TOP TEN Lists - This Week: "Blank Check" Media Projects.

Well somehow I have completely missed every other genre of movies I like, specifically sci fi and fantasy... so here are some western favorites! With pictures



1. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)- Charles Bronson faces off against Henry Fonda as the villian (same dude who is my profile pic). Still my favorite western movie.



2. Dollars Trilogy- Fistful of Dollars, A Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1964-1967)- Starring Clint Eastwood as the Man with No Name; music score by Ennio Morricone. Essentially the first two are western remakes of Kurosawa samurai films.



3. The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008)- awesome Korean movie; taking place in Manchuria during the Japanese Occupation either in the interum period or during WWII. Awesome movie, epic soundtrack.



4. Tombstone (1993)- Kurt Russel, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliot. Going to the town in real life wasn't as cool as watching the movie.



5. Django Unchained (2012)- Jamie Foxx, Leonardo Dicaprio, directed by Quentin Tarantino



6. Purgatory (1999)- what is the afterlife like in the old west? Eric Roberts is in it as Blackjack. Not a very big film compared to most of the others on this list, but I have fond memories watching it with my grandpa.



7. 3:10 to Yuma (2007)- Russel Crowe and Christian Bale. Pretty sure it is a remake of an older movie, never saw the older one.



8. Rango (2011)- starring a chameleon voiced by Johnny Depp.



9. Outlaw Josey Wales- another Clint Eastwood movie



10. High Planes Drifter- another Clint Eastwood movie

I have heard the original Wild Bunch and the Hateful Eight were good, haven't gotten around to seeing them yet.

Honorable Mentions:

• Back to the Future III
• Firefly TV Show

 

Better late than never... welcome to the party!

 

Here is my (admittedly short) list:

1. Back to the Future Part III - a bit of a cheat I suppose, but I'm not really a western fan. Back to the Future Part III alongside of being a Sci-fi comedy is undoubtedly a Western, so it counts in my book!
2. Django Unchained - some really great acting and dialogue all the way around. Samuel L. Jackson and Jamie Foxx are solid. Christoph Waltz's performance is even better, but the show is absolutely stolen by Leonardo DiCaprio's role as Calvin Candie.
3. Tombstone - Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday portrayal. Period. I'm not even that much of a fan of the rest of the film, although there are some other cool scenes scattered throughout.
4. The Hateful Eight - interesting dialogue carries a film that for the most part, takes place in a single room. It typically isn't the type of film I can derive enjoyment out of, but somehow it pulls it off.
5. The Good, the bad and the ugly - the ending is iconic and the theme song is a classic
6. Dances with Wolves*
7. The Magnificent Seven (2016)*
8. 3:10 to Yuma*
9. Unforgiven*
10. This genre is not my cup of tea, I don't even have a tenth place entry

*In all honesty I barely remember entries 6 through 9. I remember thinking that they were fairly good at the time, but I'd have to re-watch them again to gain a better grasp of how to order them. Took my best guess as to their order.

I did a pretty significant rejigging of entries 2 through 5. Lots of reordering and reshuffling, but I think this is the most accurate representation of how I feel about it today.

Overall, a very weak genre for me.

 

Not even one of the other classics?

Grrr, !mrahil

 

Nope. Haven't even seen them. I have zero interest.

 

I may have seen it ages ago, or at least part of it. Not enough to go on to make it an official entry on my list.

 

I have yet to see Rango either. It's on my list of movies to watch.

 

Rango was great.

Also A Man Called Horse.
I was in my teens when this came out. Blew me away. Was very controversial at the time and banned in a few places, specifically for The Sioux Sun Ceremony depicted.

 

Westerns are not my strongest category. My dad enjoyed them, but they weren't necessarily my cup of tea, except for Clint Eastwood. I have yet to see many of the classics, especially John Wayne westerns. Just a heads up, there's going to be a lot of Eastwood and Costner movies on this list. I guess those were just the westerns for me a kid.

The Unforgiven: A great Clint Eastwood western that thematically brings many of his classic cowboy roles full circle. Terrific performances from Eastwood, Freeman, Hackman and Harris.
The Dollars Trilogy: A classic series of Eastwood westerns with him as the unnamed cowboy. The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly is the one that stands out most in my memory.
Wyatt Earp: I know most people prefer Tombstone, but I really enjoyed Kevin Costner's Wyatt Earp movie.
Tombstone: I also liked this version, though. I've been a fan of Kurt Russell since I saw him in The Thing and Big Touble in Little China. As others have said, Val Kilmer's performance as Doc Holliday steals the show.
The Magnificent Seven (1960): A classic ensemble western action movie. Nobody throws me my own guns and tells me to run... nobody.
Dances with Wolves: A very long movie, but some great scenes. A white soldier connects with, and is accepted into a tribe of Native Americans. Later, James Cameron basically took this story and set it on an alien planet.
Silverado: Another good ensemble cast, with great cowboy moments. Scott Glenn, Kevin Costner, Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, Brian Dennehy, Linda Hunt. Heck, even John Cleese and Jeff Goldblum show up. A little over the top at times, but I liked it.
Pale Rider/High Plains Drifter/Outlaw Josey Wales: Surprise! It's more Eastwood movies. These movies are not interchangeable, but I was afraid I would end up individually listing too many Eastwood movies. Still it's interesting that in Pale Rider Eastwood is a "preacher" trying to escape his past and in High Plains Drifter he may very well be a spirit punishing a town for their past.
Django Unchained: The acting is great from all of the main actors. The story is bloody and rough as Tarantino likes it. DiCaprio arguably does steal the show, as good villains often do.
The Three Amigos: Here is my cheat of a western pick. I think I put this in my comedy honorable mentions, but it deserves a spot on my western list. A very funny movie and a pretty good western too (like Die Hard being an action AND Christmas movie).

Paint Your Wagon: I have to add this movie out of respect and memory of a good friend of mine who passed away this year. He enjoyed all kinds of movies and he was a lot more forgiving of them than I usually am. Anyway, this was one of his favorite musicals and westerns. Sometimes he'd play a few of the songs if we were playing Deadlands or the like. Here's to you, buddy.

Honorable mentions: True Grit (I enjoyed both the John Wayne version and Jeff Bridges versions), Blazing Saddles, Little Big Man (Hoffman at his method-acting best), City Slickers, Legends of the Fall

 

Fair game!

 

1. Dances with Wolves - One of the few films that actually deserves the Oscars that it won, and a big player in a movement of films that sought to portray Native Americans in a much more respectful light than the faceless savages depicted in the old Westerns of the 1950s and 60s.
2. Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee - A sombre and moving HBO made-for-TV film about the increasing tensions between Native Americans and the US that led to the murder of Sitting Bull and the massacre at Wounded Knee.
3. A Man Called Horse - Richard Harris is the Englishman captured by natives that has to live life first as a pack-horse and then is initiated as a warrior in the infamous Sun Ceremony scene.
4. Little Big Man - A young Dustin Hoffman continually flits between the white settlers he was born to and the native tribe he grew up with, and at one point almost assassinates a characterfully arrogant Custer before his Last Stand.
5. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - This is actually the first of the Dollars Trilogy that I've seen, and cannot deny that it is a solid film.
6. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - The best of the John Wayne films I feel, with both Wayne's archetypal tough guy and James Stewart's mild-mannered good-egg vying to be the one to take down Lee Marvin's eponymous troublemaker.
7. The Outlaw Josey Wales - Another good Clint Eastwood film, with Chief Dan George in my opinion stealing the show as the last of his tribe who's forever practicing and failing his native stealth tactics.
8. Geronimo - Wes Studi finally gets the chance to play the hero as Geronimo, one of the greatest of all the Native American leaders, as he leads a guerrilla war against the US and seeks freedom for the Apache nation.
9. Young Guns - Billy the Kid and his gang go on the rampage after their English mentor (Terence Stamp) is murdered by Irish gangsters.
10. Tombstone - As others have said, Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday steals the show, but all the characters are good in this later retelling of the Gunfight at OK Corral.

Honourable Mentions: Return of a Man Called Horse, Young Guns II, Rango

Like others I would also have included Back to the Future Part III, Cowboys and Aliens and Paint Your Wagon here too, plus the Valley of Gwangi which did for dinosaurs what Cowboys and Aliens did for extraterrestrials, but I have those in other lists.

 

Like always, I forget a good movie. I enjoyed Young Guns too.

 

Surprisingly (at least to me), there is a lot more discussion and interest in this week's Western topic than the previous week's Fantasy topic.