I prefer The Wild Bunch, but High Country ought to be in the top ten IMO. Not sure I'd call The Treasure of the Sierra Madre a western. I always thought it took place in the 21st Century and was more of an adventure yarn. Great movie, though.
The one I like (though it doesn't belong in the Top 5; maybe Top 15) is Winchester '73 with Jimmy Stewart. And I do like Ride the High Country quite a bit, especially with it being Scott and McCrea's last roles. It's Peckinpah's placing flowers on the alter of the traditional western that he would eventually blow open with TNT and the Wild Bunch.
I think that this is a very good list, if for no other reason than that the creator not only tells you what the films are but gives a detailed an well reasoned explanation of his reasons for including the various films. I might quibble over Treasure of the Sierra Madre mainly because it is contemporary - it could be set in 1880 or today without much in the way of alteration - but that's quibbling.
The one film I'd reject would be Rio Bravo (well and Maybe "Treasure"). Don't get me wrong I love the movie, but I just don't think it's as worthy of this list as films like Red River, Stagecoach or the first two "Cavalry Trilogy" films Fort Apache and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon.
I had a feeling someone would say that about RIO BRAVO. I have to admit that you're right, but it remains (and will always remain) one of my favorite westerns. Whether it's worth of a "best" is another thing entirely.
I believe "Ride the High Country," along with "Lonely Are the Brave" and "The Man who Shot Liberty Valance," all 1962, inaugurated the "end of the West" cycle of Westerns that continued through the '60s and into the early '70s, ending up on the other side with "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid," "Judge Roy Bean," and "My Name Is Nobody" in 1973-74. Other movies in the cycle: "Hud," "The Professionals," "Once Upon a Time in the West," "Butch Cassidy," "The Wild Bunch (as Scott notes)," "The Over the Hill Gang," "Cable Hogue," "Big Jake," "Monte Walsh," "McCabe," and "Wild Rovers." With "Bite the Bullet," "The Last Hard Men," and "The Shootist" as later appendices. And then there's the smaller but still notable genre of '60s-'70s westerns that co-starred Playboy playmates or actresses who did tie-in photo layouts for Playboy ("Cable Hogue"-Stella Stevens, "The Trackers"-Connie Kreski, "McKenna's Gold"-Julie Newmar," "The Wrath of God"-Paula Pritchett). While the end-of-the-West and the related Revisionist Western cycles have been well studied by film students, a definitive study of the Playboy cycle remains to be written ...
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I second that emotion...but am I the only individual who thinks Ride the High Country runs rings around The Wild Bunch?
Maybe not rings, but it would be in my top 5.
I prefer The Wild Bunch, but High Country ought to be in the top ten IMO. Not sure I'd call The Treasure of the Sierra Madre a western. I always thought it took place in the 21st Century and was more of an adventure yarn. Great movie, though.
I meant 20th century. You know, the one I belong to.
I kind of think of you as belonging to the 19th.
It's always easy to criticize these lists....so that's what I'm gonna do.
I think The Good, the Bad & The Ugly and Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid should be ranked #1 and #2 respectively.
The one I like (though it doesn't belong in the Top 5; maybe Top 15) is Winchester '73 with Jimmy Stewart. And I do like Ride the High Country quite a bit, especially with it being Scott and McCrea's last roles. It's Peckinpah's placing flowers on the alter of the traditional western that he would eventually blow open with TNT and the Wild Bunch.
I think that this is a very good list, if for no other reason than that the creator not only tells you what the films are but gives a detailed an well reasoned explanation of his reasons for including the various films. I might quibble over Treasure of the Sierra Madre mainly because it is contemporary - it could be set in 1880 or today without much in the way of alteration - but that's quibbling.
The one film I'd reject would be Rio Bravo (well and Maybe "Treasure"). Don't get me wrong I love the movie, but I just don't think it's as worthy of this list as films like Red River, Stagecoach or the first two "Cavalry Trilogy" films Fort Apache and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon.
I had a feeling someone would say that about RIO BRAVO. I have to admit that you're right, but it remains (and will always remain) one of my favorite westerns. Whether it's worth of a "best" is another thing entirely.
I believe "Ride the High Country," along with "Lonely Are the Brave" and "The Man who Shot Liberty Valance," all 1962, inaugurated the "end of the West" cycle of Westerns that continued through the '60s and into the early '70s, ending up on the other side with "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid," "Judge Roy Bean," and "My Name Is Nobody" in 1973-74. Other movies in the cycle: "Hud," "The Professionals," "Once Upon a Time in the West," "Butch Cassidy," "The Wild Bunch (as Scott notes)," "The Over the Hill Gang," "Cable Hogue," "Big Jake," "Monte Walsh," "McCabe," and "Wild Rovers." With "Bite the Bullet," "The Last Hard Men," and "The Shootist" as later appendices. And then there's the smaller but still notable genre of '60s-'70s westerns that co-starred Playboy playmates or actresses who did tie-in photo layouts for Playboy ("Cable Hogue"-Stella Stevens, "The Trackers"-Connie Kreski, "McKenna's Gold"-Julie Newmar," "The Wrath of God"-Paula Pritchett). While the end-of-the-West and the related Revisionist Western cycles have been well studied by film students, a definitive study of the Playboy cycle remains to be written ...
A cycle well worth studying, it seems to me.
Perhaps grist for a future OWLHOOT mailing.
Connie Kreski? I gotta see that movie.
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