, Warren Oates and Ben Johnson. A group of aging outlaws decides to pull one more job before they retire, so they team up with a rebel Mexican general before World War I. Oscar-nominated for Best Story and Screenplay, this arresting drama focuses fascinatingly on bad men during changing times.
Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (1969)
Superstar Paul Newman and soon-to-be superstar Robert Redford teamed up – thus launching the modern buddy- movie genre – for director George Roy Hill in this irresistible western dramedy about a couple of legendary turn-of-the-century outlaws, accompanied by ex-schoolteacher Katharine Ross, being pursued by a relentless, faceless sheriff’s posse. It would go on to win Oscars for Best Cinematography (Conrad Hall), Best Original Story and Screenplay (William Goldman), Best Original Score (Burt Bacharach), and Best Song (“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”), as well as nominations for Best Picture and Best Director. Criminally entertaining.
Dances With Wolves (1990)
Kevin Costner debuts as a director in a western he also stars in, an ambitious, absorbing, enveloping drama about a U.S. Army soldier and Civil War veteran who befriends the members of a Lakota Sioux tribe in the Dakotas and becomes one of them. In his first at-bat behind the camera, Costner won the Oscar for Best Director while the film won the Oscar for Best Picture and totaled 12 Oscar nominations and seven Oscars. Impeccable production values characterize this three-hour epic from first frame to last, and it’s as intelligent and sensitive as it is visually enthralling.
Unforgiven (1992)
Nine Oscar nominations and four Oscars went to this dark, thought-provoking western, which examined the mythic violence of the western genre. That included wins for Best Picture, Best Director (Clint Eastwood), Best Supporting Actor (Gene Hackman), and Best Editing. The accomplished Eastwood also starred as reluctant-gunslinger-turned-pig- farmer Bill Munny and was nominated for Best Actor. If Eastwood wasn’t exactly reinventing the western, as many believe, he was at least re-examining the genre in which the screen legend so often found himself ensconced.
