Ten Deep 05.13.09: 50 Great Westerns -- Ground Rules and Honorable Mentions

Posted by Lucas Huddleston on 05.13.2009

In this week's edition of Ten Deep, 411's Lucas Huddleston wastes everyone's time by starting a list...without actually starting it! WTF?

Hello, and welcome to Ten Deep: Week 30! Firstly, I should apologize for my absence last week. I attended a family reunion over the weekend, where the attendees were all members from my now deceased grandmother's extended family, and I knew it was coming up at the time of my last post. However, even though I knew that it was coming up, I didn't mention the fact that I would probably be missing the (then) upcoming week for the simple reason that, at the time, I really didn't plan on going. I know my grandma's sisters (my great-aunts) well enough from my childhood (though I hadn't seen them in a decade or more), but, as it pertains to their children and their children's children, I knew nobody else. So it was that, at first, I didn't plan on spending my weekend with people that, despite being family, I didn't know; of course, by the time the weekend came along, I decided that I should indeed go, as the whole deal was being held in honor of my grandma's memory. All in all, I had a good time, though the event effectively drained most of the writing time that I would have had over the weekend. However, I assure you that my extra downtime was well utilized, as I finally decided to buckle down and deliver on a particular list that I've been promising to put together for a few months now…

FIFTY GREAT WESTERNS

Now, I should first note that this week's column is pretty much entirely devoted to laying out the ground rules for the list, as well as noting a few Honorable Mentions (as I'm sure you already know). Next week begins the list officially begins, which, I'm sure, could indeed lead a few of you to believe that this week's column is a bit of an exercise in tedium (or a rip-off). However, I have a fairly good reason as to why I'm going about this week in such a manner. When I submitted my first column on my Top 50 Fantasy Films, I had intended to lay out my ground rules for the list, as well as name some Honorable Mentions; unfortunately, that initial column went long, which left me to exercise the only option I had at that point – I had to cut the sections which dealt with my personal history and love for the Fantasy genre, the section that explained the ground rules under which I assembled the list, AND the HM section. The HM section really wasn't all THAT important to me, in the grand scheme of things, but the other two sections were. In the few weeks that followed that first posting for the Fantasy stuff, I would find the space to add a bit here and there that covered those things that I had to cut in that first column…but, really, I wasn't happy about doing it that way. This way, however, I've given myself more than enough ample space and time to cover all that.

But first, allow me to ramble on a bit about Westerns and such…

While nowadays it seems as though new Westerns come out few and far between, it should be noted to those that don't know that the Western was at one time one of, if not THE, most popular genre of ANYTHING – running the gamut of film, television, novels, comics…and not only in America, but all across the world. I've always been a huge fan of Westerns, which I get from just about everybody in my extended family; even my paternal grandparents, who were never really all THAT big into watching television, would be prompted to sit a spell and take a gander at an episode of Gunsmoke or Bonanza with me. However, it probably wasn't until my Grandpa Joe, my mother's dad, came to live with us in the early 1990's that I became a full-fledged fan of the Western. A die-hard, if you will.

When Grandpa Joe moved in with us, he was already in his mid-seventies. All his life, Joe hadn't ever really had much use for television or readin', mainly because he was from the ‘dirt poor old school'…meaning that there was always work to be done, and if by chance there wasn't, there was always beer to be drunk. Without getting too far into my grandfather's personal demons, the alcohol in his life was uncontrollable…until my birth, when my mother told Joe that if he didn't give up the booze, then he'd never be allowed to be around me. Needless to say, the man gave up the demons for me before he even knew me, and as such, I've always felt a strong personal kinship to the man…even now, eleven years after his death. At any rate when he came to live with us, he was too old to work in the garden or the fields, and his hands shook so bad that he couldn't hold a book still enough to read it (I should note that, when he did read after his retirement, he read mainly Louis La'Mour and Zane Grey). So it was that Mom bought him a super-cheap VCR (one that, oddly enough, outlasted our expensive one…in fact, I still watch tapes on what I call the ‘Aldi's Special'), and a few Westerns. Within a few years, Joe had been rendered to doing little else than watching Westerns, so our Western catalog of VHS tapes ballooned to an ungodly amount…and I watched every single one of them with him. Since those days, I've loved the Westerns.

But then again, I suppose that it was bound to happen, seeing as how before then, even in my childhood, I liked Westerns and loved reading about the Old West. Being a fan of Fantasy, particularly those that held their inspiration in Medieval Europe, it always seemed to me as though the Old West was America's Medieval Times, our Dark Ages…and, as such, what should very well be the basis for our own kind of Fantasy. The men who lived in that time of the Wild West are no longer men as we know them – they're myths now, lost in a past that's as foreign to us as Middle-Earth, or the Hyborian Age. England may have had King Arthur, but we had Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickok. They may have had Robin Hood; we had Jesse James and Billy the Kid. Before my grandfather really reeled me into the whole Western thing, that's how I fell in love with the concepts of the Old West – it stands as being our time for myths and legends, where, ultimately, the true history of it all doesn't really matter, as facts become mixed with Fantasy. And that's what makes it special.

With all that said, let's move onto the ground rules…

--First of all, and perhaps most important for everybody to note, I should remind you all that Western films were, for the better part of three decades, the most popular and productive genre of films in the American film industry. In fact, I don't think it would be all that much of a stretch to say that the Western genre has more films devoted to it than any other genre of film out there. As such, while there were indeed a whole heap of what you'd call ‘crap', there are also, surprisingly enough, an incredible amount of Westerns that what could be considered great/near great. I can guarantee you that there are indeed more ‘great/near great' Westerns out there than the fifty that I have listed here. What's more is that, while I have indeed seen a LOT of Westerns in my lifetime, I have by no means seen them all…not even all of the great films that many consider to be essential to the genre. So, with that, keep in mind that this list is not intended to be the be-all, end-all Fifty Greatest Westerns; it is, instead, intended to be Fifty of my own favorite Westerns, and films that I believe that even non-Western fans would enjoy. So, yeah…please note all that. Reread it if you have to.

--While most Westerns do indeed take place in that certain time that we call the Old West, it should be noted that not all Westerns are strictly relegated to such limitations. For example, even though the film takes place in a more modern era, No Country For Old Men is actually considered by many people to be a Western, as the film borrows a primary theme from the Western genre (specifically, that of the progression of the world moving on and leaving behind the old lawman/criminal, which is what happens to Jones' character in the film). When I compiled my Fantasy list, I opened the ‘ground rules' up to include the more non-traditional Fantasy films, such as Big Fish – films that didn't include far-away lands of magic and elves and swords. This time out, however, I'm restricting the ‘scope' of the Western genre in regards to my list to adhere strictly to including traditional Westerns, or films that are essentially set between the Battle of the Alamo and the turn of the 20th Century. I should note, however, that there are a couple of exceptions to this rule; though, when watching those exceptions, one would be hard-pressed to know that the film said certain exceptions are actually set in, say, 1910 or 1800, and not necessarily the Old West. So, in effect, if you came here expecting to see Junior Bonner (a film about an aging rodeo star that utilizes Western themes) or Last of the Mohicans (which takes place in the century before the traditional Western setting), you won't find it here.

--I have excluded films such as Glory or Gettysburg, or any other such film that deals almost exclusively with the Civil War. While it is true that the Civil War is an important back-drop to a lot of Westerns (and a very important aspect to the mythos of many Western films that are set in that time frame), I'm more inclined to place something like Glory within the parameters of the War genre. Again, I have made certain exceptions on list in regards to no more than two films that are essentially War films in a Western setting, though I feel more than justified in doing so since they deal with two crucial events in the Western mythos all together. So, even though I love Shenandoah, I ended up with the decision to NOT place it on the list, since it's pretty much set explicitly within the Civil War, and deals entirely with the war effort for the most part.

--There is indeed a difference between an Epic Western and a Historical Epic set within the same window of time/events. As such, don't expect to see Gone With the Wind on my list either. I note that for the mere reason that just in case someone wonders where it's at when we reach the end.

--When the idea of doing a Westerns list was first brought up a few months ago, someone noted that I should limit the amount of Wayne/Eastwood pictures that would appear on the list to five or six apiece…just so that the list wasn't necessarily heavily weighted down with either one of those two legends' hefty repertoire of Western classics. I tried to do just that, though I didn't limit their films to any specific number; I merely limited their appearances on my list to what I would consider their absolute best Western films to be. Considering that Wayne alone was in a dozen or more Westerns that I really like, it was no small feat.

--As was the case with my Fantasy stuff, I should note that all of the films that you'll be seeing over the next five weeks are films that I do indeed own, either on DVD or VHS (mostly on VHS). Though, granted, most of them were my grandfather's at one point in time.

--Finally, just remember that, at the end of the day, this is my own personal favorites list, and as such, I put only the films that I really, REALLY like on here, even shuffling on a few that I'm sure most others wouldn't agree with it.

A Few of the Greats That I Haven't Seen…

When I first got this gig, someone gave me advice to never give an Honorable Mention to a film that I hadn't seen. As such, these films that follow aren't Honorable Mentions, per se…although, I haven't seen them and I'm STILL going to talk about them. Why? For two reasons: 1.), I AM a Western fan, and while I haven't seen these particular films yet, I'm not dumb enough to have stumbled through being a fan of Westerns and NOT have heard of these films being tossed around with words like ‘classic' or ‘landmark'; and, 2.), I'm noting their presence here as a means of noting their absence from the main list, so that, again, when we reach the end, nobody will go, ‘Say, where was such-and-such film? You have no credibility! THIS IS CRAP!' I suppose that some would consider this to be a bold and/or stupid move on my part, but I have to be honest about it.

My Darling Clementine (1946): I'll readily tell you why I never bothered to watch this movie when I was a child: due to its title, I always just assumed that it was little more than a Romance strutting about playing dress-up as though it was a Western. I mean, with that title, I had visions of some cowboy happening upon some little town, where he spies a pretty young girl, and the rest of the movie would basically be a showcase of him courting her. Of course, in the years since, I've come to the realization that it is indeed a film about Wyatt Earp and company (and the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, of course), as well as being directed by John Ford, seminal director in the Western genre and a name that I really wasn't all that concerned with until I became older. Such a pity I was so shallow as a child, isn't it? At any rate, I'm pretty sure that Grandpa Joe had this film on VHS, but my few days of box-digging never turned it up. So it will have to go without a place on the list.

Winchester ‘73 (1950): It is my own grave misfortune for not having seen more of the Westerns created by the great actor/director duo of Jimmy Stewart/Anthony Mann (respectively). I note Winchester ‘73 specifically as I THINK that I've seen it before, as the synopsis that I read about the film sounds incredibly familiar (man hunting for his rifle, basically), but I'm not quite sure. The Naked Spur I know I haven't seen…though I have indeed seen one film from the tandem of Stewart and Mann, and it's one that I think very highly of, to tell you the truth.

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949): I simply put this film here for the reason that, while I KNOW that I own this one on VHS, I couldn't find it before the time came to post. As such, since it has been so very long since last I watched the movie, I didn't feel comfortable enough in placing it on the list. I would very much like to, as I didn't really care for it all that much as a kid, but I've been wanting to revisit it for a while now.

There's more classics that I haven't seen, but those are probably the biggest. Like I said, don't hate me for it; at least I owned up to it.

Honorable Mentions

Naturally, I present here a few Honorable Mentions as I always do, and then next week the list itself will properly begin…though I'll admit that some of my highlights for HM may seem a bit strange to some – they're just here so I can mention a few Westerns that I like that probably don't stand much of a chance as being a part of the fifty. I'll list off a few more HM's than is usual for me, but I can't allow to post any pictures for the Honorable Mentions, if only because I've never done it in the past, and I'm such the stickler for continuity.

Heaven's Gate (1980): Oh yeah, you know what Heaven's Gate is. Largely considered to be the biggest cinematic turd of all time, HG (which is indeed a Western) has universally transcended the word ‘bad' on every conceivable level…to the point where people who have never actually seen the film or know what it's about bash it when talking about such things as ‘Worst Film Ever'. The film's reputation for its monumental failure have proceeded it since before it was even finished and playing in cinemas; in the 1990's, Kevin Costner had not one, but TWO films that he produced that were cleverly dubbed ‘Kevin's Gate' by critics, in honor of the ‘badness' that was Heaven's Gate as those critics anticipated the presumed gargantuan failures of both Dances With Wolves and Waterworld (Dances turned out to be a phenomenal success, and Waterworld essentially broke even at the box-office). Now, in case you aren't all that familiar with the consequences of Heaven's Gate demise, allow me to pontificate…

--It has been claimed that the disaster that was Heaven's Gate effectively ended the career of director Michael Cimino, whose reputation had been placed upon an ever-rapid ascension since the success of his previous film, The Deer Hunter, a true classic in every sense of the word. It's been said that by the sixth day of shooting, the project was already five days behind schedule, which didn't do any favors for Cimino's cause as far as the studio was concerned. Cimino also fell out of favor during the production due to massive, and most often wasteful, spending. Ultimately, the film cost something along the lines of forty-million dollars, and ended up earning back a mere three million. When adjusted to today's standards of inflation, that would be akin to a film costing $120 million and recouping nine million. Which, in case you don't know, is horrible.

--Heaven's Gate holds the distinction of being the only single film in cinematic history to have caused a film studio to go belly-up and die, in this case United Artists. Once it was clear that the film's disastrous run was turning up more and more negative publicity and not so much by way of actual monies, the Transamerica Corporation (which owned UA at the time) withdrew from movie productions all together in order to save its reputation, selling UA to MGM along the way. Of course, MGM would eventually go on to resurrect UA as a subsidiary, but for a while there, United Artists was dead, thanks to Heaven's Gate…which is a bit unfair to the film, as had the company that owned UA didn't necessarily HAVE to pull out because of the film. But still, technically, Heaven's Gate killed UA, albeit indirectly.

--The seventies saw the rise of certain up-and-coming film directors that have since gone on to be considered greats of their generation, such as Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Martin Scorsese. Despite their young ages at the time as well as their relative inexperience (all things considering), the studios granted these directors (and others, as well) large budgets and almost total control for their films…and, naturally, Cimino was one of these then-rising directors. Sometimes, the (somewhat) untainted visions of the directors produced true classics, such as Apocalypse Now, Jaws, and Star Wars; it also produced Heaven's Gate, and after that particular film's release, studios clamped down in regards to money and control allowed to directors, a consequence of HG that's still felt to this day.

--Another long-lasting consequence felled from Heaven's Gate passing lies in the domain of animal cruelty on film sets. During the making of the picture, it was claimed that: four horses had been killed on set, including one being BLOWN UP in an explosion, in a stunt that ended up in the final cut; the necks of other horses had been cut for the purposes of taking the blood and smearing it on the actors, (which in turn was for the purposes of…realism? I don't know, but it sounds kind of screwed up…), and after which the horses weren't given medication to soothe the pain; and, apparently, cows were disemboweled so that their intestines could be used for props. As production of the film went along, the American Humane Association was prevented from setting foot on set; after Heaven's Gate however, the AHA has become more present on the sets for every film that has been made since.

--Finally, it probably wouldn't be too far off base to conclude that Heaven's Gate, along with Blazing Saddles, played a part in the downfall that Western-based major motion pictures felt in the 1980's. After Blazing Saddles took every aspect of Western films and ridiculed it to the point of really making Westerns look somewhat stupid, and after the epic failure Heaven's Gate, one can imagine that most studios would become hesitant in producing lavish Westerns, as they no doubt felt that the genre (and its capacity to earn substantial profits) had come and gone. And there has to be at least SOME truth to such a supposition, as the ‘80's were a horrible decade for Westerns, considering the many truly great Western pictures that were produced in the twenty year span BEFORE the 1980's.

And so, with all that said, I'm sure that my listing the film as an Honorable Mention to my 50 Great Westerns list comes across as being…well, ABSURD. Don't get me wrong, the theatrical cut for Heaven's Gate is indeed atrocious; it's boring, bland, and ultimately meaningless. However, honestly, that's NOT the film's fault…whoever edited the thing obviously didn't know what the hell they were doing. Cimino's original cut for the film was around five-and-a-half hours long; the original theatrical cut was released at around two-and-a-half hours, which obviously meant that half of Cimino's originally intended film was left on the cutting room floor – along with a lot of the plot, apparently. I have seen both cuts of the film, being the theatrical version and the three-and-a-half hour long ‘director's cut' (which isn't the complete near-six hour epic that Cimino first turned in to the studio…I don't even know if that cut survived past 1980), and, honestly, the longer version was much better and quite a bit more comprehendible.

As such, that's why I'm granting Heaven's Gate a spot here on my Honorable Mentions: it's really not as bad as what history deems it to be. Is the movie good enough to actually be considered just outside the fifty greatest Westerns of all-time? Definitely not. Is it good enough to be considered in the Top 100 Westerns? No. Top 200? Probably not. Does it deserve to be considered one of the worst films ever created? No. Trust me, I've seen much, MUCH worse than Heaven's Gate.

Wyatt Earp (1994): As I'm sure quite a few of you may remember, the mid-90's saw the release of no less than two films about Wyatt Earp and his ‘posse' during the events that occurred at the O.K. Corral in the once-boom-town of Tombstone. As such, there was a bit of a rivalry between the two productions (the details of which I'll divulge at a later date…), and when all was said and done after the two films had come and gone before nationwide audiences, it was only natural for the court of popular opinion to decide a ‘winner' between the two. And…well, that ‘winner' wasn't Wyatt Earp, at least at that time. Of course, in all actuality, the only real common trait that the two films shared was indeed by way of the Earp's and their dealings with the Clanton Gang; beyond that, they were almost as different as night and day. The other film was much more of a high-octane, adrenaline-pumping Western ‘shoot-‘em up'; Wyatt Earp, on the other hand, was a Western Epic, not merely content to focus on the happenings during Earp's stint as Marshall of Tombstone. It was, for all intents and purposes, essentially a docu-drama about the life of one of the Wild West's most celebrated lawmen.

As for my own cent's worth, I've always preferred the OTHER Earp film over Wyatt Earp. At the time that both were released, Wyatt Earp seemed overlong and plodding when compared to the tight, fast pace of the other. I should also note that the initial stages of my (since then) long-standing disenchantment with Kevin Costner (who stars as Earp in this film, and produced the picture, as well) coincided with the release of this picture. To be more specific, Costner's somewhat stoic and, at times, wooden acting was beginning to bore me personally, and, what's more, I was beginning to tire of this certain period of time where Costner seemed to star in Epic films exclusively. Sure, I loved both Dances with Wolves and JFK, and I liked Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves enough, but soon the thought of longer films starring Costner as an emotionally subdued character caused my interest in the man and his films to wane…to the point that, to this day, I believe I've only seen Waterworld once, and I've never even finished The Postman. Oh well, that was then, and nowadays, I've grown to like Wyatt Earp more and more, and, to be honest, the movie just narrowly escaped from making the list.

The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968): What can I say? It's a slapstick Western-Comedy starring the great Don Knotts. I grew up watching Knotts as Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, and if you love him too, you'll find this movie hilarious. It's actually a remake of a Bob Hope film called The Paleface; I've never seen that particular film, but I'd like to think that Shakiest Gun is the funnier of the two. Don Knotts is just that damn good.

The War Wagon (1967): The War Wagon is one of my own personal favorites, as it also stands as being one of the very first Westerns that I can recall seeing. As such, seeing as how it stars the great John Wayne, it also stands as probably being one of, if not the, very first film starring The Duke that I ever saw. That being said, the role that the Duke plays in The War Wagon is one of those atypical roles that's different from most of the more typical Wayne roles that he was/is known for portraying in his Westerns. In the film, Wayne plays the part of the ‘villain' (put in quotes because, all things considering, he's not the real villain of the picture, though his character is a thief and thus should be considered as a bad guy), and it may very well be the first time Wayne played the part of an out-and-out rogue that wasn't rehabilitated at the end. The film is also a bit of a low-brow comedy, and a bit of your classic ‘heist' film, ala The Italian Job. The film is also one part in the vein of the classic television series, The Wild, Wild West; though The War Wagon doesn't harbor any of the sci-fi shenanigans that that particular show did, the film does indeed feature a completely iron-armored stagecoach that rumbles through the desert carrying a fortune in gold tucked away inside its belly…which is a bit of a silly concept for a Western. Wayne also stars opposite the great Kirk Douglas, which may very well make this (to the best of my knowledge, though I could be wrong) the very first Wayne vehicle where he shared the screen with another giant film superstar (not counting Dean Martin or Ricky Nelson, if you count them).

But perhaps what's most atypical of The War Wagon in accordance to the more usual Wayne fare is that this film almost stands as being a bit of a parody of the Western genre, effectively poking fun of and turning the normal conventions of the genre (i.e. the ‘heroes' lose, the Indians win, etc.) on its ear. What makes this particular film – a Wayne film that is a Western parody – so unusual given its star at the time, is that in his younger days Wayne had been extremely steadfast in holding fast to depicting Westerns in that traditional sense, where the hero could beat the unbeatable odds, the townsfolk loved him and flocked to him, and the bad guys always lost…but I'm saving the specifics about Wayne's past actions in that regard for the upcoming weeks. Needless to say, I loved this movie as a kid and I still do, and it's well worth checking out, if only for the change of pace that the Duke gives us here.

The Villain (1979): Ah, The Villain! Back in my childhood, I remember that my parents had one VHS cassette recorded that contained dubbed copies of (in this order) Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Destroyer, and The Villain…and I can distinctly remember watching the hell outta this film as a kid. Do I think it's a great movie? Hell yeah, I do. But, to be honest, I list it here more for your – the reader's – own morbid curiosity. You see, The Villain is a Western starring Kirk Douglas as the titular villain, which really shouldn't make you all THAT curious, as Douglas is one of the finest actors of all time, and no stranger to being the villain or being in a Western; the hero of the picture, however, is played by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, that's right – Arnold. In a Western. ARNOLD?!? Doesn't he just scream ‘Wild West Sheriff' along the lines of, say, James Arness, or John Wayne? But wait, there's more! You see, The Villain is not only a Western starring Arnold, but it's a ludicrous Western-comedy starring Arnold and Kirk, one of the finest actors of all-time.

But wait, there's even MORE! Not only is The Villain a Western-comedy starring Kirk Douglas as the villain and Arnold Schwarzenegger as the hero, the film is a live-action Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote Western-comedy starring Kirk Douglas as the villain and Arnold Schwarzenegger as the hero. Imagine, if you will, the great Kirk Douglas sneaking around a canyon, when he spots Arnold's heroic wagon flying at ungodly speeds across the desert. Upon seeing this, ol' Kirk sprints towards a sheer cliff-face, takes out a bucket of paint and a brush, and paints a tunnel on the cliff. Except, of course, it's not a real tunnel, just a painting on a cliff…but, naturally, when Arnold hits the wall, he passes right through it as though it really WERE a tunnel. Kirk, of course, immediately mounts his horse, wheels it about at and rockets towards the cliff at a breakneck pace, and…splats against the cliff. You see what I mean? Brilliant, and well worth searching out, just because it's Kirk Douglas doing zany crap (and doing it because he turned down a part in Blazing Saddles, and hoped to earn that money back here) and Arnold posing as a clueless Old West sheriff. Of course, I should note that if you've seen any actual Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote cartoons in your life before, you won't be seeing anything all that groundbreaking here.

Eagle's Wing (1979): Strange though it may sound, it was once highly regarded that European filmmakers had a better grasp on depicting the Old West than American filmmakers did, to the point that some would also claim that the European Westerns were a good sight better than the Westerns made in the Good Ol' U.S. of A. I've never really felt that way, personally; there were a few truly great Westerns to come out of Europe, but there were a good deal more great Westerns to be produced in America. Naturally, most of these highly regarded European Westerns were the Spaghetti Westerns, named as such due to the fact that they were typically produced and directed by Italians…and still most of THOSE highly regarded films were created by one man, namely Sergio Leone. Of course, Italy wasn't the only European country to put out some decent Westerns; Britain did it as well. Unfortunately, my own personal favorite British-crafted Western is an underrated gem in my opinion, and underrated because, well, it's a Western that seems to be under-watched -- Eagle's Wing (duh).

As I said before, due to the many structural similarities between the two, my love for Fantasy and my love for Westerns have largely gone hand-in-hand over the years. Now, of course, one main ingredient missing in the Fantasy/Western comparison is that fact that the magical/supernatural element that defines the Fantasy genre typically plays no part in Westerns, with a few exceptions that deal with ghosts and such. Like nearly all Westerns, Eagle's Wing doesn't have any magical/supernatural elements to be found within it, either; however, unlike a lot of other films from the genre, this movie has always seemed to be that true Fantasy-Western hybrid, if only due to the film's scenery and cinematography. The film's plot largely deals with a Native American and white fur trapper as they struggle over ownership of this seemingly mystical white horse; yet, while the movie is supposed to take place somewhere in the American West (it was shot in Mexico), the West that the movie presents seems like a strange and unusual land straight out of some mythical fable. One of the scenes of the film that has stuck with me to this very day is the scene where the Indian (played by Sam Waterston from Law and Order…which, again, is strange) sneaks up on a wagon, in the midst of this heavy, choking fog. The film even ends on a horseback duel between the Indian and Martin Sheen that seems as though it'd be more at home being depicted as a medieval jousting match. Everything in this movie just seems so…different from other Westerns. And that's more than enough reason for someone to check it out.

The Quick and the Dead (1995): It's pretty amazing that I like this movie, actually. Being raised by far more traditional Western-film fans, it should go without saying that when my mother rented this movie for myself, my dad, and my grandfather to watch, it didn't go over very well, particularly in regards to Grandpa Joe. In fact, I think that it's fairly safe to say that Grandpa hated the thing – absolutely LOATHED it – and about the only responses that the film was able to get a rise out of him were either condemning chuckles or curse words (like, ‘What the good God-damn is all this?'). Being younger and supposedly more ‘hip' than my grandfather didn't cause me to go any easier on the movie, either; I had been raised straight and true on your more traditional Westerns, and, as such, I completely disregarded the film much as my grandpa and my parents had done. Yes, the film is directed by Sam Raimi, one of my favorites…but, at that particular time in my life, the Raimi name meant nothing to me.

As time has gone on, I've grown to like the movie more and more each and every time I've watched it since that initial viewing. In case you've never seen the film, suffice to say that The Quick and the Dead is your basic ‘shoot-‘em-up', complete with crazy gun duels and battles, and a simple, straightforward revenge tale. The movie could probably be considered as a B-movie Western, considering just how absurd and goofy the film can get…but, as with the best B-movies, there's really something to be enjoyed here, if you have a taste for such things. With Sharon Stone in the main lead as the incomparable gunslinger, it should be obvious that the camp-factor is being pushed to the extreme, and, what's more, the film contains some of the earliest big-roles for two of this decade's greatest actors, namely Russell Crowe and Leonardo Di Caprio. But, as is usually the case with him, the film really stands as being Gene Hackman's show, as his vile, detestable villain is fantasticly cartoony and over-the-top (though not as deep as Little Bill), which fits the bill for this movie just fine. Over the years since my grandpa's death, this film has really grown on me quite a bit, almost for the sole reason that…well, it is what it is, and it doesn't try to be anything other than that. Obviously, if you're more of a traditionalist when it comes to Westerns, then you'd probably be somewhat appalled at The Quick and the Dead (unless, of course, you pick up the 1987 Sam Elliot made-for-TV Western, also titled The Quick and the Dead…and is also pretty good). For everyone else, it's fine just as it is.

Jesse James (1939): Due to my hailing from the rural countryside in Mid-Missouri AND to harboring a life-long deep interest in the Old West, of course I grew up knowing just who Jesse James was, as well as Jesse's history with Quantrill's Raiders, the Pinkertons (a precursor to the FBI), Frank James, Bob Ford, Cole Younger, and other infamous members of the James Gang. To this day, I hold fond memories of my cousins and I slipping off into the woods with our old toy cap-guns that were in the mold of six-shooters and rifles, running amongst the tall trees and high grass, make-believing that we were members of the James Gang. Of course, in those days, while I did indeed know just WHO Jesse was and that he was indeed an outlaw, my knowledge of the man really only went so far as the myth of the man; you see, it never really crossed my mind that us kids were fantasizing about being murderers and generally ‘not-nice people'. To us, and probably as he was to a lot of other people, Jesse James was a noble folk-hero in the vein of Robin Hood – a man from a poor upbringing that robbed from the rich to give to the poor. In reality, James was no hero; he didn't rob from the rich to give to others who were needy. He robbed from the rich and gave to himself and his gang. He was a murderer, who, during an infamous massacre of Lawrence, Kansas by the James' when they rode with Quantrill, may or may not have slain women and children. Jesse James (probably like Billy the Kid, Wild Bill Hickok, and maybe even Wyatt Earp) would be, by today's standards, a piece of crap, albeit one molded by the violent times he lived in, and who, like a lot of other Old West personalities, would eventually gain his mythic status due mainly to fictional exploits featuring the man in dime-store novels that were published at the time. But still…when I was a kid, I loved the idea of Jesse James. He was, after all, one of the most famous Missourians to have ever lived. That should count for something, right?

And, of course, I loved this movie in my younger days; I still do, in fact. This particular movie about Jesse and Frank James was the perfect vehicle to fuel my interest in the man during my childhood, and for one simple reason: it wasn't about the man – it was about the myth. Here, Jesse IS portrayed as being that Robin Hood-like figure, a good and decent man driven to be an outlaw by unspeakable atrocities perpetrated upon him and his family by others. Needless to say, if you're the type of person who prefers films to be historically accurate when they concern themselves with historical peoples, then I'm sure you'll be horrified at the general disregard for actual events in this film. But by no means should any steer clear of this movie because of that; it's a well-made film, and it tells a fantastic little adventure yarn. However, I should note that this film isn't so much famous nowadays as much as it's infamous; for one scene, the director had a horse ridden off a cliff to its death, with the horse blindfolded so that it wouldn't stop short of the cliff, and it is BECAUSE of this picture that the previously mentioned AHA became involved in making sure animals were treated properly during the filmmaking process. Still I've always loved this movie; I'd even recommend its sequel, The Return of Frank James, which amazingly features an even MORE historically inaccurate plot which sees Frank James hunting down Bob and Charlie Ford to reap vengeance for the murder of his brother. Both are great Westerns from the early days of the Golden Age for the genre.

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Ok, that's it for this week! Come back next week when, you know, we actually get to the list (with pictures!), and crack into the 50 Great Westerns! And remember to bookmark 411mania.com. Ashish will send cookies to your computer if you do.