So I've made a list of some great westerns that I feel slipped under the radar. Using my patented "stolen from Esquire" format, I'll tell you why you should watch and because I am GREAT, where ever possible I've included links to the full films online. Anytime the title is a hyperlink, you're one click away from watching.
No obvious classics like Shane here, or even minor hits like The Tall T. These are the lost westerns, the ones left in the attic.
These are...
35 GREAT WESTERNS THAT YOU MAY NOT HAVE SEEN
AMERICAN PLAYHOUSE "THE BALLAD OF GREGORIO CORTEZ" (1982)
dir. Robert M. Young
Edward James Olmos plays Gregorio Cortez, a Mexican man on the run after a mistranslation leads to the death of a sheriff.
Because the quaking handheld photography was ahead if its time (the director would go on to do much of Battlestar Galactica), because Edward James Olmos puts every ounce into one of his most intense roles, and because the cruel comedy of race relations is on painfully vivid display.
Because the quaking handheld photography was ahead if its time (the director would go on to do much of Battlestar Galactica), because Edward James Olmos puts every ounce into one of his most intense roles, and because the cruel comedy of race relations is on painfully vivid display.
AND GOD SAID TO CAIN... (1970)
dir. Antonio Margheriti
Because it's dripping with haunted house atmosphere.
BROKEN DOWN FILM (1985)
dir. Osamu Tezuka
A cowboy fights a badman and a shoddy print.
Because they can't all be epics.
CHARLEY ONE-EYE (1973)
dir. Don Chaffey
A black soldier and a Native American face off against a bounty hunter.
Because it's worth watching everything with Richard Roundtree and because, even though it never achieves greatness, it is equal parts absurd and heartbreaking just like life.
CUT-THROATS NINE (1972)
dir. Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent
A deranged Army sergeant has to get seven inmates, his young daughter, and a fortune in gold across the frozen north.
Because of its total commitment to barbarism.
'DOC' (1971)
dir. Frank Perry
What if Wyatt Earp was a son of a bitch?
Because Stacy Keach, Faye Dunaway, and Harris Yulin bring a raw energy that's too often missing from the genre.
CHARLEY ONE-EYE (1973)
dir. Don Chaffey
Because it's worth watching everything with Richard Roundtree and because, even though it never achieves greatness, it is equal parts absurd and heartbreaking just like life.
CUT-THROATS NINE (1972)
dir. Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent
Because of its total commitment to barbarism.
'DOC' (1971)
dir. Frank Perry
Because Stacy Keach, Faye Dunaway, and Harris Yulin bring a raw energy that's too often missing from the genre.
EYES OF FIRE (1983)
dir. Avery Crounse
Because Val Lewton would've loved it.
A GUNFIGHT (1971)
dir. Lamont Johnson
Johnny Cash and Kirk Douglas play rival gunfighters in a deadly exhibition tournament.
Because Johnny Cash and Kirk Douglas play rival gunfighters. ...Okay also because of its Hemingway-esque exploration of masculinity and because it inspired one of the weirdest TV episodes out there. But because Johnny Cash and Kirk Douglas play rival goddamn gunfighters.
GUNSLINGER (1956)
Because it's an ahead-of-its-time more liberal riff on Johnny Guitar that makes up for the lack of Nicholas Ray's poetry with its own ugly, angry intelligence. And because despite all that it got thrown to the wolves in Mystery Science Theater 3000.
HELL'S HINGES (1916)
dir. Charles Swickard
Because William S. Hart - who owned Billy the Kid's revolvers - had a dusty authenticity nobody else can match, and because the avenging hero emerging from a burning building is an image as dramatic today as in 1916.
AT HOME AMONG STRANGERS (1974)
dir. Nikita Mikhalkov
Because the elegant gymnastics of the handheld camera are a beautiful counterpoint to the slouching naturalism of the actors.
Railroad barons break a truce with the Native Americans.
Because John Ford considered his brother the best filmmaker of his era, and ahead-of-their-time dramas like this suggest he might've been right.
LAW OF VENGEANCE (aka To the Last Man) (1933)
dir. Henry Hathaway
A young Randolph Scott and a surprisingly good Buster Crabbe fight it out in a post-Civil War land feud.
Because you just will not be able to believe how good it is, I promise.
dir. Henry Hathaway
Because you just will not be able to believe how good it is, I promise.
A MAN ALONE (1955)
dir. Ray Milland
Ray Milland stumbles on a stagecoach robbery turned massacre and must prove he didn't do it.
Because it's the best evidence that Ray Milland is one of our most under-appreciated directors, and because it's among the darkest and most haunting luminaries of the genre.
Because it's the best evidence that Ray Milland is one of our most under-appreciated directors, and because it's among the darkest and most haunting luminaries of the genre.
MAN FROM DEL RIO (1956)
dir. Harry Horner
A Mexican sheriff searches for respect.
Because as great as the main story is, it's Whit Bissell's drunken heartbreak that lingers.
dir. Harry Horner
Because as great as the main story is, it's Whit Bissell's drunken heartbreak that lingers.
MASSACRE TIME (1966)
dir. Lucio Fulci
Because there's a whip fight. What's more important than that?
THE PILGRIM (1916)
dir. Frank Borzage
Because you'll be holding your breath for a gunfight that doesn't come, because from the shocking humanity of the fight scene to the My Darling Clementine-esque coda it's a strong contender for the most soft-hearted and mature western ever made. Because it's ONE year after Birth of a Nation and it's a subtle, understated, tender romance of the west. Because Frank Borzage got there, and it took the rest of the art decades to catch up.
THE PROUD ONES (1956)
dir. Robert D. Webb
Because of the terrific Morricone-inspiring theme song, because of the genuinely exciting and tense action scenes, and because Robert Ryan as usual puts in a great turn as a gunman going blind.
THE NAKED DAWN (1955)
dir. Edgar G. Ulmer
A bandit falls in love with a farmer's wife.
Because Ulmer employs a series of long still takes that give the love triangle an impressive gravity, because it's the film that convinced Francois Truffaut that he could make Jules and Jim, and because it will make you fall in love just by showing a pair of legs.
dir. Edgar G. Ulmer
Because Ulmer employs a series of long still takes that give the love triangle an impressive gravity, because it's the film that convinced Francois Truffaut that he could make Jules and Jim, and because it will make you fall in love just by showing a pair of legs.
NO NAME ON THE BULLET (1959)
dir. Jack Arnold
Because Audie Murphy is playing Shane as Wilson.
THE RAID (1954)
dir. Hugo Fregonese
Confederate spies plan a raid in northern Maine, but have second thoughts as they wait in town for the order.
Because unfortunately hate is as strong a motivator as love, and because after Shane Van Helfin proves he's more than capable of leading a film.
RIDE HIM, COWBOY (1932)
dir. Fred Allen
John Wayne defends a horse accused of murder.
Because it's the best oater John Wayne made before he became John Wayne.
Because unfortunately hate is as strong a motivator as love, and because after Shane Van Helfin proves he's more than capable of leading a film.
RIDE HIM, COWBOY (1932)
dir. Fred Allen
Because it's the best oater John Wayne made before he became John Wayne.
THE SCAVENGERS (1969)
dir. Lee Frost
Because under the sex film veneer lies an unflinching, dark, unique portrait of racial and sexual violence.
SECRETS (1933)
dir. Frank Borzage
Leslie Howard and Mary Pickford run out west to escape her overbearing father.
Because it's possible nobody had better mastery over light and dark than Borzage and because of this absolutely astonishing scene in which a child dies during a shootout.
SEMINOLE (1953)
Because it's possible nobody had better mastery over light and dark than Borzage and because of this absolutely astonishing scene in which a child dies during a shootout.
SEMINOLE (1953)
dir. Budd Boetticher
Because even though its Everglades locale is as far east as they come, it's a stirring western in the spirit of Fort Apache, and because I would bet my bottom dollar Herzog watched it before making Aguirre
THE SIX SHOOTER "BEN SCOFIELD" (1953)
dir. Frank Burt
Jimmy Stewart plays Britt Ponset, fastest gun in the west, who in this episode must help an old man find his missing son, now a presumed bandit.
Because this quiet, lovely western radio show - killed within a season by the popularity of TV - might be the most honest and sweet Jimmy Stewart performance.
THE STRANGE SON OF THE SHERIFF (1982)
dir. Fernando Durán Rojas
A sheriff's wife dies birthing conjoined twins. He sacrifies one of the children to save the other, and seven years later the dead boy's ghost returns.
Because even though it looks 20 years older than it is, it's an occasionally creepy and always inventive little weird western.
THE SIX SHOOTER "BEN SCOFIELD" (1953)
dir. Frank Burt
Because this quiet, lovely western radio show - killed within a season by the popularity of TV - might be the most honest and sweet Jimmy Stewart performance.
THE STRANGE SON OF THE SHERIFF (1982)
dir. Fernando Durán Rojas
Because even though it looks 20 years older than it is, it's an occasionally creepy and always inventive little weird western.
STAND UP AND FIGHT (1939)
dir. W. S. Van Dyke
Because it's a fairy tale like Gone with the Wind, but one in which slave owners are hated and hunted, and because it boasts some interesting and progressive gender politics.
SWEETGRASS (2009)
dir. Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Ilisa Barbash
Documentary following shepherds in the mountains of Montana.
Because the sound of the wind in the mountains is all anyone need say about the hard life.
Because the sound of the wind in the mountains is all anyone need say about the hard life.
TERROR IN A TEXAS TOWN (1958)
dir. Joseph H. Lewis
Because it's the craziest film to beat the blacklist. But NOT because of Sterling Hayden's wooden attempt at a Swedish accent.
THESE THOUSAND HILLS (1959)
dir. Richard Fleischer
Because it's like a great house guest - captivating, ambitious, and complex.
TRACK OF THE CAT (1954)
dir. William A. Wellman
One frozen night, Robert Mitchum sets out to kill the cougar that killed his brother.
Because as well shot as anything ever made, because its pale coldness will make you shiver, and because it's achingly beautiful and heartbreaking in that small Raymond Carver kind of way in which a single gesture can mean the world.
Because as well shot as anything ever made, because its pale coldness will make you shiver, and because it's achingly beautiful and heartbreaking in that small Raymond Carver kind of way in which a single gesture can mean the world.
WAGON TRAIN "THE COLTER CRAVEN STORY" (1960)
dir. John Ford
An ex-Civil War doctor has lost faith in his abilities.
An ex-Civil War doctor has lost faith in his abilities.
Because right before Ward Bond died, he hosted his best friends in this fine episode of television, the only time John Wayne was ever credited with his real name.
WHITY (1971)
dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Because it's like if Sergio Leone directed Rocky Horror.
THE WINNING OF BARBARA WORTH (1926)
dir. Henry King
Because Gary Coooper had it from day one, and because - and this is a theme today - it's a deeply beautiful looking film.
It should be noted that in the first draft of this article I called two of 'em Funslinger and A Ginfight. So if anyone's planning a film by either of those names, I want a cut.
Lovely! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure!
ReplyDeleteDamn, you got me excited with Whity but the link only goes to the opening scene. I'm going to need to track that one down. Gonna try to watch And God Said To Cain soon as well.
ReplyDeleteWhity is worth digging for - it's bizarre in a really singular way. It's an interesting one for Fassbinder fans too because the glitzy parody artifice of, like, Veronica Voss is never more apparent. And God Said to Cain is too much fun. Hit me up when you watch em.
ReplyDeleteA great, great approach! Used to love Westerns, but that emotion now belongs to silent films. Now I can get both in the same film. Thx
ReplyDelete