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Chewers' 100 Favorite Revisionist/Spaghetti Westerns

post #1 of 34
1/24/12 at 9:12pm
Thread Starter 

I now love the old-fashioned, traditional Westerns of Ford, Hawks, and Walsh, but it was the works of Peckinpah and Leone that as a kid first turned me on to the genre. Their work was excessively violent and stunningly cinematic. Darkly magical, cynical, and at times nihilistic, it was all just the right exciting to suck a young geek in. (I remember when finally getting the director's cut of THE WILD BUNCH and PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID were big deals, and finally seeing THE GOOD, THE BAD, & THE UGLY in Widescreen was a breathtaking revelation) Once the door was open to the genre, and the filmographies of both was explored, hunting down the more obscure titles (thanks to videostore and cable) became an obsession.

 

So, fellow geeks, what are the best of the best and your personal favorites?

 

1. The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly (1966) d. Sergio Leone

 

The best directed film of all time, just a blast of pure cinema. It's epic, exciting, and hilarious. With Eastwood at his most iconic, Van Cleef at his most sinister, and Eli Wallach delivering a funny performance that I'd put up against any comedian's for laugh out loud quotient. Arguably the ultimate geek film.

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post #2 of 34
1/24/12 at 9:20pm

# 2 Once Upon a Time in the West.

 

My favourite western.  Motherfuckin' Charlie Bronson, Henry "Frank the bastard" Fonda, Jason Robards and the stunning Claudia Cardinale.

 

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post #3 of 34
1/25/12 at 1:29am
Thread Starter 

3. The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972) d. Philip Kaufman

 

This radical reinterpretation of the Jesse James legend, shot in cinema verite is in sharp contrast to the Hollywood version of old. Duval's take is of a natural born killer. A hillbilly sociopath; weak, ignorant, & unhinged. He's jealous of Cole Younger, the true brains of the operation, and more than willing to take credit for the ideas of his betters. He's contrasted with Robertson's Young who is an egoless crafty pragmatist, a man, always with one eye on the future, and a life beyond rebel outlaw. A favorite of Kael's, more than any other version, this movie feels authentic. (the scuzzy cast of supporting characters making up the James-Younger gang make the Wild Bunch seem prim and proper dandies)

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post #4 of 34
1/25/12 at 4:21am

4. Django (1966) d. Sergio Corbucci

 

In the realm of spaghetti westerns, there's Leone and then there's everything else. This (or Corbucci's The Great Silence) is more or less the pinnacle of "everything else." And dig that suave theme song!

 

 

“Corbucci’s masterpiece — a cruel morality fable of monsters at war with each other and with the world….Django is the Italian Western par excellence.” - filmmaker/spaghetti western geek Alex Cox

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post #5 of 34
1/25/12 at 7:37am

5. Pale Rider (1985) d. Clint Eastwood

 

I adore the strange religious overtones of the movie. The fact that we don't get a real explanation for the Preacher makes the character even more compelling.

 

 

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post #6 of 34
1/25/12 at 3:22pm
Thread Starter 

6. A Fistful of Dollars (1964) d. Sergio Leone

 

"I don't think it's nice, you laughin'. You see, my mule don't like people laughin'. Gets the crazy idea you're laughin' at him. Now if you apologize like I know you're going to, I might convince him that you really didn't mean it..."

 

A legend is born.

 

The first of Leone's "Man With No Name" trilogy is the one that is most underrated, but like THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN I think it's a brilliant audacious update of Kurosawa. Eastwood's decision to strip away much of his character's diologue was an inspired choice, creating the most influential character of modern post-Wayne Action cinema.
 

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post #7 of 34
1/25/12 at 3:51pm

7. Meek's Cutoff

 

Deconstructs the conventions of the Western by filtering it through feminist sensibilities. The tough, loner cowboy is a blowhard idiot, the scary Indian is the only hope of salvation, and it'll take a woman stepping up and doing what must be done to lead the way.

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post #8 of 34
1/25/12 at 8:55pm

eltopo1.jpg

 

The story of the ultimate pacifist.

EL TOPO.

 

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post #9 of 34
1/25/12 at 9:27pm

9.Young Guns

 

  One could call it the MTV western. Emilio owns the role of Billy the Kid. The shoot out the end is killer.

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post #10 of 34
1/25/12 at 10:00pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chaz View Post

9.Young Guns

 

   Emilio owns the role of Billy the Kid.



What a slap in the face to Kris Kristofferson!

 

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post #11 of 34
1/25/12 at 10:01pm

10. Silverado - Great cast and just a fun romp all around with some great gunfights.

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post #12 of 34
1/25/12 at 10:14pm

To be honest Elvis, I only saw the Krisofferson one once.


Edited by Chaz - 1/26/12 at 12:44am
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post #13 of 34
1/25/12 at 10:53pm

Would I be presumptuous to name a few Westerns and crowdsource the ranking?

Has no one mentioned Peckinpah? Elvis has alluded to Pat Garret and Billy the Kid, which had  Bob Dylan as the silent, sardonic "Alias" and the great scene (worthy of a Bruce Willis 80's movie) where Krisotferson's Billy, fires a rifle full of coins and quips "keep the change'. But The Wild Bunch was probably more popular and influential.

 

The Long Riders was seen as pretty gritty in Nineteen-Eighty, it was kind of a throwback to the Peickinpah/Leone school.

 

True Grit. The Unforgiven.

 

Take a Hard Ride with Jim Brown and Fred Williamson: the kind of blaxplotation/Western mashup that Tarantino is currently expanding on. Also: Buck and The Preacher.

 

Nick Cave's the Propostion is a Western at heart even though it is set in Australia.

 

The Terence Hill/Bud Spencer Trinity movies. "My Name is Nobody"=Hill and Fonda.

 

The Searchers is weirdly revisionist...it sort of acknowledges that Wayne's character is questionable, without really diving to deep into any substanative social issues, but he slightly more 'damaged' than a lot of old Hollywood cowboy types...

 

 

 

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post #14 of 34
1/25/12 at 11:59pm
Thread Starter 

20. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) d. Robert Altman

 

I love all the cinematic tricks Altman pulls out for this one, most famously tinkering with the negative giving the film the distinctive yellow look of an old faded photograph. However, no question, the film belongs to Warren Beatty (the actor as auteur, as QT coined it). He was a fearless artist during this period. Things I dig: the sets and town itself were built from scratch by a crew of Vietnam draft dodgers (also filling out the cast), the cinematography is stunning, Julie Christie is excellent, and the ending is haunting. A masterpiece.

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post #15 of 34
1/26/12 at 12:26am

I dunno if it's had its backlash yet but I love Unforgiven to bits.  The West is a tall tale told too many times and inflated in the telling. Everything in this happens because of a lie or a tall tale or someone getting the wrong information.  All that moral murk and tragedy, injustice and myth.  It's my kind of thing.

The ultimate revisionist Western.

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post #16 of 34
1/27/12 at 9:28am

22. Dead Man (1996) d. Jim Jarmusch

 

So idiosyncratic, Jonathan Rosenbaum coined the term "acid western" for it. With a kick-ass drizzly score by Neil Young.

 

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post #17 of 34
1/27/12 at 1:35pm

23. High Plains Drifter (1973) d. Eastwood

 

The list is for "favorite" not "best".  I absolutely love Westerns in general, but there's something about this movie that always puts it near the top of my list of favorites.  So bleak as Eastwood turns the town of Lago into a visual hell while the townsfolk are being punished for their sins by aligning themselves with who they perceive is the lesser of the evil choices they have in front of them.  The ambiguity behind who The Stranger is appeals to me (apparently in early scripts it was the brother of Marshal Duncan, and I appreciate that they leave this unknown in the film).

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post #18 of 34
1/29/12 at 3:20pm
Thread Starter 

24. 100 Rifles (1969)

 

This picture has a message: "Watch Out!"

 

Jim Brown and Raquel Welch make a dynamite duo, and you got rising star Burt Reynolds, who shines like Costner in SILVERADO. A glorious B, written and directed by Tom Gries.

 

25. Navajo Joe (1967)

 

Relentless in his vengeance! Deadly in his violence!

 

Famously, Burt Reynolds only signed on to star in this when he thought it was to be directed by Sergio Leone. Lucky for him, he got the second best thing: Sergio Corbucci. A great revenge story, the brilliant score gives the action a haunting quality

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post #19 of 34
1/30/12 at 5:34pm
Thread Starter 

26. Ulzana's Raid (1972) d. Robert Aldrich

 

Latter day underrted Aldrich revisionist Western with the Apache conflict as Vietnam allegory. Great star turn by Burt Lancaster.

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post #20 of 34
2/1/12 at 3:00pm
Thread Starter 

27. Bad Company (1972) d. Robert Benton

 

The West as a bitter pill to swallow. This underrated revisionist is the tale of a smalltown innocent corrupted on a journey into outlaw life. A bit lackadaisical for some tastes, its charms never fail to suck me in.

 

<It features perhaps Jeff Bridges' most underappreciated performance>

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post #21 of 34
2/4/12 at 3:49pm
Thread Starter 

28. Chato's Land (1972)

 

The first teaming of the legendary cinematic partnership of Bronson and director Michael Winner. Bronson stars as a Mestizo Indian on the run from a ruthless posse led by snarly Jack Palance after shooting a deputy. The movie plays sympathy for Bronson despite his own brutality, and there's surprising layers to the characters of his pursuers, despite at first appearing to be genre cliches. The film is, as one blog put it, "a smashingly effective in its casual despair over the shredding of human decency in the old West."

 

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post #22 of 34
2/4/12 at 5:52pm

 

Quote: Chaz

To be honest Elvis, I only saw the Krisofferson one once.


 

 

 

WATCH IT AGAIN!!!

 

In fact..

 

29. Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid

 

Though the Wild Bunch remains the best of Sam Peckinpah's films, I have nothing but a massive soft spot for this sad eulogy for the West and the need for one man to forget it by killing the figure it best represents.

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post #23 of 34
2/4/12 at 6:04pm

30.

 

ctwx625nbnd6xw26.jpg

 

Ed Harris takes over Nicaragua in this true story / parody of American foreign policy. This movie completely blindsided me. It starts out seeming fairly sane, but slowly builds up in absurdity until it careens out of control into a maelstrom of mayhem, culminating in a helicopter swooping into the 1880's. It's trippy as hell and utterly delightful.


Edited by Whiteboy Jones - 2/4/12 at 8:07pm
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post #24 of 34
2/4/12 at 11:45pm

31. Extreme Prejudice (Hill, 1987)

 

Divorce the modern-day Texas setting from the core of the film and there is a rip-roaring, relentless Western blasting from every seam of the film, as the ethics of Texas Ranger Jack Benteen (Nick Nolte) are challenged by his childhood friend, sadistic drug czar Cash Bailey (Powers Boothe) and a gang of mercenaries disrupting his town. Directed by Walter Hill and co-written by John Milius, the film is a nonstop thrill from the beginning to the bloody, explosive climax, which is undoubtedly a tribute to the recently deceased Sam Peckinpah, who'd died mere years before this film.

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post #25 of 34
2/5/12 at 9:41am

Straight To Hell.

Alex Cox took the aesthetics of the great Westerns, deconstructed them and cast his friends in this post-modern mess. It's as through Cox just thought it would be cool to make a Western with Joe Strummer, Shane McGowan, Elvis Costello and a bunch of other great ideas, then blew all the budget on wardrobe and drugs.

It keeps building the characters and nothing happens. It's almost like the part of The Three Amigos when they are in the Mexican town but stretched out for 2 hours.

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post #26 of 34
2/8/12 at 12:04pm
Thread Starter 

33. Day of Anger (1967)

 

Lee Van Cleef has been dirty, "ugly", and downright mean ...now watch him get violent!

 

One of the unfairly overlooked gems of the spaghetti Western sub-genre, Van Cleef is an outlaw who rides into town and takes a young outsider kid under his wing. Forming a partnership, they kill together (and are great at it). Soon though, as these things go in movies like this, when everyone else is dead, they must square off against each other in order to see who is best. The sudden violent finish packs a wicked punch. Van Cleef is awesome as always.

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post #27 of 34
2/12/12 at 7:08pm
Thread Starter 

34. Ride the High Country (1962) d. Sam Peckinpah

 

As I get older, the more Peckinpah's first masterpiece resonates with me. The film walks the line between tradional and revisinist -much like what Mann and Boetticher had been doing-and its the mixture of these tropes/sensibilities that makes it special. All the themes of Bloody Sam's later films are present for the first time: honor and the dificulty of doing right in an unjust world, and the importance of loyalty between men. Push come to shove, my favorite Randolph Scott performance. Both he and Joel McCrea are quietly fantastic.

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post #28 of 34
2/12/12 at 8:23pm

35. Little Big Man (1970) d: Arthur Penn

 

"I knowed the Cheyenne for what they was! An' I also knowed General George... Custer... for what HE was! Now ya sit there an' you'll learn somethin'!"

 

tumblr_lqtsnyS83U1qbkwh4.jpg

 

In turns hilarious and unbearably sad, a 121-year-old man tells the story of a life divided between the Human Beings and the people who rubbed them out. Unforgettable, and as stylistically influential as Peckinpah.

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post #29 of 34
2/20/12 at 2:08pm
Thread Starter 

36. Charley One-Eye (1973)

 

"Somebody told the black man he wasn't a slave anymore.

 

Somebody told the red man this land was his.

 

Somebody lied.

 

Somebody is going to pay!"

 

This was a recent surprise for me. i was completely blown away by this unconventional anti-Western. The story is stark and mean and brutal; a slow burner that packs a punch. Roundtree is particularly a revalation, but both leads are great. A QT fave, shown at his recent New Bev film fest; it's worth seeking out.

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post #30 of 34
2/21/12 at 5:14pm
Thread Starter 

37. The Hellbenders (1966)

 

"You've got to respect the Dead."
"I don't even respect the living!"

 

Arguably, Sergio Corbucci's best film, it's his THE GOOD, THE BAD, & THE UGLY. I love the riff on Aldrich's VERA CRUZ, and the obvious influence on THE WILD BUNCH. The first brilliantly constructed action scene is done with a level of realism that elevates pulp spaghetti to ground-breaking. A classic score by Ennio Morricone.

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post #31 of 34
2/22/12 at 3:30pm
Thread Starter 

38. The blaxploitation West of Fred "The Hammer" Williamson

 

http://badassdigest.com/2012/02/22/our-daily-trailer-boss-nigger/

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post #32 of 34
2/22/12 at 9:01pm
Thread Starter 

39. J.W. Coop (1972)

 

Some movies break your heart a little bit, and this directorial debut from star Cliff Robertson, in its own quiet way, does just that. This modern Western film is the story of a hardluck professional cowboy who, after getting out of prison for passing a bad check, decides to give the rodeo circuit one last shot. Becoming something of a Rocky-esque cinderella story, the movie pumps you up, getting you caught up in rooting for him, but dares to end on a shocking down note. A  truly underappreciated gem, it's a Beaks favorite.

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post #33 of 34
2/23/12 at 8:57am

40. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969, d. George Roy Hill).

 

I'm assuming the only reason this one hasn't been mentioned yet is that it's too obvious, but not only is it a great movie, it's as ingrained in popular culture as almost any film of the last half-century. Sure, I could have lived without "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" (you can't believe how omnipresent that goddam song was back in the day), but aside from that, the rest of the film has a kind of shaggy perfection: much of which, of course, is due to the casting of Newman and Redford (and it's not harmed at all by Ross' stunning beauty).

 

 

41. The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972, d. John Huston).

 

The combination of Newman, Huston, and Milius should have produced either genius or disaster, and it's odd how sort of in-between this one turned out. Newman brings the charm, naturally, and there's some lovely elegaic moments, but the pacing feels more glacial than leisurely. It's still a don't-miss for fans of the genre or principals. And I don't know if it was forced on Huston in the wake of the success of "Raindrops," but "Marmalade, Molasses And Honey" is not only a far worse song, but gets in the way of the movie far more than was the case in Butch Cassidy.

 

 

42. Support Your Local Sheriff (1969, d. Burt Kennedy)

 

At one point in his career, James Garner seemed the natural successor to Cary Grant, with his breezy charm, and that mildly grumpy sense that the problems his characters encountered were less crises than irritations that would eventually submit to logic and common sense. So while the storyline isn't particularly compelling, Garner's blend of offhand charm and slow-burn annoyance glides over the top, interacting with a supporting cast that is classic-Western perfection, including Walter Brennan, Harry Morgan, Jack Elam, and Henry Jones.

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post #34 of 34
2/25/12 at 12:51pm
Thread Starter 

43. Jeremiah Johnson (1972)

 

Sydney Pollack directs a John Milius script, and while some might wish Milius himself directed, I think Pollack does an excellent job of creating a beautiful and brutal film. (The cinematography is spectacular) And while I'm not the biggest Redford fan, he really pulls off a role that calls for him to throw off his movie star glamour. The diologue is classic Milius, but it's the long moments of silence amidst a breathtaking mountain vastness that makes the film special and one of my favorites.

 

44. Death Hunt (1981)

 

Charles Bronson vs Lee Marvin. It's awesome.

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