The MoFo Top 100 Westerns: Countdown

A little bit of catching up for the last three entries that, not only have I watched, but all are on my List:

Starting with The Wild Bunch at #3:

Whoops, WRONG Wild Bunch --
I meant THESE guys:

This is my second Peckinpah film on my list, the first being Ride The Big Country and between the two you can easily get a very strong sense of Peckinpah's style and his influence on both the Western genre as well as films in general.
As a pup this was my indoctrination into the man, the legend and from there in my late teens and early twenties I ran the gambit of what would become one of my early favorite Directors. It's long, drawn out opening featuring scorpions in the hot blazing sun setting the intensity and unforgiving tale about to unfold.
It's well known that Peckinpah did a complete 180 when he opened this film with a huge shootout. Something that was deemed for the climax of a film, not the opening. Adding another clue that there was something new, something very dangerous coming over the horizon.
With a strong cast and, what would come to be signatures of Peckinpah, the mixture of violence and dark contemplation of a long hard road nearing its completion, The Wild Bunch is an iconic film for d@mn good reason.


Followed by Who Shot Liberty Valance at #18:



The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Ransom Stoddard: You're not going to use the story, Mr. Scott?
Maxwell Scott: No, sir. This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

With the usual "Line in the Sand" morality that I've come to acknowledge in a John Ford film, or rather in the small, but upper echelon, list of films I've seen, we watch as a "young" lawyer (Jimmy Stewart) with an idealistic belief in civilized justice aka the law clashes with the violent, lawless ruffian Liberty Valance played with a slimy repugnance befitting a John Ford villain with the brilliance that Lee Marvin brings. The only true shield (whether Stewart's' Stoddard wants it or not) is John Wayne playing the dour Doniphon.

Backing them and the story is a strong cast that includes Vera Miles, Andy Devine, Edmond O'Brien, Strother Martin, Lee Van Cleef, Woody Strode and a cameo by John Carradine done with Shakespearean gusto.

While the film appears to follow the inevitable duel between Stoddard and Valance it is more about the "legends" that become the preference to the actual "truth" of a well known incident. Kind of makes you wonder about so many western legends and what was the actual true occurrence in many of them. Commenting strongly on those that rise to prominence due to the legend and how it leaves others behind.

A stout morality tale and a very worthwhile Western I'll be revisiting.

and finishing up with the winner of the 13th HoF, Dances With Wolves at #4:



Dances With Wolves Extended Version

When this first came out, I was quite a huge fan and could not count the times I watched it within the following decade.
It soon went to the wayside, for no particular reason and now, WITH the extended version, I am more than just a little happy to re-visit this.
As previously noted, I have not had an easy time, online or at my library finding, firstly, the extended version, and THEN, one with subtitles. Refusing to see it any other way.
My resolution paid off and I found exactly that and I was VERY overjoyed, for it.

So, the answers to WHY Fort Sedgewick was empty is answered, along with a number of situations between characters that I knew nothing of in my earlier, Theatrical viewings. Making for a much fuller movie experience for me.

I've always enjoyed Costner and many of his movies. My #1 Western is his Open Range. He IS a solid story teller who can bring the viewer in, emotionally, with, it seems, barely trying. His heroes are more human than legend; with flaws and failings, who rise to the challenges thrown at them. Dunbar is another of those heroes and his sojourn through it all is an engaging sight to see.

What is also a staple in a Costner film is the excellent people he has working with him. The actors/actresses bring the lifeblood of this film and, for many scenes, the reasons that brings you in and holds you secure for the film. Characters like Wind in His Hair and Kicking Bird and his wife and many of the Sioux were endearing people who, like Dunbar's character, were very much human, not bigger than life. And that truly makes all the difference in the world for a movie like this.
On the opposite end, there are a number of Blue Coats that do an excellent job. Specifically, the Major at the Post that Dunbar receives his orders to go to Fort Sedgewick. There was a sad beauty to this tragic figure and was incredibly played by Maury Chaykin.

I have truly missed this film and with this reunion I have now found MORE to love in the extended version.



Movies Watched 68 out of 94 (72.34%)

John Wayne Films: Five
Clint Eastwood Films: One

MY LIST
1. Will Make it
2. Open Range (#36)
3. The Wild Bunch (#9)
4. Dances With Wolves (#7)
5. Will Make it
6. Ride The High Country (#63)
7. The Proposition (#46)
8. SHOULD Make it
9. Won't Make It
10. The Cowboys (#50)
11. The Grey Fox (#66)
12. The Great Silence (#34)
13. The Gunfighter (#40)
14. 3:10 To Yuma '07 (#29)
15. Oxbow Incident (#19)
16. Rio Bravo (#10)
17. True Grit '10 (#22)
18. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (#8)
19. The Quick & The Dead (#42)
20. High Plains Drifter (#31)
21. Might Not Make it
22. The Big Country (#27)
23. Stagecoach (#23)
24. Red River (#56)
25. Dirty Little Billy (#108)

Rectification List (for my own old decrepit noodle)
1. Warlock (#94)
2. Naked Spur (#86)
3. The Great Train Robbery (#60)
4. Winchester '73 (#53)
5. 3:10 To Yuma ['57] (#48)
6. Jeremiah Johnson (#37)

__________________
What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes

~Mr Minio

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

“People gotta talk themselves into law and order before they do anything about it. Maybe because down deep they don't care? They just don't care.”

Here’s hoping John Wayne is spinning in his grave. The “un-American” High Noon lands in the sixth position on the countdown, and on Independence Day. Gary Cooper won his second Best Actor Oscar (the first was for Sergeant York) as Will Kane, the Marshall of a small New Mexico town. As the film opens he is marrying the gorgeous Amy (Grace Kelly) with the intention to retire from law enforcement and move to another town to open a store and raise a family. But he learns Frank Miller (Ian McDonald) is arriving on the noon train. He sent Miller away to be executed for murder but the sentence was commuted and he is coming back to exact revenge on Kane. The action, done in real time, follows Kane as he tries to get support from the townspeople against Miller and his gang (Sheb Wooley, Lee Van Cleef, and Robert J. Wilke) who are patiently awaiting his arrival at the depot. His new wife is a Quaker and wants to leave town immediately, but with the new Marshall not yet in town Will feels it his responsibility to stay and face them. The rest of the town does not want to be involved, including the deputy (Lloyd Bridges), the judge (Otto Kruger), the Mayor (Thomas Mitchell), nor the former Marshall (Lon Chaney Jr.). The town has a variety of reasons, from straight cowardice to loyalty to Miller to feeling like it is simply not their job. Despite the lack of communal support Kane stays to fight. Harry Morgan, Katy Jurado, Morgan Farley, and Harry Shannon round out the cast.

Directed by Fred Zinnemann (#91 Oklahoma! as well as From Here to Eternity, A Man for All Seasons, and Day of the Jackal), produced by Stanley Kramer (Judgment at Nuremberg, Inherit the Wind), and written by Carl Foreman. Foreman is why the film came to be seen as an allegory for McCarthyism. During production he was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and questioned about his ties to Communism. He admitted briefly being a member of the American Communist Party in the late ‘30s but had quit while still a young man. HUAC insisted he name names of other members. He refused and was Blacklisted. He wrote a few more scripts in Hollywood under pseudonyms but moved to England where he wrote The Bridge on the River Kwai and The Guns of Navarone. John Wayne led the charge to denounce High Noon as Commie propaganda and an indictment of the wonderful McCarthyism. The movie was a hit and won four Oscars: Cooper’s Best Actor, Best Editing, and Dimitri Tiomkin for both Best Original Score And Best Original song (“Do Not Forsake Me, Oh, My Darling”, sung by John Ritter’s father Tex Ritter). But in an upset it did not win Best Picture. That went to Cecil B. DeMille’s circus picture The Greatest Show on Earth, which routinely makes the list of worst Best Picture winners. It is speculated that Wayne and columnist Hedda Hopper’s whisper campaign against it derailed its Best Picture chances. Cecil B. DeMille was another pro-McCarthy voice in Hollywood.

Whether it was intended as an allegory or not it endures as a Western classic that was on thirty-three MoFo ballots, a mighty twenty-two of them top ten votes: three first place, one second, two third, two fourth, a fifth, FIVE seventh, two eighth, four ninth, and two tenth place. That produced a jump of 82 points between it and Dances with Wolves, breaking the 500-point barrier.

I was very apathetic to High Noon, but obviously I'm in the minority.

__________________

High Noon is one the legendary westerns and I'm glad it cracked the top 5.


If a picture is worth a thousand words, than that picture says it all....One man alone, facing his destiny. He could have left town and been safely miles away, but out of a sense of duty he stays. The town's people won't help him, even friends find a way to shun him.

This is an idea film, it's not character driven, not dialogue driven....it's scene driven. And damn this has some fine, tight editing. There's nothing wasted, all fat is trimmed off the film. We don't know much about the characters and we don't need to.

It's the real time pacing that takes us from scene to scene as the Marshall tries to find help in a town that has forsaken him. This is brilliant film making, done succinct.

Gary Cooper is the ultimate minimalist actor. He says little and what he does say is emotionally controlled...but look at his eyes and you can see he's in the moment, he's a darn good actor.

Grace Kelley...here she's cast perfectly as the young principled wife...a Quaker who abhors violence. Like the town's folk, she's not willing to stand by her husband, but instead gives him an ultimatum. In a way she's cast as a secondary antagonist. This look on her face says it all:
The town of Hadleyville looks great and very realistic. Hadleyville...is exist! Only it's a real ghost town called Columbia in Northern California.

High Noon has been described as a western for people who don't like westerns. I don't know about that but, it's certainly a one of a kind, classic film. I really enjoyed it.

Rating

Hey how about that, I didn't even mention McCarthyism and black listing, well not yet!




High Noon...A classic tale of one man, alone and against the odds. It's also a potent allegorical message about the dangers of knuckling under to bullies. At the time High Noon was made those bullies were the rightwingers on a communist witch hunt using the the power of the Congressional House of Un-American Activities Committee to harass, intimated and destroy the careers of alleged communist sympathizers...especially those working in Hollywood. The power that the committee wielded was frightful and if one dared to stand up for their accused friends, they too could end up in front of the committee. The writer of High Noon would be accused of communist ties and would be force to flee the country before High Noon even hit the theaters. To me, this back story of why the film was written is all important.

Except it didn't...

__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

I saw Dances with Wolves back when it was in the movie theaters, and I loved it. I rewatched it, (on a cable movie channel), when it was nominated in a HoF, but for some reason, I just didn't love it as much as I once did, but I don't know why. After not liking it as much on the rewatch, I hadn't planned to rewatch it again for this countdown, but a couple of days before I was ready to send in my list, I noticed the Collector's Edition, Extended Version DVD sitting on my shelf, and I decided that I should give it another chance. I'm glad I did because this time I loved it as much as I did the first time I saw it. It was the very last movie that I watched for this countdown, and it made my list at #21.

High Noon is one of the movies that I had seen many times before, and It was immediately added to my list when this countdown was announced. It moved up and down my list as other movies were watched, added, and removed. I rewatched it again shortly before the deadline, and it eventually landed at #15 on my list.


My list so far:
1) Oklahoma! (1955)
3) No Name on the Bullet (1959)
6) Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)
7) The Frisco Kid (1979)
8) The Gunfighter (1950)
9) Maverick (1994)
12) North to Alaska (1960)
13) The Bravados (1958)
14) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
15) High Noon (1952)
16) City Slickers (1991)
17) The Hanging Tree (1959)
18) Rio Bravo (1959)
19) Winchester '73 (1950)
20) The Quick and The Dead (1995)
21) Dances with Wolves (1990)
22) The Ox-Bow Incident (1942)
23) El Dorado (1967)
25) Incredible Rocky Mountain Race (TV Movie - 1977)

__________________
.
If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.

High Noon topped my list - should be higher than #6 imo but at least it's higher than most.

Seen: 59/95

Faildictions (yee-haw version 1.12):
5. The Good The Bad The Weird

High Noon


Really, a perfect movie to me. I had it at #4.

The Immigrant Who Directed The American Classic 'High Noon'



Pioneer, Feminist, Proud Mexican: Katy Jurado Changed Hollywood In The 1950s

6?


Typed a whole psychoanalytical rant about honourable men and high noon not making the top 5 being a sign of the times but I backspaced it all.. High Noon is my #2, it's perfect.

Seen list 64/95

My ballot 20/25:

1. .............
2. High Noon 1952
3. ..............
4. Jeremiah Johnson 1972
5. ...............
6. ...............
7. One-Eyed Jacks 1961
8. The Gunfighter 1950
9. Rio Bravo 1959
10. The Outlaw Josey Wales 1976
11. Young Guns 1988
12. Tombstone 1993
13. My Name Is Nobody 1973
14. Dances with Wolves 1990
15. The Big Country 1958
16. The Ox-Bow Incident 1943
17. Hell or High Water 2016
18. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid 1973
19. The Hateful Eight 2015
20. McCabe & Mrs. Miller 1971
21. The Mercenary 1968
22. The Great Silence 1968
23. The Wild Bunch 1969
24. Dead Man 1995
25. - 0%

Dances With Wolves is a great movie for me and I was glad to see it at the cinema in one of the giant, old movie palaces that was built in the 50's. The theater was still in grand condition and it was so fine to see this movie there. Costner was obviously the star but I thought he generously shared the screen time with his co-stars, particularly Mary McDonnell, Rodney A. Grant, and a super Graham Greene. Still, I totally forgot about this movie when compiling my list.

High Noon is an all-time classic and it was the hardest cut I made from my list. I knew it would make it really high on the list. I kind of figured it would be Top 5 but what do I know. Still, a great movie however you slice it.

__________________
"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was my #17. It's a well made film with a well told story, although all of the actors are too old.

High Noon was my #1. Tense and compelling throughout. Excellent film.

It took me like 3 times to really get into High Noon but I'm finally a fan.

3. Little Big Man (#39)
4. The Ox-Bow Incident (#19)
5. The Big Country (#27)
6. The Wild Bunch (#9)
7. Shane (#43)
8. McC abe and Mrs. Miller (#17)
9. One-Eyed Jacks (#32)
10. My Darling Clementine (#44)
11. The Shootist (#57)
12. The Man Who Short Liberty Valance (#8)
14. Django Unchained (#12)
15. Dances with Wolves (#7)
16. For a Few Dollars More (#18)
18. Day of the Outlaw (#77)
19. Red River (#56)
21. The Cowboys (#50)
22. High Noon (#6)
23. Open Range (#36)
24. The Furies (#84)
25. Winchester 73 (#53)

High Noon was #8 on my list. Great one.

Possibly my mum's favourite film once... Back when she could watch films or any 'pretending'

__________________
5-time MoFo Award winner.

High Noon is a good film, and I think if I watch it again my opinion could change further, but it didn’t make my list

They're showing BTTF3 on telly right now... 2pm Saturday... and most of it has been cut out because it's unsuitable to be shown at this time of day

__________________