FAN's Top 50 Favorite Westerns - Results

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

20 Three Amigos (1986)

Three Amigos (marketed as ¡Three Amigos!) is a 1986 American adventure musical comedy film directed by John Landis and written by Lorne Michaels, Steve Martin, and Randy Newman. Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, and Martin Short star as the title characters, three silent film stars who are mistaken for real heroes by a small Mexican village and must find a way to live up to that reputation.

The film is number 79 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies."

In 1916, the notorious bandit El Guapo (Alfonso Arau) and his gang of thugs are collecting protection money from the small Mexican village of Santo Poco. Carmen (Patrice Martinez), daughter of the village leader, searches for someone who can come to the rescue of her townspeople. While visiting a small village church, she remains to watch a silent film featuring "The Three Amigos" and, believing them to be real heroes, sends a telegram to Hollywood asking them to come and stop El Guapo. However, the telegraph operator edits her message down since she has very little money to pay for it.

Meanwhile, Lucky Day (Steve Martin), Dusty Bottoms (Chevy Chase), and Ned Nederlander (Martin Short) are Hollywood silent film actors who portray the heroic Amigos on screen. When they demand a salary increase, studio boss Harry Flugleman (Joe Mantegna) fires them and evicts them from their studio-owned housing. Shortly afterward, they receive Carmen's telegram, but misinterpret it as an invitation to make a film with El Guapo. After breaking into the studio to retrieve their costumes, the Amigos head for Mexico. Stopping at a cantina near Santo Poco, they are mistaken for associates of a fast-shooting German pilot (Kai Wulff), who is also looking for El Guapo and who arrived just before they did. A relieved Carmen picks up the Amigos and takes them to the village, where they are put up in the best house in town and treated very well. The next morning, when three of El Guapo’s men come to raid the village, the Amigos do a Hollywood-style stunt show that leaves them very confused. The bandits ride off, making everyone think that the Amigos have defeated the enemy; in reality, the men inform El Guapo of what has happened, and he decides to return in force the next day and kill the Amigos.

As the German’s real associates arrive at the cantina, proving themselves just as adept with pistols as he is, the village throws a boisterous celebration for the Amigos and their (supposed) victory. The next morning, El Guapo and his gang come to Santo Poco and call out the Amigos, who confess that they have only been acting and are too scared to confront him after Lucky gets shot in the arm. El Guapo allows his men to loot the village and kidnaps Carmen, and the Amigos leave Santo Poco in disgrace. With nothing waiting for them back home, Ned persuades Lucky and Dusty to become real-life heroes and go after El Guapo. Their first attempt to find his hideout fails, but they spot a cargo plane and follow it to him; the plane is flown by the German, who has brought a shipment of rifles for the gang with his associates' help. Preparations are underway for El Guapo’s 40th birthday party, and he plans to make Carmen his bride. The Amigos try to sneak into the hideout, with mixed results: Lucky is captured and chained up in a dungeon, Dusty crashes through a window and into Carmen’s room, and Ned ends up stuck in the hanging party decorations.

As Lucky frees himself and Dusty sneaks out only to be caught, Ned falls loose and is also captured. The German, having idolized Ned’s quick-draw pistol skills since childhood, challenges him to a showdown. Ned wins, killing the German, and Lucky holds El Guapo at gunpoint long enough for Carmen and the Amigos to escape – first on horseback, then in the German’s plane. Returning to Santo Poco with El Guapo’s entire army in pursuit, they rally the villagers to stand up for themselves and plan a defense. The bandits arrive in the seemingly empty village, only to find themselves suddenly being shot at by Amigos from all sides and falling into hidden water-filled trenches dug by the villagers. Eventually all of El Guapo’s men either desert him or die in the gunfire, and he takes a fatal wound as well. As he lies dying, the villagers – all armed and wearing replicas of the Amigos’ costumes – step out to confront him. El Guapo congratulates them on this plan, then shoots Lucky in the foot and dies.

The villagers offer to give the Amigos all the money they have, but the Amigos refuse it, saying (as in their movies) that seeing justice done is enough of a reward for them. They then ride off into the sunset, ready to continue being real heroes.

The film was written by Martin, Michaels, and Randy Newman. Newman contributed three original songs: "The Ballad of the Three Amigos", "My Little Buttercup", and "Blue Shadows," while the musical score was composed by Elmer Bernstein. It was shot in Simi Valley, California, Coronado National Forest, Old Tucson Studios, and Hollywood.

The movie received mixed reviews. Noted film critic Roger Ebert said "The ideas to make Three Amigos into a good comedy are here, but the madness is missing." It holds a 56% "rotten" rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.[5] It has a rating of 6.0/10 on IMDB. It was ranked #79 on Bravo's list of the "100 Funniest Movies".

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

19. The Paleface (1948)

The Paleface is a 1948 comedy Western directed by Norman Z. McLeod and starring Bob Hope as "Painless Potter,", and Jane Russell as Calamity Jane. In the film, Hope sings the song Buttons and Bows, which became his greatest hit by far when it came to record sales. The song also won the Academy Award for Best Song that year.

The film had a sequel, Son of Paleface, in 1952.

In 1968, actor Don Knotts remade the film as The Shakiest Gun in the West.

Peter "Painless" Potter is a dentist of doubtful competence. Out west, after the partner of Calamity Jane is killed while trying to discover who's been illegally selling guns to Indians, the cowardly Painless ends up married to Jane, who needs to keep her true identity a secret.

One day while protecting everyone during a holdup, Jane humbly gives all the credit to Painless, who becomes the townsfolk's "brave" new hero.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

18. My Name Is Nobody (1973)

My Name is Nobody (Italian: Il mio nome è Nessuno, also known as Lonesome Gun) is a 1973 Spaghetti Western comedy film. The film was directed by Tonino Valerii and, in some scenes, by Sergio Leone. It was written by Leone, Fulvio Morsella and Ernesto Gastaldi. Leone was also the uncredited executive producer. The cast includes Terence Hill, Henry Fonda, and Jean Martin.

Jack Beauregard (Henry Fonda) is a tired, aging legendary gunslinger who just wants to retire in peace in Europe to get away from young gunmen constantly trying to test themselves against the master. The film opens with three rascals ambushing Beauregard in a barbershop. After Beauregard has dispatched them, the barber's son asks his father if there is anyone in the world faster than Beauregard, to which the barber replies "Faster than him? Nobody!"

'Nobody' (Terence Hill) idolizes Beauregard and wants to see him die in a blaze of glory going against the infamous Wild Bunch singlehanded. The Wild Bunch are a gang of bandits who launder their loot of stolen gold via a fake goldmine. The owner sends them after Beauregard because the latter's now-dead brother was in on the deal.

Nobody dogs Beauregard through the west, encountering many who wish him dead, and pesters him to let him stage his grand finale. Eventually, the grand shoot-out does take place by a railway line. Nobody arranges for Beauregard to shoot at the Wild Bunch's mirrored-concho-decorated saddles which, he's discovered, contain sticks of dynamite, thus letting a few good shots eliminate many of the men. To escape, the two board a train that Nobody has stolen.

Finally, Nobody fakes a very public showdown with Beauregard, "killing" him and allowing him to slip away quietly. A street sign, marking where the gunfight took place, says "Nobody Was Faster On The Draw". Beauregard boards a boat for Europe and a quiet retirement, while Nobody takes up his own life of adventure.

By the 1970s, the spaghetti Western had almost become a parody of itself. The serious westerns were primarily violent, low-budget films that were barely distributed outside of Italy. Meanwhile, slapstick parodies of the genre were becoming more popular. Sergio Leone and his team decided that if anyone was going to make the ultimate "joke" version of the genre, they should be the ones. Terence Hill was cast not only for box-office, but because he had in a short time become something of an icon of the genre. Hill had started the comedy spaghetti craze with the hugely successful movies They Call Me Trinity and its sequel Trinity Is Still My Name. With the casting of the classic Westerner Henry Fonda, the contrast between the old and new (dying) West was clear.

Inside jokes in the film include invocations of director Sam Peckinpah: his name on a tombstone, the villains being known as "the Wild Bunch", and use of the duster coats which (though Leone introduced them in Westerns) Peckinpah vigorously exposed on screen.

R.G. Armstrong (erroneously credited with middle initial "K"), Geoffrey Lewis, and Steve Kanaly also appear in the film, which was shot in New Mexico, New Orleans, and Leone's favorite Spanish locales in Almeria. This is the second time Fonda worked with Leone, the former being Fonda's first turn as a villain, in the classic Once Upon a Time in the West. Noted French actor Jean Martin plays the film's main antagonist.

Leone directed several scenes of the film, including the opening scene and the final showdown with the Wild Bunch, but Tonino Valerii was the overall director. After the film's release, it was promoted as a Sergio Leone film, much to the frustration of both men.

The musical score, by longtime Leone collaborator Ennio Morricone, is a very eclectic one and incorporates a large range of styles.

His whimsical main theme for the Nobody character presages many of his later non-Western scores. Morricone's adaptation of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, which he combines with the wailing voices from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly for the Wild Bunch's theme is particularly creative and typical of the movie's sense of humor. Morricone also adapted Paul Anka's song My Way for Jack Beauregard's theme.

The inventiveness of the score, combined with Morricone's spoofs of his trademark style, has made this soundtrack among his most popular.

Traces of his music from "Once Upon a Time in the West" can also be heard.

The main theme was later used for the 2004 BBC3 black comedy Nighty Night.

It was released under various names in Italy, America, France, and West Germany. It has a runtime of 111 minutes for the TCM print, and 117 minutes outside of America.

The film was Fonda's final western, filmed in New Mexico: Mogollon, Acoma Pueblo, Gallup; Colorado, Louisiana: New Orleans and in Spain. Hill has said it remains his favorite film among those in which he starred, largely because of Sergio Leone's involvement.

A loose sequel, titled A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe (also called Nobody's the Greatest), was released in 1975.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

17. The Shootist (1976)

Shootist is a 1976 Western starring John Wayne in his final film role. It was based on the 1975 novel of the same name by Glendon Swarthout. Scott Hale and Miles Hood Swarthout (son of the author) wrote the screenplay. Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard and James Stewart co-starred and Don Siegel directed.

The movie begins with a clip montage of some of John Wayne's earlier western movies, depicting the life of the legendary "shootist" (gunfighter) John Bernard (J. B.) Books.

The aging Books and the Old West are dying. Arriving in Carson City, Nevada on January 22, 1901, reading reports of the death of England's Queen Victoria in the newspaper, Books seeks a medical opinion from someone he trusts, E. W. "Doc" Hostetler (Jimmy Stewart). Hostetler confirms a Colorado doctor's prognosis of a painful and undignified death from cancer, so Books rents a room from the widow Bond Rogers (Lauren Bacall) and her son Gillom (Ron Howard) to contemplate his fate.

A distinctly nervous Marshal Walter Thibido (Harry Morgan) visits the house to order the notorious gunfighter to leave town. Books tells him about his terminal illness. The lawman is both relieved and elated, telling him, "Don't take too long to die."

Books' presence in town becomes known. Old enemies and glory seekers are drawn to him. Mike Sweeney (Richard Boone) wants to avenge a brother's death. A newspaperman (Rick Lenz) wants to exaggerate and glorify the violence in Books' life. Others seek fame by killing the gunfighter, Books being forced to shoot two strangers who try to ambush him in his sleep. Gillom is impressed, but his mother loses boarders and is upset by the violence in her home.

Old flame Serepta (Sheree North) shows up to ask Books to marry her. He is touched until he learns that she wants to use his notoriety to make money from the sensationalized ghost-written "memoirs" of his widow. Books bargains with others who plan to profit from his death, the currier Moses Brown (Scatman Crothers) and the undertaker Hezekiah Beckum (John Carradine).

Unexpectedly, an affection blossoms between Books and Bond. However, he informs her that he has little time left. Gillom is upset by the news. He tries to sell Books' horse in return for the trouble his mother has been caused.

For his 58th birthday, Books prepares for the last hours of his life. He asks Gillom to inform three men, Mike Sweeney, professional gambler Jack Pulford (Hugh O'Brian), and local troublemaker Jay Cobb (Bill McKinney), that they can find him in the morning at the Metropole saloon. He also buys back his horse and makes a gift of it to Gillom.

In a changing frontier, Books arrives by trolley and Sweeney in an Oldsmobile Curved Dash (which debuted in 1901). It is early in the day, so there are no other customers for the bartender besides the four men. Books orders a drink from the bartender, and lifts his glass to each of the three who are there at his invitation.

Suddenly, the men all draw their guns and open fire, each taking on Books one by one. In the ensuring shootout, Books kills all of his opponents but is shot several times himself. Gillom arrives after the gunbattle to find the wounded Books still alive. The bartender sneaks up on Books, who turns around to face this new opponent. The bartender fires first and shoots Books twice, once in the back and once in the chest. Gillom picks up Books' gun and shoots the bartender several times, killing him. In horror, Gillom looks at Books' gun, and then tosses it away. Books looks on with satisfaction, and then dies.

The character of J. B. Books foreshadows the final days of John Wayne, who died from stomach cancer three years after production ended. The Shootist would be his final film role, concluding a legendary career that began during the silent film era in 1926. Lauren Bacall had suffered through the 1957 death of her husband Humphrey Bogart, who died of throat cancer, adding further shading to the film's parallels.

At the time the movie rights were purchased, John Wayne was not seriously considered for the role due to questions about his health and his ability to complete the filming. The producers had wanted George C. Scott, but Wayne actively campaigned for the role and made completion of the film a personal mission.

Contrary to popular belief, John Wayne did not have cancer when he made this film. His entire left lung and several ribs had been removed in surgery on 16 September 1964, and in 1969 he was declared cancer-free. It was not until 12 January 1979, almost three years after this movie had been filmed, that the disease was found to have returned.

The film was shot on location in Carson City, Nevada and at studios in Burbank, California. In Carson City, the house at 500 N. Mountain Street that doubled for J. B. Books' rooming house (owned by Bond Rogers in the movie) is three doors south from the Nevada governor's mansion. The only change to the house was a portico added on the southern side.

Besides changing the location from El Paso to Carson City, and having his horse Dollor written in, Wayne also changed the ending of the screenplay. Books was supposed to shoot Jack Pulford in the back, and then Gillom Rogers was to shoot Books. Wayne said, "Mister, I've made over 250 pictures and have never shot a guy in the back. Change it." He also did not want the young Gillom killing him; this would have made the movie go in a different direction and Gillom's tossing away of the gun, thus rejecting the life of a gunman, gained Wayne's approval.

Wayne was also responsible for much of the film's casting: friends and past co-stars Lauren Bacall, James Stewart, Richard Boone and John Carradine were all cast at Wayne's request.

Despite Wayne's influence on the film, Don Siegel denied claims that he and Wayne clashed, saying that "He had plenty of his own ideas... and some I liked which gave me inspirations, and some I didn't like. But we didn't fight over any of it. We liked each other and respected each other."

The horse that J. B. Books rides in the film, Dollor (Ol' Dollor), that he gives to Gillom, had been Wayne's favorite horse for ten years, through several Westerns. The horse shown during the final scene of True Grit was Dollor, a two-year-old in 1969. Wayne had Dollor, a chestnut quarter horse gelding, written into the script (although there is no mention in the book of a specific horse) because of his love for the horse; it was a condition for him working on the project. Wayne would not let anyone else ride the horse. Robert Wagner rode the horse in a segment of the Hart to Hart television show, but this was after Wayne's death.

Upon its release in June 1976, The Shootist was a minor success, earning nearly $6,000,000. It received fair-to-excellent reviews, with enormous praise heaped on Wayne by many critics. It was named one of the Ten Best Films of 1976 by the National Board of Review, along with All the President's Men and Network, and was nominated for one Oscar, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA award, and a Writers Guild of America award. The film currently has a 93% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The film had some award nominations

* Writers Guild, nomination: "Best Adaptation of a Screenplay" - Scott Hale and Miles Hood Swarthout
* Academy Awards, nomination: "Best Art Direction-Set Decoration" - Robert F. Boyle and Arthur Jeph Parke
* Golden Globes, nomination: "Best Motion Picture Actor in a Supporting Role" - Ron Howard
* BAFTA Film Award, nomination: "Best Actress" - Lauren Bacall

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

16. Django (1966)

Django is a 1966 Italian spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Corbucci and starring Franco Nero in the title role. Nero went on to play a similar antihero in many subsequent Westerns with a return to the Django role in Django 2: il grande ritorno (1987). The film earned a reputation of being one of the most violent films ever made up to that point.

The film's look and setting in a murky, muddy, isolated western town was the work of production designer Carlo Simi, who had created costumes and sets for Corbucci's earlier film Minnesota Clay, and who worked frequently with the signature spaghetti-Western director, Sergio Leone.

Django (Franco Nero) is a drifter who drags around a coffin that conceals a machine gun. He rescues a young woman, María (Loredana Nusciak), from being murdered by bandits led by Major Jackson (Eduardo Fajardo), a man whom Django is seeking revenge on for the murder of his wife.

After killing most of Jackson's men, Django makes a deal with a Mexican bandit general, Hugo Rodriguez (José Bódalo), who is in conflict with Jackson, and the two steal a large quantity of gold from a Mexican Army fort (where Jackson is doing business with a government general). When Rodriguez is slow in paying for his supplies and seems to be dragging his feet (possibly meaning to kill Django later), Django and Maria steal the gold. Unfortunately, the gold falls into quicksand. When Rodriguez catches up to them, María is shot (though she survives) and Django's hands are crushed. Rodríguez and his men are massacred by Jackson and the Mexican Army when the bandits return to Mexico. Jackson then goes looking for Django in a cemetery after killing Nathaniael. However, Django, who has bitten the trigger-guard off his pistol, kills Jackson and his five surviving men by pressing the trigger against a tombstone and repeatedly dropping the hammer.

Django overcomes astounding enemy numbers (for example killing forty eight men in short order) using a weapon the film's dialogue calls a "gatling gun." The prop is mechanically inconsistent, featuring revolving barrels like a gatling gun but otherwise resembling a mitrailleuse fed from an ammunition belt. Django fires the gun on fully-automatic with no apparent concern for recoil.

Django received an 18-certificate in Italy due to its then-extreme violence. Bolognini says Corbucci "forgot" to cut out the ear-severing scene when the censors requested he remove it and in Sweden it was banned outright.[citation needed] There are rumored to be over 100 unofficial sequels, though only 31 have been counted. Four were made the same year, in 1966.[citation needed] Most of these films have nothing to do with Corbucci's original, but copy the look and attitude of the central character.

Many films and filmmakers have referenced Django.
* The ear-severing scene in Reservoir Dogs, directed by Quentin Tarantino has been said to have been inspired from the similar scene in Django.
* Django is the film being watched by the theater audience in The Harder They Come, which is about a Jamaican outlaw styled after Ivan Rhygin.
* Lee Perry's second album is titled Return of Django, and he has released tracks called "Django (Ol' Man River)" and "Django shoots first".
* Episode 17, "Mushroom Samba," of Cowboy Bebop features a character dragging a coffin.
* The Trigun character Nicholas D. Wolfwood carries an overly large cross which is itself a machine gun.
* The video game and anime series Gungrave features the main character carrying a coffin full of weapons.
* In Tenchi Universe, the character Nagi enters the climatic battle while dragging a coffin to a Western-looking city on Venus.
* Mr. Black, a boss in the video game Red Dead Revolver, carries a coffin with a Gatling gun inside.
* The coffin-dragging main character in the Boktai video game series is named Django; characters named Ringo and Sabata also appear.
* The punk band Rancid has a song inspired by the movie, titled "Django", on its album Indestructible.
* One-man metal band Thrones covers the theme song to Django on the album Sperm Whale.
* In the Rob Zombie song "Feel So Numb", the opening lyrics to the third verse are "Django drag a coffin nail across your back".
* The Danzig music video for "Crawl Across Your Killing Floor" features Glenn Danzig dragging a coffin.
* Filipino billiards champion Francisco "Django" Bustamante earned his nickname after having been called "Django" by his friends; he eventually adopted it as his professional name.
* "Don't Tango with Django" is the name of a track on the 'b' side of Joe Strummer's Gangsterville single, released in 1989.
* The character Jango Fett from the Star Wars universe is a reference to Django.
* The Upsetters - "Return Of Django" song.
* The 2007 film Sukiyaki Western Django by Japanese director Takashi Miike. The title, settings, ending theme song, and several dialogue lines reference Django. Also, clan members drag a newly-acquired coffin behind their wagon on the way into a battle, containing their prize, a gatling gun.
* On April 30th, 2011, director Quentin Tarantino unveiled the title of his new screenplay: "Django Unchained"

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

Here is the list so far.

50. The Gunfighter (1950)
49. Quigley Down Under (1990)
48. The Valley of Gwangi (1969)
47. Bandolero! (1968)
46. How The West Was Won (1962)
45. Rooster Cogburn (1975)
44. Open Range (2003)
43. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949)
42. The Great Silence (1968)
41. Fort Apache (1948)
40. Chisum (1970)
39. High Noon (1952)
38. They Call Me Trinity (aka My Name Is Trinity) (1970)
37. The Magnificent Seven (1960)
36. Blood On The Moon (1948)
35. Duck, You Sucker (1971)
34. Once Upon A Time In Mexico (2003)
33. Last Man Standing (1996)
32. Man from Snowy River (1982)
31. The Mountain Men (1980)
30. Back To The Future Part III (1990)
29. True Grit (2010)
28. Pale Rider (1985)
27. City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold (1994)
26. Ulzana's Raid (1972)
25. True Grit (1969)
24. The Frisco Kid (1979)
23. Billy The Kid (1989)
22. A Thunder of Drums (1961)
21. They Died with Their Boots On (1941)
20. Three Amigos (1986)
19. The Paleface (1948)
18. My Name Is Nobody (1973)
17. The Shootist (1976)
16. Django (1966)

Here are the taglines to the next five films.

* Greatest Spectacle Ever!
* Nine men who came too late and stayed too long...
* There were three men in her life. One to take her... one to love her... and one to kill her.
* Together For The First Time - James Stewart - John Wayne - in the masterpiece of four-time Academy Award winner John Ford.
* The man with no name is back.

[Drillbit Taylor]

May 10, 2011 8:09:59 GMT -5 'Foretold' Joker said:

Mountain Men? Is that really any good seems different.

Its not all that bad. Its crazy Heston at his finest.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

15. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a 1962 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring James Stewart and John Wayne. The black-and-white film was released by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay by James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck was adapted from a short story written by Dorothy M. Johnson.

In 2007 the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Elderly U.S. Senator Ransom "Rance" Stoddard (James Stewart) and his wife arrive by train in the small town of Shinbone, to attend the funeral of an apparent nobody in the Western United States of America. At this point the film's setting shifts back several decades to a time when a much younger Stoddard is traveling to Shinbone by stagecoach to establish a law practice.

A gang of outlaws led by gunfighter Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) hold up the stagecoach. Stoddard is brutally beaten, left for dead and later rescued by local rancher Tom Doniphon (John Wayne). Stoddard is nursed back to health by restaurant owner Peter Ericson (John Qualen), his wife Nora (Jeanette Nolan) and daughter, Hallie (Vera Miles). It later emerges that Hallie is Doniphon's love interest.

Shinbone's townsfolk is regularly menaced by Valance and his gang. Local marshal Link Appleyard (Andy Devine) is ill prepared or unwilling to enforce the law. Doniphon is the only local prepared by challenge Valance's lawless behaviour. On one occasion Doniphon even intervenes on Stoddard's behalf when Valance publicly humiliates the inept lawyer.

Stoddard is an advocate for social justice especially by promoting education amongst Shinbone's townsfolk. He later conducts classes to teach townsfolk how to read and write. These include Hallie Ericson and Doniphon's African-American station hand Pompey (Woody Strode).

Valance is in the pay of local cattle barons intent on influencing the agenda as the territory moves towards statehood. In Shinbone, local residents hold a meeting to elect two delegates to attend a convention on statehood at the territorial capital. Valance attempts to bully the townspeople into electing him as a delegate. Eventually, Stoddard and publisher and editor of the Shinbone Star Dutton Peabody (Edmond O'Brien) are successful. Valance badly beats Peabody after an unflattering newspaper article is published. Sensing that Valance is out of control, Stoddard accepts a challenge to a gun dual despite his complete lack of skills. Stoddard miraculously kills Valance with one shot to the surprise of everyone including himself. Hallie responds with tearful affection and Doniphon congratulates Stoddard on his success.

Sensing that he has lost Hallie's affections, Doniphon gets drunk in the saloon and drives out Valance's men who have been calling for Stoddard to be lynched. The barman tries to tell Pompey that, as a black man, he cannot be served, to which Doniphon angrily shouts: "Who says he can't? Pour yourself a drink, Pompey". Pompey instead drags Doniphon home, where the latter burns down the house he was building in anticipation of marrying Hallie.

Stoddard is hailed as "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" and off the back of this achievement is nominated as the local representative to the state convention. At this point Doniphon tells Stoddard that it was he Doniphon not Stoddard that shot and killed Valance from the other side of the street.

When asked, Doniphon replies he did it to please Hallie, which he now regrets because "she's your girl now". Pushing Stoddard to go back and stand for nomination, Doniphon says, "You taught her to read and write, now give her something to read and write about!"

Stoddard returns to the convention and is chosen as representative. He marries Hallie and becomes a congressman.

The film returns to the present day with Stoddard and wife meeting their old friends at Doniphon's funeral. Stoddard is interviewed by the newspaper reporter and tells him the truth about the killing of Valance. The newspaper man burns his notes stating: "This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend".

Stoddard and Hallie board the train for Washington, melancholy about the lie that led to their prosperous life. With the area becoming more and more civilized, Stoddard decides, to Hallie's delight, to retire from politics, return to the territory to set up a law practice.

The film was shot in black-and-white on Paramount sound stages, which was quite a contrast with Ford's other films of the period such as The Searchers which included vast western exteriors and colour photography. Some maintain that Paramount needed to cut costs and insisted on a lower budgeted film. Paramount executive A.C. Lyles maintains that Ford wanted to make the picture but Paramount had not the budget available. Ford then offered to make it for whatever budget they had (a puzzling scenario since Ford had two of the industry's biggest box-office attractions, James Stewart and John Wayne, lined up to work together for the first time). Lee Marvin stated at length in a filmed interview that Ford realized that the film would not be as effective shot in color because the atmosphere and use of shadows would be adversely impacted and fought to make it in black-and-white.

Although greatly admired as a filmmaker, Ford was well-known for making life difficult for his long-suffering casts, sometimes using a kind of psychological warfare on his actors to extract the most powerful performances possible. James Stewart frequently told a story about Ford embarrassing him by making him look like a racist. When asked by Ford what he thought of the appearance of Woody Strode, an African-American, in dyed grey hair, overalls and hat, Stewart remarked that "it looks a bit Uncle Remus-like". Ford then called for the crew's attention and announced that "one of our actors doesn't like Woody's costume, doesn't like Woody, and probably doesn't like Negroes". Stewart enjoyed the ribbing, and Strode himself claimed that Stewart was "one of the nicest men you'll ever meet anywhere in the world".

But Ford's famed needling sometimes was more painful. Wayne made many films with Ford, with whom he was close. However, Wayne was a frequent target of the director's venomous remarks. Strode claims that Ford "kept needling Duke [Wayne] about his failure to make it as a football player" while Strode was "a real football player". (Wayne's potential career in football had been put off by an injury.)

Ford also admonished Wayne for failing to serve in World War II while Stewart was regarded as a war hero: "How rich did you get while Jimmy was risking his life?" Wayne's failure to serve in the conflict was a source of great guilt for him.

Ford's behavior caused Wayne to take his frustrations out on Strode, who believed that they could otherwise have been friends. While filming an exterior shot on a horse-drawn cart, Wayne almost lost control of the horses and knocked Strode away when he tried to help. When the horses did stop, Wayne almost started a fight with Strode, who was much fitter. Ford gave them time to calm down, and Wayne later told Strode that they had to "work together. We both gotta be professionals". Strode blamed Ford's treatment of Wayne for the trouble, adding, "What a miserable film to make".

Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote a song called "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", which became a Top 10 Hit for Gene Pitney but was not used in the film. Apparently, he was not asked to record it until after the film came out.[4] Instead, the main titles contain a stirringly hard-driving instrumental theme. The chorus of the Pitney song features two hard strikes on a drum in order to represent the shots that were fired. Jimmie Rodgers also recorded the song, in the Gene Pitney style. James Taylor covered the song on his 1985 album That's Why I'm Here. The Royal Guardsmen also covered the song on their 1967 album Snoopy vs. the Red Baron.

In certain scenes involving the character of Hallie, Ford used part of Alfred Newman's "Ann Rutledge Theme" from his earlier film Young Mr. Lincoln. Ford told Peter Bogdanovich in the latter's book John Ford that the theme evoked the same meaning, lost love, in both films.

The exact location of the film's setting is unclear. There are frequent references to the "Picketwire River" in the film. The Picketwire River was a previous name for the Purgatoire River in southeastern Colorado. Even though a date was never stated, the U.S. flag in the schoolroom scene has 38 stars, placing the film after Colorado became the 38th state on August 1, 1876. Saguaro cactus are visible in parts of the film. The only section of the U.S. in which the saguaro plant is native is the Sonoran Desert in Arizona and an extremely small area of California. There is, however, no overt mention in the film of a particular territory.

Before leaving the bar to meet Ransom Stoddard, Liberty Valance wins a hand of poker with two pair, aces over eights - a set known as a dead man's hand.

The film was an instant hit when released in April 1962, thanks to its classic story and popular stars John Wayne and James Stewart. The film was nominated for Best Costume Design Edith Head, one of the few westerns to ever be nominated for the award. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance has continued its popularity through repeated television broadcasts and the rental market. Along with The Searchers, My Darling Clementine, and Stagecoach, it is also widely considered to be one of director John Ford's best westerns and generally ranks alongside Red River, The Searchers, The Big Trail, and Stagecoach as one of John Wayne's best films.

Sergio Leone, the director of such classic Westerns as Once Upon a Time in the West and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and one of the directors Ford influenced the most, said it was his favorite John Ford film because "it was the only film where he (Ford) learned about something called pessimism."

Stewart was given top billing over Wayne in the film's posters and previews, but in the film itself Wayne has top billing. Their names are displayed on pictures of signposts, one after the other, with Wayne's name shown first and his sign mounted slightly higher on its post than Stewart's. Ford remarked in an interview with Peter Bogdanovich that he made it apparent to the audience that Vera Miles' character had never gotten over Tom Doniphon because "I wanted Wayne to be the lead".

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

14. The Wild Bunch (1969)

The Wild Bunch is a 1969 American Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah about an aging outlaw gang on the Texas-Mexico border, trying to exist in the changing "modern" world of 1913. The film was controversial because of its graphic, bloody violence and its portrayal of the crude men attempting to survive by any available means.

It stars William Holden, Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine, Ben Johnson and Warren Oates. The screenplay was by Peckinpah and Walon Green.

The Wild Bunch is noted for intricate, multi-angle editing, using normal and slow motion images, a revolutionary cinema technique in 1969. The writing of Walon Green, Roy N. Sickner, and Sam Peckinpah was nominated for a best-screenplay Academy Award; Jerry Fielding's music was nominated for Best Original Score; director Peckinpah was nominated for an Outstanding Directorial Achievement award by the Directors Guild of America; and cinematographer Lucien Ballard won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography.

In 1999, the U.S. National Film Registry selected it for preservation in the Library of Congress as culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant. The Wild Bunch was ranked 80th in the American Film Institute's best hundred American films, and the 69th most thrilling film. In 2008, the AFI revealed its "10 Top 10" of the best ten films in ten genres: The Wild Bunch ranked as the sixth-best western.

In 1913 Texas, Pike Bishop (William Holden), the leader of a gang of aging outlaws, is seeking retirement with one final score, namely the robbery of a railroad office containing a cache of silver. They are ambushed by Pike's former partner, Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), and a posse of bounty hunters hired and deputized by the railroad. A bloody shootout kills several of the gang. The town's citizens were not warned, so many are needlessly killed in the crossfire.

Pike rides off with Dutch Engstrom (Ernest Borgnine), brothers Lyle (Warren Oates) and Tector Gorch (Ben Johnson), and Angel (Jaime Sánchez), the only survivors. The loot turns out to be nothing but steel washers. The men reunite with old-timer Freddie Sykes (Edmond O'Brien), and head for Mexico. Thornton has been released from a Yuma prison to help track down his former comrades in return for a full pardon.

Pike's men cross the Rio Grande and take refuge that night in a village where Angel was born, and where the Mexican Revolution has taken its toll. The townsfolk are ruled by a self-styled bandido warlord named Mapache (Emilio Fernández), a general in the Mexican Federal Army, who has been stealing to feed his troops.

In the town of Agua Verde (Spanish for "green water"), a den of debauchery, Pike's gang makes contact with the general. A jealous Angel spots a former lover in Mapache's arms, shoots and kills her. After defusing the situation, Pike offers to work for Mapache, who engages him and his men for $10,000 in gold. Their task is to steal a weapons shipment from a U.S. Army train so that Mapache can resupply his troops – and appease Mohr (Fernando Wagner), his German military adviser, who wishes to obtain samples of America's armament.

Angel gives up his share of the gold to Pike in return for sending one crate of the stolen rifles and ammunition to a band of rebels opposed to Mapache. The holdup goes as planned until Deke's posse turns up on the very train the gang has robbed. They give chase, only to be foiled again by an explosive booby trap which blows up a trestle and sends the entire posse down a river.

Pike and his men, knowing they risk Mapache's betrayal, devise a way of bringing him the stolen weapons – including a Browning M1917 machine gun – without his double-crossing them. Mapache does, however, learn of Angel's "embezzling" of a crate of guns. Angel is captured and tortured.

Sykes is wounded and forced into hiding after another encounter with Deke's posse. The rest of Pike's gang returns to Agua Verde for shelter. Pike tries to persuade Mapache to release Angel, who is barely alive. Instead, the general cuts his throat. Pike angrily guns him down in front of hundreds of Mapache's men. For a moment, the Federales are so shocked that they fail to return fire, at which Dutch laughs in surprise. Pike calmly takes aim at the German officer and kills him, too. This results in a long, violent shootout in which all four of the gang, both Germans and countless Mexicans are slain.

Deke finally catches up. He allows the remaining members of the posse to take the bullet-riddled bodies back and collect the reward, while electing to stay behind. Sykes arrives with several Mexican rebels, who have killed off what's left of the posse along the way. He asks Deke to come along and join the revolution. Deke smiles and rides off with them.

Director Sam Peckinpah considered many actors for the Pike Bishop role; Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, James Stewart, Charlton Heston, Gregory Peck, Sterling Hayden, Richard Boone and Robert Mitchum were all considered before William Holden was cast. Marvin actually accepted the role but pulled out after he was offered a larger pay deal to star in Paint Your Wagon (1969).

Sam Peckinpah's first two choices for the role of Deke Thornton were Richard Harris (who had co-starred in Major Dundee) and Brian Keith (who had worked with Peckinpah on The Westerner (1960) and The Deadly Companions (1961)). Harris was never formally approached, but Keith was, and turned the part down. Robert Ryan was ultimately cast in the part after Peckinpah saw him in World War II Action Movie The Dirty Dozen (1967). Other actors considered for the role were Arthur Kennedy, Henry Fonda, Ben Johnson (later cast as Tector Gorch) and Van Heflin.

Mario Adorf was considered for the part of Mapache; the role went to Emilio Fernández, the Mexican film director and actor and friend of Peckinpah. Among those considered to play Dutch Engstrom were Steve McQueen, George Peppard, Jim Brown, Alex Cord, Robert Culp, Sammy Davis, Jr., Charles Bronson and Richard Jaeckel. Ernest Borgnine was cast based on his performance in The Dirty Dozen.

Robert Blake was the original choice to play Angel, but he asked for too much money. Peckinpah had seen Jaime Sánchez in the Broadway production of Sidney Lumet's The Pawnbroker, was impressed and demanded he be cast as Angel. Albert Dekker, a stage actor, was cast as Harrigan, the railroad detective. He died months after filming; The Wild Bunch was his final film. Bo Hopkins played the part of Clarence "Crazy" Lee; he was cast after Peckinpah saw him on television.

In 1967, Warner Bros.-Seven Arts producers Kenneth Hyman and Phil Feldman were interested in having Sam Peckinpah rewrite and direct an adventure film called The Diamond Story. A professional outcast due to the production difficulties of his previous film Major Dundee (1965) and his firing from the set of The Cincinnati Kid (1965), Peckinpah's stock had improved following his critically acclaimed work on the television film Noon Wine (1966). An alternative screenplay available at the studio was The Wild Bunch, written by Roy Sickner and Walon Green. At the time, William Goldman's screenplay Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had recently been purchased by 20th Century Fox. It was quickly decided that The Wild Bunch, which had several similarities to Goldman's work, would be produced in order to beat Butch Cassidy to the theaters.

By the fall of 1967, Peckinpah was rewriting the screenplay and preparing for production. Filmed on location in Mexico, Peckinpah's epic work was inspired by his hunger to return to films, the violence seen in Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde, America's growing frustration with the Vietnam War and what he perceived to be the utter lack of reality seen in Westerns up to that time. He set out to make a film which portrayed not only the vicious violence of the period, but the crude men attempting to survive the era. Multiple scenes attempted in Major Dundee, including slow motion action sequences (inspired by Akira Kurosawa's work in Seven Samurai), characters leaving a village as if in a funeral procession and the use of inexperienced locals as extras, would be perfected in The Wild Bunch.

The film was shot with the anamorphic process. Peckinpah and his cinematographer, Lucien Ballard, also made use of telephoto lenses, that allowed for objects and people in both the background and foreground to be compressed in perspective. The effect is best seen in the shots where the Bunch makes "the walk" to Mapache's headquarters to free Angel. As they walk forward, a constant flow of people pass between them and the camera, most of them are as sharply focused as the Bunch. The editing of the film is notable in that shots from multiple angles would be spliced together in rapid succession, often at different speeds, placing greater emphasis on the chaotic nature of the action and the gunfights.

Lou Lombardo, having previously worked with Peckinpah on Noon Wine, was personally hired by the director to edit The Wild Bunch. Peckinpah had wanted an editor who would be loyal to him. Lombardo's youth was also a plus, as he wasn't bound by traditional conventions. One of Lombardo's first contributions was to show Peckinpah an episode of the TV series Felony Squad he edited in 1967. The episode, entitled "My Mommy Got Lost," included a slow motion sequence where Joe Don Baker is shot by the police. The scene mixed slow motion with normal speed. Peckinpah was reportedly thrilled and told Lombardo, "Let's try some of that when we get down to Mexico!" The director would film the major shootouts with six cameras, all operating a different film rates including 24 frames per second, 30 frames per second, 60 frames per second, 90 frames per second and 120 frames per second. When the scenes were eventually cut together, the action would shift from slow to fast to slower still, giving time an elastic quality never before seen in motion pictures up to that time.

By the time filming wrapped, Peckinpah had shot 333,000 feet of film with 1,288 camera setups. Lombardo and Peckinpah remained in Mexico for six months editing the picture. After initial cuts, the opening gunfight sequence ran 21 minutes. Cutting frames from specific scenes and intercutting others, they were able to fine-cut the opening robbery down to five minutes. The creative montage became the model for the rest of the film and would forever change the way movies were made.

Peckinpah stated that one of his goals for this movie was to give the audience "some idea of what it is to be gunned down." A memorable incident occurred, to that end, as Peckinpah's crew were consulting him on the "gunfire" effects to be used in the film. Not satisfied with the results from the squibs his crew had brought for him, Peckinpah became exasperated; he finally hollered, "That's not what I want! That's not what I want!" Then he grabbed a real revolver and fired it into a nearby wall. The gun empty, Peckinpah barked at his stunned crew: "THAT'S the effect I want!!" He also had the gunfire sound effects changed for the film. Before, all gunshots in Warner Brothers movies sounded identical, regardless of the type of weapon being fired. Peckinpah insisted on each different type of firearm having its own specific sound effect when fired.

Critics of The Wild Bunch noted the theme of the end of the outlaw gunfighter era. Pike Bishop says: We've got to start thinking beyond our guns. Those days are closing fast. The Bunch live by an anachronistic code of honour without a place in twentieth century modern society. When they inspect General Mapache's new automobile, they perceive it marks the end of horse travel, a symbol also in Peckinpah's Ride the High Country (1962) and The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970).

The violence that was much criticized by critics in 1969 remains controversial. Director Peckinpah noted it was allegoric of the American war against Vietnam, whose violence was nightly televised to American homes at supper time. He tried showing the gun violence commonplace to the historic western frontier period, rebelling against sanitised, bloodless television westerns and films glamourising gun fights and murder. "The point of the film is to take this façade of movie violence and open it up, get people involved in it so that they are starting to go in the Hollywood television predictable reaction syndrome, and then twist it so that it's not fun anymore, just a wave of sickness in the gut ... It's ugly, brutalizing, and bloody awful; it's not fun and games and cowboys and Indians. It's a terrible, ugly thing, and yet there's a certain response that you get from it, an excitement, because we're all violent people." Peckinpah used violence as catharsis, believing his audience would be purged of violence, by witnessing it explicitly on screen. He later admitted to being mistaken, that the audience came to enjoy rather than be horrified by his films' violence, something that troubled him.

Betrayal is the secondary theme of The Wild Bunch. The characters suffer from their knowledge of having betrayed a friend and left him to his fate, thus violating their own honour code when it suits them ("10,000 dollars cuts a lot of family ties." A quotation is posed against this quote, "when you side with a man, you stay with him. Otherwise you are just some animal.") Such complex oppositional ideas lead to the film's violent conclusion, as the remaining men find their abandonment of Angel intolerable . Pike Bishop remembers his betrayals, most notably when he deserts Deke Thornton (in flashback) when the law catches up to them; and when he abandons Crazy Lee at the bank after the robbery (ostensibly to guard the hostages).

Note that in the era of the film's release, there was a man named Bishop Pike, an Episcopal bishop who very publicly opposed the Vietnam War and was featured in mass media as such.

Vincent Canby began his review by calling the film "very beautiful and the first truly interesting American-made Western in years. It's also so full of violence –of an intensity that can hardly be supported by the story – that it's going to prompt a lot of people who do not know the real effect of movie violence (as I do not) to write automatic condemnations of it." He said "although the movie's conventional and poetic action sequences are extraordinarily good and its landscapes beautifully photographed..., it is most interesting in its almost jolly account of chaos, corruption, and defeat"; among the actors, he commented particularly on William Holden: "After years of giving bored performances in boring movies, Holden comes back gallantly in The Wild Bunch. He looks older and tired, but he has style, both as a man and as a movie character who persists in doing what he's always done, not because he really wants the money but because there's simply nothing else to do." Time also liked Holden's performance, describing it as his best since Stalag 17 (a 1953 film that earned Holden an Oscar), said Robert Ryan gave "the screen performance of his career" and concluded that "The Wild Bunch contains faults and mistakes" (such as flashbacks "introduced with surprising clumsiness"), but "its accomplishments are more than sufficient to confirm that Peckinpah, along with Stanley Kubrick and Arthur Penn, belongs with the best of the newer generation of American film makers."

In a 2002 retrospective, Roger Ebert, who "saw the original version at the world premiere in 1969, during the golden age of the junket, when Warner Bros. screened five of its new films in the Bahamas for 450 critics and reporters", said that back then he had publicly declared the film a masterpiece during the junket's press conference, prompted by comments from "a reporter from the Reader's Digest [who] got up to ask 'Why was this film ever made?'" He compared the film to Pulp Fiction: "praised and condemned with equal vehemence."

Sam Peckinpah and the making of The Wild Bunch was the subject of the documentary The Wild Bunch: An Album in Montage (1996) co-produced and directed by Paul Seydor. It was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Documentary Short Subject.

Following its release, Peckinpah was one of ten directors receiving a nomination for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film. The film received two Academy Award nominations, for Best Original Screenplay (Walon Green, Roy N. Sickner, Sam Peckinpah) and Best Original Music Score (Jerry Fielding) At the 42nd Academy Awards ceremony, both awards went to crew members of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (screen writer William Goldman and composer Burt Bacharach).

Decades later, the American Film Institute placed the film in several of its "100 Years" lists:

* AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies #80
* AFI's 100 Years…100 Thrills #69
* AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) #79
* AFI's 10 Top 10 #6 Western

In 1999, the U.S. National Film Registry selected it for preservation in the Library of Congress as culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant.

In 1993, Warner Brothers resubmitted the film to the MPAA ratings board prior to an expected re-release. To the studio's surprise, the originally R-rated film was given an NC-17, delaying the release until the decision was appealed. The controversy was linked to 10 extra minutes added to the film, although none of this footage contained strong violence. Warner Brothers trimmed some footage to decrease the running time to ensure additional daily screenings. When the restored film finally made it to the screen in March 1995, one reviewer noted:

By restoring 10 minutes to the film, the complex story now fits together in a seamless way, filling in those gaps found in the previous theatrical release, and proving that Peckinpah was firing on all cylinders for this, his grandest achievement....And the one overwhelming feature that the director's cut makes unforgettable are the many faces of the children, whether playing, singing, or cowering, much of the reaction to what happens on-screen is through the eyes, both innocent and imitative, of all the children.

Today, almost all of the versions of The Wild Bunch include the missing scenes. Warner Brothers released a newly restored version of The Wild Bunch in a two-disc special edition on January 10, 2006. It includes an audio commentary by Peckinpah scholars, two documentaries concerning the making of the film and never-before-seen outtakes.

The Wild Bunch is called Pipe Dreams in some countries (especially in the Middle East), causing its confusion with the comedy Down Periscope (1996), also called Pipe Dreams. Moreover, there have been several versions of The Wild Bunch:

* The original, 1969 European release is 145 minutes long, with an intermission (per distributor's request, before the train robbery).
* The original, 1969 American release is 143 minutes long.
* The second, 1969 American release is 135 minutes long, shortened to allow more screenings.
* The 1995 re-release version is 145 minutes long, identical to the original, 1969 European release without the intermission – The Wild Bunch version labelled "The Original Director's Cut", currently available in home video formats.

On January 19, 2011 it was announced by Warner Bros that The Wild Bunch would be remade.

[bob]

1
2
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4 ¡Three Amigos! (20)
5 Billy the Kid (23)
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7 City Slickers 2: The Legend of Curly's Gold (27)
8 Back to the Future Part III (30)
9 Last Man Standing (33)
10 Once Upon a Time in Mexico (34)

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

13. For A Few Dollars More (1965)

For a Few Dollars More (Italian: Per qualche dollaro in più) is a 1965 Italian spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Gian Maria Volonté. German actor Klaus Kinski also plays a supporting role as a secondary villain. The film was released in the United States in 1967 and is the second part of what is commonly known as the Dollars Trilogy.

Eastwood (as the Man with No Name) and Van Cleef (as Colonel Douglas Mortimer and the "Man in Black") portray two bounty hunters in pursuit of "El Indio" (Gian Maria Volonté), one of the most wanted fugitives in the western territories, and his gang (one of whom is played by Kinski). Indio is a ruthless, intelligent man. He has a musical pocketwatch that he plays before engaging in gun duels. "When the chimes finish, begin," he says. Flashbacks reveal that the watch originates from a young woman (Rosemary Dexter), who killed herself while being raped by Indio after he had found her with her lover (in Joe Millard's novelization of the film, the young man is her newly-wed husband) and killed him. The watch bears a photo of the woman and was presented as a gift by the young man before being killed.

Colonel Mortimer (Cleef) illegally stops a train in Tucumcari, and soon after collects a bounty of $1,000 on Guy Calloway (José Terrón). Mortimer's gunslinging skill is displayed as he easily kills him from long distance. After collecting the bounty he inquires about Red "Baby" Cavanagh (José Marco), who has a $2,000 bounty, and was last seen in White Rocks.

Mortimer is told that Cavanagh has already been targeted by Eastwood's character, who is referred to as "Manco" (meaning one-armed in Spanish — see below for an explanation). We see Manco ride into town and track down Cavanagh at a saloon playing five-card draw poker. Manco kills him and his men, and takes the bounty. Eventually, the two bounty hunters, after learning about each other from different sources, meet in El Paso and, after butting heads, decide to team up to take down Indio and his gang.

Indio's primary goal is to rob the Bank of El Paso and its disguised safe containing "almost a million dollars." Mortimer persuades a reluctant Manco to join Indio's gang during the robbery in order to "get him between two fires." Manco is offered membership in the gang after rescuing one of Indio's friends from prison.

When Indio robs the bank, he brings the gang and the money to the small border town of Agua Caliente, where Mortimer reunites with Manco. The hunchback Wild (Klaus Kinski) recognizes the Colonel from a previous encounter in which the Colonel had deliberately insulted him and forces a showdown in which he is killed by the Colonel. The Colonel then proves his worth to Indio by cracking open the safe without using explosives, but Indio states his intention to wait a month if necessary to allow the furor over the bank robbery to die down and locks the money away. Manco and the Colonel plan to steal the bank money from Indio, but the bandits catch them in the act and severely beat them. Indio's right-hand man Nino (Mario Brega), on orders from Indio, kills their guard and releases the bounty hunters. Indio informs his gang that they "got away," and sends them after the escaped bounty hunters. He intends to kill off his gang with the bounty killers while he and Nino take all the loot for themselves. However, the smarter Groggy (Luigi Pistilli) figures out what Indio is up to, and kills Nino. Before he can kill Indio, he finds that the Colonel has already removed the stolen money from where Indio had hidden it. Indio convinces Groggy to join forces with him to trap the bounty-killers. The next morning, Manco and Mortimer shoot down the gang, one by one, in the streets of the town. Standing alone, Mortimer shoots Groggy when the outlaw tries to run for it, but then has his gun shot out of his hand by Indio, who then takes out his pocketwatch and begins playing it. As the chimes nears the end, Manco suddenly appears with an identical pocketwatch, playing the same tune as Indio's, which Mortimer realizes had been taken from him earlier. As this happens, Manco holds a Henry rifle on Indio and gives his gunbelt and pistol to Mortimer, evening the odds. "Now we start," Manco announces and sits while Mortimer and Indio face off. During the standoff, Manco looks down at the pocketwatch and sees the same picture of the woman Indio had raped. The music finishes, and Mortimer outdraws and guns down Indio.

At this juncture, Mortimer takes Indio's pocketwatch. Manco gives him back the other watch and remarks on a family resemblance; the Colonel replies, "Naturally, between brother and sister," indicating that the young woman's portrait was that of Mortimer's sister. His revenge complete, he decides to take no part of the bounty. As Manco tosses the last of the bodies into a wagon and counts them by the reward for each one, he realizes he is short of the $27,000 total, and spins around to gun down Groggy who had survived and was sneaking up behind him to kill him. As he leaves, he recovers the money stolen from the Bank of El Paso, though it is not clear whether he intends to return it. He then rides off into the distance with his horse towing the wagon full of the lifeless bodies of the entire gang.

After the box-office success of A Fistful of Dollars in Italy, director Sergio Leone and his new producer, Alberto Grimaldi, wanted to begin production of a sequel, but they needed to get Clint Eastwood to agree to star in it. Eastwood was not ready to commit to a second film when he had not even seen the first. Quickly, the filmmakers rushed an Italian-language print (a U.S. version did not yet exist) of Per un pugno di Dollari to him. The star then gathered a group of friends for a debut screening at CBS Production Center and, not knowing what to expect, tried to keep expectations low by downplaying the film. As the reels unspool, however, Eastwood's concerns proved to be unfounded. The audience may not have understood Italian, but in terms of style and action, the film spoke volumes. "Everybody enjoyed it just as much as if it had been in English", Eastwood recalled. Soon, he was on the phone with the filmmakers' representative: "Yeah, I'll work for that director again," he said. Charles Bronson was again approached for a starring role but he passed, citing that the sequel's script was like the first film. Instead, Lee Van Cleef accepted the role. Eastwood received $50,000 for returning in the sequel, while Van Cleef received $17,000. The film was shot in Almería, Spain, with interiors done at Rome's Cinecittà Studios.

The production designer, Carlo Simi built the town of "El Paso" in the Almería desert: it still exists, as a tourist attraction Mini Hollywood. The town of Agua Caliente, where Indio and his gang flee after the bank robbery, is Albaricoques, a small "pueblo blanco" on the Nijar plain.

As all of the film's footage was shot silent, Eastwood and Van Cleef returned to Italy where they dubbed over their dialogue and sound effects were added.

Ennio Morricone composed the film's soundtrack as he did for A Fistful of Dollars: before production had started, under Leone's explicit direction. In fact Leone often shot to Morricone's music on set. In the United States, Hugo Montenegro released a cover version as did Leroy Holmes who released a cover version of the soundtrack album with the original American poster art. Maurizio Graf sang a vocal "Occhio Per Occhio"/"Eye For An Eye" to the music of the cue "Sixty Seconds to What" track that did not appear in the film but was released as a tie-in 45rpm record.

The rock band Year Long Disaster has recorded a song called "Per qualche dollaro in più". However, it is unknown how large the connection with it is.

British band Babe Ruth famously covered the main theme as part of their song The Mexican.

The theme "La resa dei conti" was used as a ringtone for Vertu phones.

The film was released in Italy in December 1965 as Per Qualche Dollaro in Piu. In the United States, it debuted four months after the release to A Fistful of Dollars, grossing $5 million.

Lando Buzzanca parodied the film in For a Few Dollars Less (1966).

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

12. Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)

Once Upon a Time in the West (Italian: C'era una volta il West) is a 1968 Italian epic spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone for Paramount Pictures. It stars Henry Fonda cast against type as the villain, Charles Bronson as his nemesis, Jason Robards as a bandit, and Claudia Cardinale as a newly widowed homesteader with a past as a prostitute. The screenplay was written by Leone and Sergio Donati, from a story devised by Leone, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Dario Argento. The widescreen cinematography was by Tonino Delli Colli, and Ennio Morricone provided the film score.

In Europe, the film was a substantial box office success, playing for multiple years in some cities. However, it was greeted with a mostly negative critical response upon its 1969 theatrical release in the United States and was a financial flop. The film is now generally acknowledged as a masterpiece and one of the best western films ever made.

In 2009, it was named to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant and will be preserved for all time.

The film describes two conflicts that take place around Flagstone, a fictional town in the American Old West: a land battle related to construction of a railroad, and a mission of vengeance against a cold-blooded killer. The main storyline revolves around a struggle for Sweetwater, a piece of land near Flagstone containing the region's only water source. The land was bought by Brett McBain (Frank Wolff), who foresaw that the railroad would have to pass through that area to provide water for the steam locomotives. When railroad tycoon Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti) learns of this, he sends his hired gun Frank (Fonda) to intimidate McBain, and Frank kills McBain and his three children, planting evidence on the scene to frame the bandit Cheyenne (Robards) and his gang. By the time McBain's new bride, Jill (Cardinale), arrives from New Orleans, the family is dead and she is the owner of the land.

Meanwhile, a mysterious harmonica-playing gunman (Bronson), whom Cheyenne later dubs "Harmonica", pursues Frank. In the film's opening scene, Harmonica kills three men sent by Frank to kill him, and, in a roadhouse on the way to Sweetwater, he informs Cheyenne that the three gunfighters he killed appeared to be posing as Cheyenne's men. Sometime later, Harmonica kills two men sent by Frank to kill Jill.

Back at Sweetwater, construction materials are delivered to build a railroad station and a small town. Harmonica explains to Cheyenne that Jill will lose Sweetwater unless the station is built by the time the track's construction crews reach that point, and Cheyenne puts his men to work building it.

Meanwhile, Frank turns against Morton, who wanted to make a deal with Jill. Frank's betrayal is made easy by the fact that Morton is crippled. After having his way with her, Frank forces Jill to sell the property in an auction. He tries to buy the farm cheaply by intimidating the other bidders, but Harmonica arrives, holding Cheyenne at gunpoint, and makes a much higher bid based on his reward money for delivering Cheyenne to the authorities. After rebuffing another intimidation attempt by Frank, Harmonica sells the farm back to Jill. At this point, some of Frank's men try to kill Frank, having been paid by Morton to turn against him, but Harmonica helps Frank kill them in order to save that privilege for himself.

After Morton and the rest of Frank's men are killed in a battle with Cheyenne's gang, Frank goes to Sweetwater to confront Harmonica. On two occasions, Frank has asked Harmonica who he is, but both times Harmonica refused to answer him. Instead, he mysteriously quoted names of men Frank has murdered. The two men position themselves for a duel, at which point Harmonica's motive for revenge is revealed in a flashback: When Harmonica was a boy, Frank killed his older brother by tying a noose to the top of an arch, placing it around the brother's neck, and forcing Harmonica to support his brother on his shoulders with a harmonica in his mouth. Harmonica draws first and shoots Frank, and when Frank again asks who he is, he puts the harmonica in Frank's mouth. Frank nods weakly in recognition and dies.

With Frank dead, Harmonica and Cheyenne say goodbye to Jill, who is supervising construction of the train station as the track-laying crews reach Sweetwater. Cheyenne collapses almost immediately, revealing that he was shot by Morton while he and his men were fighting Frank's gang. The work train arrives, and the film ends as Jill carries water to the rail workers and Harmonica rides off with Cheyenne's body towards the horizon.

After making his American Civil War epic The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Leone had intended to retire from making Westerns, believing he had said all he wanted to say. He had come across the novel The Hoods by the pseudonymous "Harry Grey", an autobiographical book based on the author's own experiences as a Jewish hood during Prohibition, and planned to adapt it into a film (this would eventually, seventeen years later, become his final film, Once Upon a Time in America). Leone though was offered only Westerns by the Hollywood studios. United Artists (who had produced the Dollars Trilogy) offered him the opportunity to make a film starring Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas and Rock Hudson, but Leone refused. However, when Paramount offered Leone a generous budget along with access to Henry Fonda—his favorite actor, with whom he had wanted to work for virtually all of his career—Leone accepted the offer.

Leone commissioned Bernardo Bertolucci and Dario Argento – both who were film critics before becoming directors – to help him develop the film in late 1966. The men spent much of the following year watching and discussing numerous classic Westerns such as High Noon, The Iron Horse, The Comancheros, and The Searchers at Leone's house, and constructed a story made up almost entirely of "references" to American Westerns.

Ever since The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which originally ran for three hours, Leone's films were usually cut (often quite dramatically) for box office release. Leone was very conscious of the length of Once Upon a Time in the West during filming and later commissioned Sergio Donati, who had worked on several of Leone's other films, to help him refine the screenplay, largely to curb the length of the film towards the end of production. Many of the film's most memorable lines of dialogue came from Donati, or from the film's English dialogue director, expatriate American actor Mickey Knox.

For Once Upon a Time in the West, Leone changed his approach over his earlier westerns. Whereas the "Dollars" films were quirky and up-tempo, a celebratory yet tongue-in-cheek parody of the icons of the wild west, this film is much slower in pace and sombre in theme. Leone's distinctive style, which is very different from, but very much influenced by, Akira Kurosawa's Sanshiro Sugata (1943), is still present but has been modified for the beginning of Leone's second trilogy, the so-called "Once Upon a Time" trilogy. The characters in this film are also beginning to change markedly over their predecessors in the "Dollars" westerns. They are not quite as defined and, unusually for Leone characters up to this point, they begin to change (or at least attempt to) over the course of the story. This signals the start of the second phase of Leone's style, which would be further developed in A Fistful of Dynamite and Once Upon a Time in America.

A major motif of the film is the railroad; its advent heralds the arrival of civilization and culture, marking the death of the mythic Old West. This captures in miniature the dying-off of the old cultural heroes in the wake of the modern world, where it is the ordinary man who is important. The West was seen by Leone as the last environment of the old-style hero, and one can understand the film as a nostalgic examination and exploration of the past. Running parallel to this is Leone's sadness at the demise of the mythical Wild West as told by cinema, and the film is his way of laying to rest the old Hollywood-style western heroes and legends, as the film's title suggests. The climactic duel between Harmonica (Bronson) and Frank (Fonda) brings these messages into focus. Harmonica often acts as the thematic voice of the film and has been waiting for Frank (who has been trying to become a businessman throughout the story) to show his irrepressible true colors as a figure of the "ancient race" and engage him in a fated gun duel. Another major theme is water. The transformation of the central character Jill (Cardinale) all takes place due to the water on her land, and there are several scenes involving water being drunk or served. A well and its water have a central role in the plot as the fuel that nourishes the New West, and the Pacific Ocean plays prominently in Morton's motivational dream to build a trans-American railroad.

The film features long, slow scenes in which there is very little dialogue and little happens, broken by brief and sudden violence. Leone was far more interested in the rituals preceding violence than in the violence itself. The tone of the film is consistent with the arid semi-desert in which the story unfolds, and imbues it with a feeling of realism that contrasts with the elaborately choreographed gunplay.

The brick arch where Bronson's character flashbacks to his youth and the original launching incident was built near a small airport fifteen miles north of Monument Valley in Utah, two miles from Highway 163 which links Gouldings Lodge and Mexican Hat. The famous opening sequence with the three gunman meeting the train was the last sequence filmed in Spain. Shooting at Cattle Corner Station, as the location was called in the story, was scheduled for four days and was filmed along the railway line near Estación de Calahorra, outside Guadix, Spain. Actor Al Mulock, who plays Knuckles in the opening sequence, committed suicide in Guadix just before this sequence was finished filming.

Fonda did not accept Leone's first offer to play Frank, so Leone flew to New York to convince him, telling him: "Picture this: the camera shows a gunman from the waist down pulling his gun and shooting a running child. The camera tilts up to the gunman's face and...it's Henry Fonda." After meeting with Leone, Fonda called his friend Eli Wallach, who advised him to do the film, as "You will have the time of your life."

When he accepted the role, Fonda came to the set with brown contacts and facial hair. Fonda felt having dark eyes and facial hair would blend well with his character's evil and also help the audience to accept this "new" Fonda as the bad guy, but Leone immediately told him to remove the contacts and facial hair. Leone felt that Fonda's blue eyes best reflected the cold, icy nature of the killer.

Leone originally offered the role of Harmonica to Clint Eastwood; when he turned it down, Leone hired Charles Bronson who had originally been offered and turned down the part of the Man with No Name in A Fistful of Dollars. James Coburn was also approached for Harmonica but demanded too much money.

Robert Ryan was offered the role of the Sheriff played by Keenan Wynn. Ryan initially accepted but backed out after being given a larger role in Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch.

Enrico Maria Salerno and Robert Hossein were both offered the role of Morton before Gabriele Ferzetti was cast; Hossein had accepted but had to drop out for a theatre commitment. Ferzetti, who considers it one of his best roles, referred to his casting as "Fate, Destiny" in an interview for the DVD release.

Actor Al Mulock (featured in the opening train sequence as well as in Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) committed suicide during shooting of the film by leaping from his hotel room in full costume. Frank Wolff, the actor who plays McBain, also committed suicide in a Rome hotel in 1971.

The music was written by composer Ennio Morricone, Leone's regular collaborator, who wrote the score under Leone's direction before filming began. As in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the haunting music contributes to the film's grandeur and, like the music for The Good the Bad and the Ugly, is considered one of Morricone's greatest compositions.

The film features leitmotifs that relate to each of the main characters (each with their own unique theme music) as well as to the spirit of the American West. Especially compelling are the wordless vocals by Italian singer Edda Dell'Orso during the theme music for the Claudia Cardinale character. It was Leone's desire to have the music available and played during filming. Leone had Morricone compose the score before shooting started and would play the music in the background for the actors on set.

Though less popular in the US than the earlier "Dollars Trilogy", Once Upon a Time in the West has gained an ardent cult following around the world, particularly among cineastes and film makers. In the late 1960s and 1970s, it was re-evaluated by many young filmmakers and critics, many of whom called it a masterpiece. Directors, such as Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, John Carpenter, John Milius, John Boorman, and Baz Luhrmann, have all spoken about the influence that the film had on them. It is now considered one of the greatest films ever made and many consider it to be the finest Western and Sergio Leone's finest accomplishment as a director. Once Upon a Time in the West can be found on numerous film polls.

* In 2008, Empire Magazine held a film poll of the "500 Greatest Movies of All Time", taking votes from 10,000 readers, 150 filmmakers and 50 film critics. Once Upon a Time in the West was voted in at number 14, the highest ranking western.
* Time Magazine named Once Upon a Time in the West as one of the 100 greatest films of the 20th century.
* In They Shoot Pictures, Don't They's list of the 1000 Greatest Films, Once Upon a Time in the West is placed at number 62.
* Total Film magazine placed Once Upon a Time in the West in their special edition issue of the 100 Greatest Movies.

In the US, the film had a rather poor opening reception, gaining largely negative or indifferent reviews in its complete form (165 minutes). Paramount edited the film to about 145 minutes for the wide release, but the film tanked at the box office. The following scenes were cut for the American release:
* The entire scene at Lionel Stander's trading post. Cheyenne (Robards) was not introduced in the American release until his arrival at the McBain ranch later in the film. Stander remained in the credits, even though he did not appear in this version at all.
* The scene in which Morton and Frank discuss what to do with Jill at the Navajo Cliffs.
* Morton's death scene was reduced considerably.
* Cheyenne's death scene was completely excised.

Otherwise, one scene was slightly longer in the US version than in the international film release:
Following the opening duel (where all four gunmen fire and fall), Charles Bronson's character stands up again showing that he had only been shot in the arm. This part of the scene had been originally cut by director Sergio Leone for the worldwide theatrical release. It was added again for the U.S. market because the American distributors feared American viewers would not understand the story otherwise, especially since Harmonica's arm wound is originally shown for the first time in the scene at the trading post which was cut for the shorter U.S. version.

The English language version was restored to approximately 165 minutes for a re-release in 1984, and for its video release the following year.

A slightly longer, 168-minute version exists in Italy which features several scenes augmented with additional material, though no complete scenes are present that are missing. The longest known cut is 171 minutes long and is only unofficially available as a bootleg copy on various file sharing platforms.

The German-language release has been titled Spiel mir das Lied vom Tod ("Play to me the Song of Death"). In the original (English) version, Frank says "Keep your lovin' brother happy" when he shoves the harmonica in young Harmonica's mouth as he stands supporting his brother; this line is overdubbed with Na komm' – spiel mir das Lied vom Tod ("Come – play to me the Song of Death"). While Harmonica silently puts the instrument between Frank's teeth as he is dying after their climactic duel, in the German edition his voice (while Bronson's character is off-screen and the camera is focused on Fonda's face) says Spiel mir das Lied vom Tod, Frank!. This stresses Harmonica's story and his reason for seeking revenge, and strongly emphasizes Harmonica's theme and its sinister origin and meaning to the point of tilting the focus of the entire film to this theme.

Since the original line is the only mention of Harmonica's brother, many German viewers of the film believe that the lynched man is Harmonica's father. There are some other additions to the original text as well, most notably a line Frank says to Morton – "Pacific Ocean, hm?" – as Morton is dying in a mud puddle.

After years of public requests, Paramount released a 2-Disc "Special Collector's Edition" of Once Upon a Time in the West on November 18, 2003, with a running time of 165 minutes (158 minutes in some regions).[nb 1] This release is the color 2.35:1 aspect ratio version in anamorphic wide-screen, closed captioned and Dolby. Commentary is also provided by film experts and historians such as John Carpenter, John Milius, Alex Cox, film historian and Leone biographer Sir Christopher Frayling, Dr. Sheldon Hall, as well as actors Claudia Cardinale and Gabriele Ferzetti, and director Bernardo Bertolucci, a co-writer of the film.

The second disc has special features, including three recent documentaries on several aspects of the film:
* An Opera of Violence
* The Wages of Sin
* Something to Do with Death

There is a Railroads: Revolutionizing the West featurette, location and production galleries, cast profiles, as well as the original trailer.

Leone's intent was to take the stock conventions of the American Westerns of John Ford, Howard Hawks and others, and rework them in an ironic fashion, essentially reversing their intended meaning in their original sources to create a darker connotation. The most obvious example of this is the casting of veteran film good guy Henry Fonda as the villainous Frank, but there are also many other, more subtle reversals throughout the film. According to film critic and historian Christopher Frayling, the film quotes from as many as 30 classic American Westerns.

Some of the major films used as references for the film include:
* High Noon. The opening sequence is similar to the opening High Noon, in which three bad guys (Lee Van Cleef, Sheb Wooley and Robert J. Wilke) wait at a station for the arrival of their gang leader (also named Frank, played by Ian MacDonald) on the noon train. In the opening of Once Upon a Time in the West, three bad guys (Jack Elam, who appeared in a small part in High Noon, Woody Strode, and Al Mulock) wait at a station. However, the period of waiting is depicted in a lengthy eight-minute sequence, the train arrives several hours after noon, and its passenger is the film's hero (Charles Bronson) rather than its villain. The scene is famous for its use of natural sounds: a squeaky windmill, knuckles cracking, and Jack Elam's character trying to shoo off a fly. According to rumor, Leone offered the parts of the three bad guys to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly stars Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach.
* 3:10 to Yuma. This cult Western by Delmer Daves may have had considerable influence on the film. The most obvious reference is a brief exchange between Keenan Wynn's Sheriff and Cheyenne, in which they discuss sending the latter to Yuma prison. In addition, as in West the main villain is played by an actor (Glenn Ford) who normally played good guys. The film also features diegetic music (Ford at one point whistles the film's theme song just as Harmonica provides music in West). And the scene in which Van Heflin's character escorts Ford to the railroad station while avoiding an ambush by his gang may have inspired the ambush of Frank by his own men in Leone's film.
* The Comancheros. The name McBain and the name of the town Sweetwater come from this film.
* Johnny Guitar. The character of Jill McBain is supposedly based on Joan Crawford's character Vienna, and Harmonica may be influenced by Sterling Hayden's title character. Some of the basic plot (settlers vs. the railroad) may be recycled from this film.
* The Iron Horse. West may contain several subtle references to this film, including a low angle shot of a shrieking train rushing towards the screen in the opening scene, and the shot of the train pulling into the Sweetwater station at the end of the film.
* Shane. The massacre scene in West features young Timmy McBain hunting with his father, just as Joey hunts with his father in Shane. The funeral of the McBains is borrowed almost shot-for-shot from Shane.
* The Searchers. Leone admitted that during the massacre of the McBain family, the rustling bushes, the stopping of the cicada chirps, and the fluttering pheasants to suggest a menace approaching the farmhouse, were all taken from The Searchers. The ending of the film — where Western nomads Harmonica and Cheyenne are forced to move on rather than join modern society — also echoes the famous ending of Ford's film.[8]
* Warlock. At the end of this film, Henry Fonda's character wears clothing very similar to his costume throughout West. In addition, Warlock features a discussion about mothers between Fonda and Dorothy Malone that is similar to those between Cheyenne and Jill in West. Finally, Warlock contains a sequence in which Fonda's character kicks a crippled man off his crutches, as he does to Mr. Morton in West.
* The Magnificent Seven. In this film, Charles Bronson's character whittles a piece of wood. In West, he does the same, although in a different context. The Magnificent Seven was based on the Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa whose Yojimbo (The Bodyguard) was the inspiration (and later, litigation) behind a Leone's A Fistful of Dollars.
* Winchester '73. It has been claimed that the scenes in West at the trading post are based on those in Winchester '73, but the resemblance is slight.
* The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. The dusters (long coats) worn by Frank and his men in the opening massacre resemble those worn by Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) and his henchmen when they are introduced in this film. In addition, the auction scene in West was intended to recall the election scene in Liberty Valance.
* The Last Sunset. The final duel between Frank and Harmonica is shot almost identically to the duel between Kirk Douglas and Rock Hudson in this film.
* Duel in the Sun. The character of Morton, the crippled railroad baron in West, was based on the character played by Lionel Barrymore in this film.
* Sergeant Rutledge (with Woody Strode as the title character). In this John Ford Western, there is a scene in which Constance Towers' character falls asleep in a chair with a rifle in her lap, looking out for hostile Apache, just as Jill McBain does in Leone's film.
* My Darling Clementine. In the trading post scene, Cheyenne slides Harmonica's gun down the bar to him, challenging him to shoot–much like Morgan Earp (Ward Bond) sliding his weapon to brother Wyatt (Henry Fonda) in the Ford film when the Earps meet Doc Holiday (Victor Mature) for the first time. Also, a deleted scene in West featured Frank getting a shave with perfume in a barber's shop, much like Fonda's Wyatt.

There are other, smaller references, to various non-Westerns, most notably Luchino Visconti's The Leopard.

Contrary to popular belief, the name of the town "Sweetwater" was not taken from The Wind, Victor Sjöström's silent epic. Bernardo Bertolucci has stated that he looked at a map of the southwestern United States, found the name of the town in Arizona, and decided to incorporate it into the film. However, a "Sweetwater" — along with a character named McBain — also appeared in a John Wayne Western, The Comancheros, which Leone admired.

Once Upon a Time in the West, itself, is referenced in The Quick and the Dead, with Gene Hackman's character, John Herod, facing Ellen, a.k.a. "Lady" (Sharon Stone) in the final gunfight. Her identity is a mystery until the end, when the audience sees Ellen's flashback to Herod lynching her father, a sheriff, and giving her a chance to save her father by shooting the rope and severing it, but it goes wrong. As with Frank, Herod yells, "Who are you?" and the only response he receives is an artifact from the earlier lynching, in this case the sheriff's badge that Ellen has kept all these years. The Quick and the Dead has another connection to Once Upon a Time in the West: It was the final film for Woody Strode, who died before it could be released.

Many other films have paid tribute to Leone's film. Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds opens with a lengthy sequence entitled Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France (though in specifics the scene bears more resemblance to Lee Van Cleef's entrance in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), and his Kill Bill films feature snatches of Morricone's soundtrack. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End features a parody of the "Man With a Harmonica" theme on the soundtrack, as the film's protagonists parlay on a sandbar before the final battle. Baz Luhrman's Australia features several nods to Leone's film, including a homestead with a squeaky windmill, an almost-identical funeral scene, and the antagonistic relationship of the film's villains.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

11. Red River (1948)

Red River is a 1948 Western film directed by Howard Hawks, giving a fictional account of the first cattle drive from Texas to Kansas along the Chisholm Trail. The dramatic tension stems from a growing feud over the management of the drive, between the Texas rancher who initiated it (John Wayne) and his adopted adult son (Montgomery Clift).

The film also starred Joanne Dru, Walter Brennan, Coleen Gray, Harry Carey, John Ireland, Hank Worden, Noah Beery Jr. and Harry Carey, Jr. Borden Chase wrote the script with Charles Schnee, based on Chase's story, "The Chisholm Trail."

Thomas Dunson (John Wayne) is a stubborn man who wants nothing more than to start up a successful cattle ranch in Texas. Shortly after he begins his journey to Texas with his trail hand, Nadine Groot (Walter Brennan), Dunson learns that his love interest (Coleen Gray), whom he had told to stay behind with the wagon train with the understanding that he would send for her later, was killed in an Indian attack. Despite this tragedy, Dunson and Groot press on, only to chance on an orphaned boy named Matthew Garth (played as a boy by Mickey Kuhn and as an adult by Montgomery Clift), whom Dunson effectively adopts.

With only a couple head of cattle, Dunson and the boy enter Texas by crossing the Red River and Dunson proudly proclaims all the land about them as his own. Two Mexican men appear on horseback and inform Dunson that the land already belongs to their boss. Dunson dismisses this inconvenient fact and thanks to a quicker draw in a showdown, kills one of the men and tells the other man to inform his boss that Dunson now owns the land. Dunson names his new spread the Red River D, after his chosen cattle brand for his herd. Fatefully, he promises to add M (for Matt) to the brand, once Matt has earned it.

Fourteen years pass and Dunson now has a fully operational cattle ranch. With the help of Matt and Groot, his herd now numbers over ten thousand cattle, but he is also broke as a result of having been on the losing side in the American Civil War. With the price of cattle in Texas not to his liking, Dunson decides to drive his massive herd hundreds of miles north to Missouri, where he believes they will fetch a much better price.

After hiring some extra men to help out with the drive, including expert marksman Cherry Valance (John Ireland), they set off on their perilous journey northwards. Along the way, they encounter many troubles, including a stampede sparked by one of the men making a sudden noise while trying to steal sugar from the chuck wagon.

Deeper problems arise when Dunson's tyrannical leadership style begins to affect the rest of the men. When Dunson attempts to lynch two of the men who tried to desert the drive, Matt rebels. With the help of Valance and the other men, Matt takes control of the drive in order to take it to the closer railhead in Abilene, Kansas, leaving Dunson behind. This infuriates Dunson, who vows to track down Matt and kill him.

On the way to Abilene, Matt and his men repulse an Indian attack on a wagon train. One of the people they save is Tess Millay (Joanne Dru), who falls in love with Matt. Matt leaves in a hurry one night during a rain storm and has to leave Tess behind. Later Tess encounters Dunson, who is still on Matt's trail, and tries to dissuade him from his pursuit. She offers to bear him a son if he'll let Matt live, but he refuses.

When Matt reaches Abilene, he finds men there who have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of such a herd to buy it; Matt happily accepts an excellent offer for the cattle. Unknowingly, he has just completed the first cattle drive along what would become the Chisholm Trail. Shortly thereafter, Dunson arrives in Abilene with a posse to follow through with his vow to kill Matt. The two men begin a furious fight, which Tess interrupts by drawing a gun on both men and demanding that they realize the love that they share for each other. Dunson and Matt see the error of their ways and make peace with each other. The film ends with Dunson telling Matt that he will incorporate an M into the brand as he had promised to do years before and advises Matt to marry Tess.

Red River was filmed in 1946 but not released until September 30, 1948. Footage from Red River was later incorporated into the opening montage of Wayne's last film, The Shootist, to illustrate the backstory of Wayne's character. The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Film Editing (Christian Nyby) and Best Writing, Motion Picture Story. In 1990, Red River was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." John Ford -- who worked with Wayne on many films (such as The Searchers, Stagecoach, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) -- was so impressed with Wayne's performance that he is reported to have said, 'I didn’t know the big son of a bitch could act!' In June 2008, AFI revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Red River was acknowledged as the fifth-best film in the western genre.

The character name Cherry Valance was also later used in the novel The Outsiders.

The character name Matthew Garth was also later used in the movie Midway.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

Here is the list so far.

50. The Gunfighter (1950)
49. Quigley Down Under (1990)
48. The Valley of Gwangi (1969)
47. Bandolero! (1968)
46. How The West Was Won (1962)
45. Rooster Cogburn (1975)
44. Open Range (2003)
43. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949)
42. The Great Silence (1968)
41. Fort Apache (1948)
40. Chisum (1970)
39. High Noon (1952)
38. They Call Me Trinity (aka My Name Is Trinity) (1970)
37. The Magnificent Seven (1960)
36. Blood On The Moon (1948)
35. Duck, You Sucker (1971)
34. Once Upon A Time In Mexico (2003)
33. Last Man Standing (1996)
32. Man from Snowy River (1982)
31. The Mountain Men (1980)
30. Back To The Future Part III (1990)
29. True Grit (2010)
28. Pale Rider (1985)
27. City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold (1994)
26. Ulzana's Raid (1972)
25. True Grit (1969)
24. The Frisco Kid (1979)
23. Billy The Kid (1989)
22. A Thunder of Drums (1961)
21. They Died with Their Boots On (1941)
20. Three Amigos (1986)
19. The Paleface (1948)
18. My Name Is Nobody (1973)
17. The Shootist (1976)
16. Django (1966)
15. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
14. The Wild Bunch (1969)
13. For A Few Dollars More (1965)
12. Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)
11. Red River (1948)

Here are the taglines to the next five films.

* He had to find her... he had to find her...
* I'm your Huckleberry!
* Never give a saga an even break!
* This land will be civilized.
* Yesterday They Were Businessmen. Today They're Cowboys. Tomorrow They'll Be Walking Funny.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

10. The Proposition (2005)

The Proposition is a 2005 western film directed by John Hillcoat and written by musician Nick Cave. It stars Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Emily Watson, John Hurt, Danny Huston and David Wenham. The film's production completed in 2004, and was followed by a wide 2005 release in Australia and a 2006 theatrical run in the U.S. through First Look Pictures.

Set in the Australian outback in the 1880s, the movie follows the series of events following the horrific rape and murder of the Hopkins family, allegedly committed by the infamous Burns brothers gang.

The film opens in a brothel during a violent gunfight between the police and Charlie Burns' (Guy Pearce) gang, which ends with the deaths of all of the gang members except for Charlie and his younger brother Mikey. Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone) makes the proposition to Charlie: he and the somewhat feeble-minded Mikey can go free of the crimes they have committed if Charlie kills his older brother, Arthur (Danny Huston). Arthur is a mercurial psychopath who has become something of a legend and is so vicious that the Aboriginal tribes refer to him as "The Dog Man" and both the police and the Aboriginals refuse to go near his camp. Captain Stanley muses that perhaps the bounty hunters will kill Arthur in time and then states his intention to civilize the harsh Australian wilderness by bringing Arthur to justice and using Mikey as leverage. Charlie has nine days to find and kill Arthur, or else Mikey will be hanged from the gallows on Christmas Day.

We discover why Captain Stanley is intent on taming Australia: he has been forced to move there with his delicate wife, Martha Stanley (Emily Watson), and apparently wants to make it an appropriate place for them to live. The Stanleys were also friends of the Hopkins family, leading Martha to have nightmares about her dead friends and the unborn child one of them is revealed to have carried. Word spreads of Stanley's deal with Charlie, primarily from Stanley's corrupt subordinate, Sergeant Lawrence (Robert Morgan), causing disgust among the townspeople.

Shortly thereafter, Eden Fletcher (David Wenham), for whom Captain Stanley works, orders that Mikey be given one hundred lashes as punishment for the rape and murder of the Hopkins family. Stanley is aghast at this, not only because he believes that Mikey is innocent and the flogging will surely kill him, but because it would also break his deal with Charlie and thus put him and his wife in grave danger. Stanley sends Sergeant Lawrence away with tracker Jacko (David Gulpillil) and other men to "investigate" the reported slaying of Dan O'Riley by a group of Aborigines.

Meanwhile, Charlie rides a great distance in search of Arthur, drinking and apparently reflecting on what he will do. Along the way, he encounters an inebriated old man named Jellon Lamb (John Hurt). In the course of conversation, Charlie realizes that Lamb is a bounty hunter in pursuit of the Burns brothers and knocks him out. Later on, after sleeping on a rock bed, Charlie awakes and, before he can gather what's going on, is speared in the chest by a group of Aboriginal men standing over him. Seconds later a gunshot is heard and the head of the man who threw the spear explodes. Charlie then passes out.

Charlie wakes up in the camp of his brother Arthur, which is located in caves among desolate mountains. Arthur's gang consists of Samuel Stoat (Tom Budge), who shot the Aboriginal man who had speared Charlie; a woman named Queenie (Leah Purcell) who tends to Charlie's wound; and a muscular Aboriginal man called Two-Bob (Tom E. Lewis). As he recovers from his wounds, Charlie has several opportunities to kill his brother, but does not.

Captain Stanley attempts to defend Mikey by gunpoint from the bloodthirsty townspeople, but is overruled once Martha arrives, insisting on revenge for her dead friends. Mikey is then brutally flogged, and horrifically wounded. The formerly excited townspeople slowly become disgusted and Martha faints at the ghastly display. After 40 lashes, Mikey has collapsed and the whip is soaked with blood. Captain Stanley grabs the whip and throws it at Fletcher, staining his face and suit with blood, who in turn fires Stanley.

Not too far away from Arthur's camp, Sergeant Lawrence and his men have found and butchered a group of Aborigines. Arthur and Two-Bob find Lawrence's group while they sleep, ostensibly to get a horse for Charlie, and proceed to kill Jacko and Sergeant Lawrence. Before Arthur stomps Lawrence to death with his boot, Lawrence tells Arthur that Charlie has been sent to kill him. While this occurs, Jellon Lamb enters Arthur's camp and ties up Samuel and Charlie, both of whom are sleeping. Without his realizing it, Lamb is shot from behind by the returning Arthur. Arthur then proceeds to begin torturing the still-living Lamb with a knife, but Charlie instead performs a mercy-killing.

Charlie decides that he wants to break out Mikey and informs Arthur. Arthur, Samuel and Charlie ride into town dressed in the clothes taken from the officers Arthur and Two-Bob had killed, pulling behind them Two-Bob, posing as an Aborigine that they've captured. Once at the jail, the men free Mikey, and Charlie and Two-Bob ride off with him. Arthur and Samuel remain to slaughter the two officers inside the jail. The badly injured Mikey, who has never recovered from the flogging, dies in Charlie's arms. As they bury Mikey, Two-Bob tells Charlie that all of this is Charlie's fault: "You should never have left us."

Captain Stanley and Martha, who had become increasingly paranoid as they were ostracized by the townspeople after the flogging, let their guard down to have a peaceful, civilized Christmas dinner. Immediately following their conclusion of grace, Arthur and Samuel shoot open the door and invade their home. Arthur pulls Captain Stanley into the other room and brutally beats him, while Samuel taunts his wife. Arthur then calls Samuel to the room. Samuel drags Martha inside, and Arthur shoots Captain Stanley through the shoulder. As Samuel rapes Martha, Charlie walks in and informs Arthur of Mikey's death; Arthur ignores the news and encourages Charlie to listen to Samuel's beautiful singing. Charlie walks up to the unsuspecting Samuel and shoots him point blank in the head, then shoots Arthur twice, saying afterward, "No more." After this Arthur staggers out of the house. Charlie looks at a gun on the table that could potentially be picked up to shoot him, and then tells Captain Stanley "I want to be with my brother." Charlie leaves the house and follows a trail of blood to find Arthur hunched over on a hill nearby and sits down next to him. Arthur states that Charlie has finally stopped him and asks what he will do now, to no answer, and then slowly dies as his brother watches the blood red sunset of the outback.

The film's soundtrack, titled The Proposition, was released shortly after the film in October 2005. The music was composed and performed by Nick Cave and violinist Warren Ellis.

The Proposition has received largely positive reviews from professional film critics, earning an 87% "Certified Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert, AM New York, The Austin Chronicle and Entertainment Insider gave the film 4/4 stars.

Two acclaimed Indigenous Australian actors (David Gulpilil and Tom E. Lewis) have supporting roles in the film.

As noted in behind-the-scenes features included on The Proposition DVD, the film is regarded as uncommonly accurate in depicting indigenous Australian culture of the late 19th century, and when filming in the outback, the cast and crew took great pains to follow the advice of indigenous consultants. In an interview included on the DVD, Lewis even compares the depiction of indigenous cultures in The Proposition to the landmark film The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978).

The DVD was released in the United States by First Look Pictures on September 19, 2006.

Tartan Video's Region 2 DVD release in the UK was a two-disc release and contains these additional features: audio commentary by Nick Cave and John Hillcoat on disc 1, exclusive interviews with Guy Pearce and Danny Huston (25 mins), a "meet the cast and crew" feature (35 mins), a "making of" feature (118 mins) and a theatrical trailer on disc 2.

The film was released on Blu-ray on August 19, 2008.

Awards include:
* Australian Film Institute:
- Best Cinematography
- Best Costume Design
- Best Original Music Score
- Best Production Design
* Australia Film Critics:
- Best Cinematography
- Best Musical Score
* Chlotrudis Awards:
- Best Screenplay - Original (Nick Cave)
* Inside Film Awards (IF Awards):
- Best Cinematography
- Best Film
- Best Music
- Best Production Design
* San Diego Film Critics:
- Best Supporting Actor (Ray Winstone)
* Venice Film Festival:
- Gucci Prize

The Proposition grossed $2,271,100 at the box office in Australia.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

9. City Slickers (1991)

ity Slickers is a 1991 American comedy film directed by Ron Underwood and starring Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, Bruno Kirby, Helen Slater and Jack Palance. The film is #73 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies" and number 86 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs; it is notable for frequently interrupting its story with humorous musings on various contemporary topics. The film's plot—inexperienced cowboys battling villains as they press on with their cattle drive after the death of their leader—is similar to John Wayne's The Cowboys. City Slickers was followed by a sequel, City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold, in 1994.

Mitch Robbins (Billy Crystal) has just turned 39 years old, and is thick in the middle of a midlife crisis. His best friends are also having midlife crises of their own. Phil Berquist (Daniel Stern) is stuck managing his father-in-law's grocery store, while trapped in a sexless marriage with an overbearing wife (who leaves him after it is revealed Phil is having an affair). Ed Furillo (Bruno Kirby) is a successful businessman and playboy, having recently married an underwear model, is struggling with the idea of monogamous marriage and the pressure to have kids. Ed often invites his two best friends on his various adventures, which are not always appreciated by Mitch, as six months earlier he suffered a mortifying injury during a vacation to Pamplona, Spain during the running of the bulls.

At Mitch's birthday party, Phil and Ed present their joint gift: a two-week Southwestern cattle drive for all three men. After his wife insists he go, Mitch accepts the gift and travels to New Mexico, where the three men meet the ranch owner, Clay Stone (Noble Willingham) and several other participants of the cattle drive. As the group slowly "learn the ropes" of moving a herd, the trio enter a tense encounter with the ranch's two professional cowboys, Jeff and T.R. (Kyle Secor and Dean Hallo), when they drunkenly proposition another participant, Bonnie Rayburn (Helen Slater). The standoff is abruptly halted when Curly Washburn (Jack Palance), the seasoned, tough-as-nails trail boss, lassos Jeff into a chokehold, and chastises both for being intoxicated on the job.

Curly, Jeff, T.R., and all the participants begin the long drive to Colorado. Mitch and Curly immediately dislike one another after Curly overhears Mitch insult him and later humiliates Mitch, but Mitch gets along better with the other participants, until he inadvertently causes a destructive stampede. As punishment, Curly chooses a fearful Mitch to ride with him in the canyons to find some stray cows; as they spend the night alone, the two slowly begin to bond with one another. Mitch discovers that despite Curly's tough exterior, he is in reality a very wise man, as he gives Mitch advice as how to face his problems: by thinking about just the "one thing" that is most important in his life. The next morning, Curly and Mitch are forced to deliver a pregnant cow's calf, whom Mitch names "Norman"; after Curly is forced to euthanize its ailing mother by delivering a coup de grace, Mitch informally adopts the newborn as the two rejoin the main drive.

The drive runs into trouble shortly afterwords, when Curly unexpectedly suffers a fatal heart attack. As they proceed without him, Cookie the cook (Tracey Walter) gets drunk and breaks both his legs, requiring him to be taken to a hospital by two participants. Without Curly's presence, Jeff and T.R. become freely intoxicated, eventually goading Mitch into challenging them by threatening Norman. They begin to assault Mitch, but Ed quickly intervenes and Phil soon disarms both after he snaps under a lifetime of stress, finally ordering them to go to bed. Fearing reprisals from Clay Stone, Jeff and T.R. instead abandon the group in the wilderness, leaving them with no trail boss, food or map. The remaining participants decide to abandon the herd and seek civilization, except for Ed and Phil, who despite Mitch's pleas insist on driving the herd to Colorado. The next day, the others ride on ahead, except for Mitch, who unexpectedly returns (wearing Curly's black hat no less) to rejoin his fellow "city slickers" in completing the drive.

The final test of the drive involves crossing a dangerous river. Despite a violent storm, the men successfully drive most of the herd across the river, except for Norman, who is caught up in the river's rapid current. Mitch impulsively chases after him, successfully lassoing the calf, but in turn gets caught in the rapids; seeing this, Phil and Ed race down the bank themselves and, working together, just barely save Mitch. As the men collapse on the river bank, they all have a long laugh, having at last overcome their respective crises. From there the three easily lead the herd back to the Colorado ranch, where they are warmly received by the other participants. Clay Stone, overwhelmed, rewards the entire group, and the trio in particular, for overcoming such adversity by fully refunding their fees; however, to their dismay, the group learns that Stone has decided to sell the cows to a meat company for a huge profit.

Mitch returns to his family in New York a happier man, having realized that his "one thing" is his family. Ed returns home to tell his newlywed wife he is fine with having children, and Phil starts a new relationship with Bonnie. Mitch then reveals to his wife and kids that he has spared Norman from the slaughter by purchasing him and bringing the calf home as a pet, at least until he can find a "nice petting zoo."

The film received mostly positive reviews with a "Fresh" score of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. Jack Palance, for his role as Curly, took home the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the only Oscar nomination the film received. His acceptance speech for the award is best remembered for his demonstration of one-armed push-ups, which he claimed convinced studio insurance agents that he was healthy enough to work on the film.

Awards and honors include:

* 2000: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs #86
* Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Jack Palance at the 1992 Academy Awards Won
* Best Supporting Actor for Jack Palance at the 49th Golden Globe Awards Won
* Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical/Comedy for Billy Crystal at the 1992 Golden Globe Awards Nomination
* Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical at the 1992 Golden Globe Awards Nomination

The Billy Crystal episode of Muppets Tonight featured a parody entitled "City Schtickers," with Kermit the Frog and Fozzie Bear in Kirby and Stern's roles.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

8. Tombstone (1993)

Tombstone is a 1993 American outlaw western film directed by George P. Cosmatos, along with uncredited directorial efforts by actor Kurt Russell and writer Kevin Jarre. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay written by Jarre.

The film is based on events relating to the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, along with the Earp Vendetta which followed it soon after in Tombstone, Arizona during the 1880s. Tombstone depicts a number of western outlaws and lawmen, such as Wyatt Earp, William Brocius, Johnny Ringo, and Doc Holliday as it explores crime, political corruption and law enforcement in the old American West.

Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton and Dana Delany, among others, are featured in supporting principal roles, and the film is narrated by Robert Mitchum.

The film was a co-production between Cinergi Pictures and Hollywood Pictures. It was commercially distributed by Buena Vista Pictures theatrically and by Buena Vista Worldwide Home Entertainment for home media.

It failed to garner award nominations for production merits or acting from any mainstream motion picture organizations. The original soundtrack, composed by musician Bruce Broughton, was released by the Intrada Records label on December 25, 1993. On March 16, 2006, an expanded two-disc version of the film score was released by Intrada Records; it features supplemental musical compositions by the Sinfonia of London session orchestra.

Tombstone premiered in theaters in wide release in the United States on December 24, 1993, grossing $56,505,065 in domestic ticket sales. The film was viewed as a moderate financial success after its theatrical run, and was generally met with positive critical reviews. A widescreen Blu-ray Disc edition featuring the making of Tombstone, director's original storyboards, trailers and TV spots was released in the United States on April 27, 2010.

For the Western genre as a whole, Tombstone ranks number 10 in the list of highest grossing films since 1979.

Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell), a retired peace officer with a notable reputation from his years in Kansas, reunites with his brothers Virgil (Sam Elliott) and Morgan (Bill Paxton) in Tucson, Arizona, where they venture on towards Tombstone, a small mining town, to settle down. There they encounter Wyatt's long-time friend Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer), a Southern gambler and expert gunslinger, who seeks relief from his worsening tuberculosis.

Also newly arrived in Tombstone with a traveling theater troupe are Josephine Marcus (Dana Delany) and Mr. Fabian (Billy Zane). Doc can tell that Wyatt's eye is drawn to the actress, but Wyatt is married to Mattie Blaylock (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson), who is becoming dependent on a potent narcotic.

Wyatt and his brothers begin to profit from a stake in a gambling emporium and saloon, where Wyatt likes to sit and deal faro. Doc and the Earps soon have their first encounter with a band of outlaws called the Cowboys. Led by "Curly Bill" Brocious (Powers Boothe), the Cowboys are identifiable by the red sashes worn around their waists.

Wyatt, though no longer a lawman, is pressured to help rid the town of the Cowboys as tensions rise. Shooting aimlessly after a visit to an opium house, Curly Bill is approached by Marshal Fred White (Harry Carey, Jr.) to relinquish his firearms. Curly Bill instead shoots the marshal dead and is forcibly taken into custody by Wyatt.

The arrest infuriates Ike Clanton (Stephen Lang) and the other Cowboys. Curly Bill stands trial, but is found not guilty due to a lack of witnesses. Virgil, unable to tolerate such lawlessness, becomes the new marshal and imposes a weapons ban within the city limits. This leads to the legendary Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, in which Billy Clanton (Thomas Haden Church) and other Cowboys are killed. Virgil and Morgan are wounded, and the allegiance of county sheriff Johnny Behan (Jon Tenney) with the Cowboys is made clear.

As retribution for the Cowboy deaths, Wyatt's brothers are ambushed; Morgan is killed, while Virgil is left handicapped. A despondent Wyatt and his family leave Tombstone and board a train, with Clanton and Frank Stilwell close behind, preparing to ambush them. As soon as Wyatt sees that his family has left safely, he surprises the assassins, killing Stilwell and letting Clanton leave to send a message—that Wyatt is now a U.S. marshal, and that he intends to kill any man he sees wearing a red sash.

Wyatt and Doc, along with a reformed Cowboy named Sherman McMasters (Michael Rooker) and their allies Texas Jack Vermillion (Peter Sherayko) and "Turkey Creek" Jack Johnson (Buck Taylor), join forces to administer frontier justice. They begin to rid the region of outlaws.

Wyatt and his posse are ambushed one day by Cowboys in a riverside forest. Hopelessly surrounded, Wyatt seeks out Curly Bill and kills him in a fast-draw gunfight. Curly Bill's second-in-command, Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn), becomes the new leader of the Cowboys.

Doc's health worsens. Wyatt and his men are accommodated by Henry Hooker (Charlton Heston) at his ranch. Ringo sends a messenger (dragging McMasters' corpse) to Hooker's property, telling Wyatt that a showdown is coming his way. Wyatt refuses to back down, even though he is sure that Ringo is faster on the draw.

Wyatt sets off for the showdown, not knowing that Doc has already arrived at the scene. Doc confronts a surprised Ringo and kills him in a duel. Wyatt expresses his gratitude to Doc, after which they press on to complete their task of eliminating the Cowboys, with only Ike Clanton escaping their vengeance, warned not to come back.

Doc is sent to a sanatorium in Colorado, where he is paid one last visit by Wyatt before dying of his illness. At Doc's urging, Wyatt pursues Josephine to begin a new life. The film ends with a narration of an account of their long marriage, ending with Wyatt's death in Los Angeles in 1929.

The film was shot primarily on location in Arizona.

In 1984, Kurt Russell was given the script for Tombstone. At the time, Kevin Jarre and Kevin Costner were going to make the movie together, but disagreed over its focus. Costner felt that the emphasis should be on Wyatt Earp and decided to make his own movie with Lawrence Kasdan. Russell made an agreement with producer Andrew G. Vajna to finance Tombstone with a budget of $25 million.

Jarre and Russell wanted to cast Willem Dafoe as Doc Holliday, but Buena Vista (Walt Disney Company) refused to distribute the film if he was cast, due to Dafoe's role in the controversial The Last Temptation of Christ. As Costner was making a competing Wyatt Earp film, he used his then-considerable clout to convince most of the major studios to refuse to distribute Tombstone -– Buena Vista was the only studio willing to do so. Jarre and Russell then went with their next choice, Val Kilmer.

Filming was plagued with several problems. Russell and Kilmer both have said that the screenplay was too long (Russell estimated by 30 pages). According to Kilmer, "virtually every main character, every cowboy, for example, had a subplot and a story told, and none of them are left in the film." He has said that over 100 people, cast and crew, either quit or were fired over the course of the production. Russell even went so far as to cut his own scenes in order to let other actors have more screen time.

Early in the production, screenwriter Jarre was fired as director due to his refusal to cut his screenplay. Disney panicked because the film was two weeks behind schedule and contacted George P. Cosmatos. After Cosmatos' death in 2005, Russell began to claim Cosmatos had in fact ghost-directed the movie on Russell's behalf. Every night, Russell claimed he gave Cosmatos a shot list for the next day, and developed a "secret sign language" on set to exert influence.

Robert Mitchum was originally set to play Newman Haynes Clanton, but suffered a horse riding accident which left him unable to work. Mitchum ultimately narrated the film, while the part was written out of the script. Much of Old Man Clanton's dialogue was spoken by other characters, particularly Curly Bill, who was effectively made the gang leader in lieu of Clanton. Glenn Ford was also cast as Marshall White, while Harry Carey, Jr. was to play a wagonmaster, but Ford dropped out of the project and Carey was cast as White.

The original motion picture soundtrack for Tombstone, was originally released by the Intrada Records label on December 25, 1993. On March 16, 2006, an expanded two-disc version of the film score was also released by Intrada Records. The expanded soundtrack features additional musical compositions by the Sinfonia of London session orchestra. The score for the film was composed and produced by Bruce Broughton. David Snell conducted the score, while Patricia Carlin edited the film's music.

The score contains strong echoes of Max Steiner's music for John Ford's 'The Searchers' (1956) with variations on the 'Indian Traders' theme used midway through the Ford movie.

Disc: 1
No. Title Length
1. "Logo" 0:21
2. "Prologue; Main Title; And Hell Followed" 3:50
3. "A Family" 2:03
4. "Arrival in Tombstone" 2:14
5. "The Town Marshall; A Quarter Interest" 0:48
6. "Josephine" 1:30
7. "Gotta go to work" 1:10
8. "Ludus Inebriatus" 1:15
9. "Fortuitous Encounter; Wyatt And Josephine" 5:16
10. "Thinking Out Loud" 0:28
11. "Opium Den; Law Dogs; You Got A Fight Comin'" 7:08
12. "Virgil Thinks" 0:53
13. "The Antichrist; Gathering For A Fight; Walking To The Corral; OK Corral Gunfight" 7:36
14. "Aftermath" 1:30
15. "The Dead Don't Dance; Dehan Warns Josephine; Upping The Ante; Morgan's Murder" 5:15
16. "Defections" 0:58
17. "Morgan's Death" 2:12
18. "Hell's Comin'; Wyatt's Revenge" 3:53
19. "No More Curly Bill" 0:36
20. "The Former Fabian" 1:34
21. "Brief Encounters; Ringo's Challenge; Doc And Wyatt" 5:38
22. "You're No Daisy; Finishing It" 3:55
23. "Doc Dies" 2:46
24. "Looking At Heaven; End Credits" 8:45

Disc: 2
No. Title Length
1. "Arrival in Tombstone [w/alternate intro]" 2:14
2. "Josephine [short version]" 1:00
3. "Fortuitous Encounter [w/alternate mid-section]" 2:26
4. "Morgan's Death [short version]" 1:47
5. "Tombstone [Main Theme Only]" 2:23
6. "Pit Orchestra Warm-Up" 0:39
7. "Thespian Overture [long]" 0:45
8. "Tympani" 0:08
9. "Waltz" 0:14
10. "Piano/Cello Duet"

A paperback novel published by Berkley Publishers titled Tombstone, was released on January 1, 1994. The book dramatizes the real-life events of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and Earp Vendetta, as depicted in the film. It expands on western genre ideas written by Kevin Jarre's screenplay, which took place during the 1880s.

Among mainstream critics in the U.S., the film received mixed to positive reviews. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 77% of 39 sampled critics gave the film a positive review, with an average score of 6.3 out of 10. Following its cinematic release in 1993, Tombstone was named "One of the 5 greatest Westerns ever made." by True West Magazine. The film was also called "One of the year's 10 best!" by KCOP-TV in Los Angeles, California.

In a mixed review, Chris Hicks writing in the Deseret News said, "aside from Russell and Val Kilmer's scene-stealing, sickly, alcoholic Doc Holliday, there are so many characters coming and going, with none of them receiving adequate screen time, that it becomes difficult to keep track of them all." But he did comment that there were "some very entertaining moments here, with Russell spouting memorable tough-guy lines". Overall, he felt "Taken on its own terms, with some lowered expectations, Western fans will have fun." Emanuel Levy of the Variety staff believed the film was a "tough-talking but soft-hearted tale" which was "entertaining in a sprawling, old-fashioned manner." Regarding screenwriter Jarre's dialogue, he noted that "Despite the lack of emotional center and narrative focus, his script contains enough subplots and colorful characters to enliven the film and ultimately make it a fun, if not totally engaging, experience." The film however, was not without its detractors. James Berardinelli writing for ReelViews offered an almost entirely negative review recalling how he thought that "Not only is the last hour anti-climactic, but it's dull. Too many scenes feature lengthy segments of poorly-scripted dialogue, and, in some cases, character motivation becomes unclear. The gunplay is more repetitious than exciting. The result — a cobbled-together morass of silly lines and shoot- outs — doesn't work well."

Stephen Holden writing in The New York Times saw the film as being a "capacious western with many modern touches, the Arizona boom town and site of the legendary O.K. Corral has a seedy, vaudevillian grandeur that makes it a direct forerunner of Las Vegas." He expressed his satisfaction with the supporting acting saying that the "most modern psychological touch is its depiction of Josephine (Dana Delany), the itinerant actress with whom Wyatt falls in love at first sight, as the most casually and comfortably liberated woman ever to set foot in 1880's Arizona." Critic Louis Black, writing for The Austin Chronicle viewed Tombstone as a "mess" and that there were "two or three pre-climaxes but no climax. Its values are capitalist rather than renegade, which is okay if it's metaphoric rather than literal. Worse, as much as these actors heroically struggle to focus the film, the director more successfully hacks it apart." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a C– rating calling it "preposterously inflated" at "135 minutes long". He observed the film as being a "three-hour rough cut that's been trimmed down to a slightly shorter rough cut" with "all that holds the film together is Kurt Russell's droll machismo." Author Geoff Andrew of Time Out commented that "Kilmer makes a surprisingly effective and effete Holliday". He negatively acknowledged that there was "a misguided romantic subplot and the ending rather sprawls" but ultimately exclaimed the film was "'rootin', tootin' entertainment with lots of authentic facial hair."

Richard Harrington of The Washington Post highlighted on the film's shortcomings by declaring, "too much of Tombstone rings hollow. In retrospect, not much happens and little that does seems warranted. There are so many unrealized relationships you almost hope for redemption in a longer video version. This one is unsatisfying and unfulfilling." Alternately though, columnist Bob Bloom of the Journal & Courier openly remarked that the film "May not be historically accurate, but offers a lot of punch for the buck." He concluded by saying it was "A tough, guilty-pleasure Western."

Tombstone premiered in movie theaters six months before Costner and Kasdan's version, Wyatt Earp, on December 24, 1993 in wide release throughout the United States. During its opening weekend, the film opened in 3rd place grossing $6,454,752 in business showing at 1,504 locations. The film, The Pelican Brief came in first place during that weekend grossing $11,124,936. The film's revenue increased by 35% in its second week of release, earning $8,720,255. For that particular weekend, the film jumped to 3rd place screening in 1,955 theaters. The film Mrs. Doubtfire, unseated The Pelican Brief to open in first place grossing $16,346,568 in box office revenue. During its final weekend in release, Tombstone opened in a distant 14th place with $1,761,844 in revenue. The film went on to top out domestically at $56,505,065 in total ticket sales through a 7-week theatrical run. For 1993 as a whole, the film would cumulatively rank at a box office performance position of 20.

Following its cinematic release in theaters, the film was released in VHS video format on November 11, 1994. The Region 1 Code widescreen edition of the film was released on DVD in the United States on December 2, 1997. Special features for the DVD include French and Spanish subtitles, Dolby Digital Surround Sound, original theatrical trailers, and chapter search options. A director's cut of Tombstone was also officially released on DVD on January 15, 2002. The DVD version includes a two-disc set and features The Making Of Tombstone Featurette in three parts; "An Ensemble Cast," "Making An Authentic Western," and "The Gunfight At The O.K. Corral". Other features include audio commentary by Director George P. Cosmatos, an interactive Tombstone timeline, Director's Original Storyboards: O.K. Corral Sequence, The Tombstone "Epitaph" – an actual newspaper account, Faro At The Oriental: Game Of Chance – DVD-ROM Feature, and a collectible Tombstone map.

The widscreen hi-definition Blu-ray Disc edition of the theatrical cut was released on April 27, 2010. Special features include, the making of Tombstone; director's original storyboards; and trailers & TV spots. A supplemental viewing option for the film in the media format of Video on demand is available as well.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

7. The Searchers (1956)

The Searchers is a 1956 American Western film directed by John Ford, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May. It stars John Wayne as a middle-aged Civil War veteran who spends years looking for his abducted niece, along with Jeffrey Hunter as his adoptive nephew, who accompanies him.

The film was a commercial success, although it received no Academy Award nominations. It was named the Greatest American Western of all time by the American Film Institute in 2008, and it placed 12th on the American Film Institute's 2007 list of the Top 100 greatest movies of all time.

In 1868, Ethan Edwards (Wayne) returns from the American Civil War, in which he fought for the Confederacy, to the home of his brother Aaron (Walter Coy) in the wilderness of northern Texas. Wrong-doing or legal trouble in Ethan's past is suggested by his absence over the last three years, a large quantity of gold coins in his possession, a Mexican revolutionary war medal that he gives to his young niece Debbie (played as a child by Natalie Wood's sister Lana Wood), and his refusal to take an oath of allegiance to the Texas Rangers.

Shortly after Ethan's arrival, cattle belonging to his neighbor Lars Jorgensen (John Qualen) are stolen, and when Captain Samuel Clayton (Ward Bond) leads Ethan and a group of Rangers to follow the trail, they discover that the theft was a ploy by Comanche Indians to draw the men away from their families. When they return home, they find the Edwards homestead in flames; Aaron, his wife Martha (Dorothy Jordan), and their son Ben (Robert Lyden) dead; and Debbie and her older sister Lucy (Pippa Scott) abducted.

After a brief funeral, the men return to pursuing the Comanches. When they find their camp, Ethan recommends an open attack, in which the girls would be killed, but Clayton insists on sneaking in. The Rangers find the camp deserted, and when they continue their pursuit, the Indians almost catch them in a trap. The Rangers fend off the Indian attack, but with too few men to ensure victory, Clayton and the posse return home, leaving Ethan to continue his search for the girls with Lucy's fiancé Brad Jorgensen (Harry Carey, Jr.) and Debbie's adopted brother Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter). However, after Ethan finds Lucy brutally murdered and presumably raped in a canyon near the Comanche camp, Brad becomes enraged, rides wildly into the camp, and is killed.

Ethan and Martin search until winter, when they lose the trail. When they return to the Jorgensen ranch, Martin is enthusiastically welcomed by the Jorgensens' daughter Laurie (Vera Miles), and Ethan finds a letter waiting for him from a man named Futterman, who has information about Debbie. Ethan, who would rather travel alone, leaves without Martin the next morning, but Laurie provides Martin with a horse to catch up. At Futterman's trading post, Ethan and Martin learn that Debbie has been taken by Scar (Henry Brandon), the chief of the Nawyecka band of Comanches. A year or more later, Laurie receives a letter from Martin describing the ongoing search. In reading the letter aloud, Laurie narrates the next few scenes, in which Ethan kills Futterman for trying to steal his money, Martin accidentally buys a Comanche wife, and the two men find part of Scar's tribe killed by soldiers.

After looking for Debbie at a military fort, Ethan and Martin go to New Mexico, where a Mexican man leads them to Scar. They find Debbie, now an adolescent (Natalie Wood), living as one of Scar's wives. When she meets with the men outside the camp, she says she has become a Comanche and asks them to leave without her. However, Ethan would rather see her dead than living as an Indian. He tries to shoot her, but Martin shields her with his body and an Indian shoots Ethan with a poisoned arrow. Ethan and Martin escape to safety, where Martin saves Ethan by tending to his wound. The men then return home.

Meanwhile, Charlie McCorry (Ken Curtis) has been courting Laurie in Martin's absence. Ethan and Martin arrive home just as Charlie and Laurie's wedding is about to begin. After a fistfight between Martin and Charlie, a soldier, Lt. Greenhill (Patrick Wayne), arrives with news that Ethan's half-crazy friend Mose Harper (Hank Worden) knows where Scar is. Clayton leads his men to the Comanche camp, this time for a direct attack, but Martin is allowed to sneak in and rescue Debbie, who welcomes him. During the attack, Martin kills Scar and Ethan scalps him. When Ethan sees Debbie, Martin is unable to stop him from chasing her, but instead of killing her, Ethan carries her home. Once Debbie is safely with her family, and Martin is reunited with Laurie, Ethan walks away, alone, the cabin door closing on his receding image.

The Searchers was produced by C.V. Whitney, directed by John Ford, and distributed by Warner Brothers. While the film was primarily set in the staked plains (Llano Estacado) of Northwest Texas, it was actually filmed in Monument Valley, Arizona/Utah. Additional scenes were filmed in Mexican Hat, Utah, in Bronson Canyon in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, and in Alberta, Canada. The film was shot in the VistaVision widescreen process. Ford originally wanted to cast Fess Parker, whose performance as Davy Crockett on television had helped spark a national craze, in the Jeffrey Hunter role, but Walt Disney, to whom Parker was under contract, refused to allow it, according to Parker's videotaped interview for the Archive of American Television. Parker notes that this was by far his single worst career reversal.

The Searchers is the first of only three films produced by Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney's C. V. Whitney Pictures; the second being The Missouri Traveler in 1958 with Brandon De Wilde and Lee Marvin, the last being The Young Land in 1959 with Patrick Wayne and Dennis Hopper.

Several film critics have suggested that The Searchers was inspired by the 1836 kidnapping of nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker by Comanche warriors who raided her family's home at Fort Parker, Texas. She spent 24 years with the Comanches, married a war chief, and had three children, only to be rescued against her will by Texas Rangers. James W. Parker, Cynthia Ann's uncle, spent much of his life and fortune in what became an obsessive search for his niece, like Ethan Edwards in the film. In addition, the rescue of Cynthia Ann, during a Texas Ranger attack known as the Battle of Pease River, resembles the rescue of Debbie Edwards when the Texas Rangers attack Scar's village. Parker's story was only one of 64 real-life cases of 19th-century child abductions in Texas that author Alan Le May studied while researching the novel on which the film was based. (See captivity narrative.) Moreover, his surviving research notes indicate that the two characters who go in search of a missing girl were inspired by Brit Johnson, an African-American teamster who ransomed his captured wife and children from the Comanches in 1865. Afterward, he made at least three trips to Indian Territory and Kansas relentlessly searching for another kidnapped girl, Millie Durgan (or Durkin), until Kiowa raiders killed him in 1871.

In the 1868 report of the Indian Peace Commission an attack in 1866 on a rancher "James Box" in Texas is noted:

"The testimony satisfies us that since October 1865, the Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches have substantially complied with their treaty stipulations entered into at that time at the mouth of the Little Arkansas. The only flagrant violation we were able to discover consisted in the killing of James Box and the capture of his family in western Texas about the 15th of August 1866. The alleged excuse for this act is, that they supposed an attack on Texas people would be no violation of a treaty with the United States; that as we ourselves had been at war with the people of Texas, an act of hostility on their part would not be disagreeable to us."

The ending of Le May's novel contrasts to the film's, with Debbie, called Dry-Grass-Hair by the Comanches, running from the white men and from the Indians. Marty, in one final leg of his search, finds her days later, only after she has fainted from exhaustion.

In the film, Scar's Comanche group is referred to as the Nawyecka. The more common names for this Comanche division (with whom Cynthia Ann Parker lived) are Nokoni or Nocona. Some film critics have speculated that the historical model for the cavalry attack on a Comanche village, resulting in Look's death and the taking of Comanche prisoners to a military post, was the well-known Battle of Washita River, November 27, 1868, when Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's 7th U.S. Cavalry attacked Black Kettle's Cheyenne camp on the Washita River (near present day Cheyenne, Oklahoma). The sequence also resembles the 1872 Battle of the North Fork of the Red River, in which the 4th Cavalry captured 124 Comanche women and children and imprisoned them at Fort Concho.

Many critics maintain that Ethan Edwards is in love with his brother's wife Martha. In terms of the dramatic action of the film, it is by far the strongest initiator of behavior on the lead character's part. The most startling part of this plot undercurrent is that there is not one word of dialog alluding to the relationship and feelings between Ethan and Martha, despite the importance of those factors to the plot. Every reference to this relationship is visual.

In addition, the unspoken but true passion between Ethan and Martha leads to a possible conclusion: that Debbie, who is a mere eight years old when the film begins, may be Ethan's daughter. Ethan left at the dawn of the Civil War, eight years before, and his obsessive quest to find Debbie and his refusal to let her live as an Indian, along with his gift to her of his medal, might bespeak more than mere racism and revenge and his desire to save a cousin; it might depict an absentee and guilt-ridden father's attempt to save the daughter he never raised and shamefully made by cuckolding his beloved brother.

According to critics such as Roger Ebert, Ford made an effort in this film to examine the issues of racism and genocide towards Native Americans. Ford's was not the first film to attempt this, but it was startling (particularly for later generations) in the harshness of its approach toward that racism. Ford's examination of racism starts with Edwards and his openly virulent hatred of Native Americans, opening the door for the film to examine racism as an excuse for the genocide of the Indians. Roger Ebert says: "In The Searchers I think Ford was trying, imperfectly, even nervously, to depict racism that justified genocide." However, Ford shows in several scenes that Ethan's racist hatred for the Indians is primarily motivated by the atrocities committed by them. Thus he is driven far more by an obsessive need for vengeance than pure unmotivated racism.[citation needed] Perhaps significantly[citation needed], Ethan, despite his hatred of the Comanches, appears to be very learned in their language and culture. When Ethan finally encounters Scar, Ford indicates that Scar's cruelty too is motivated by revenge ("Two sons killed by white men. For each son, I take many... scalps.").

The theme of miscegenation also runs through this film. Early in the film Martin earns a sour look from Ethan when he admits to being part Cherokee. Ethan says repeatedly that he will kill his niece rather than have her live "with a buck", that "living with the Comanche ain't living". Even one of the film's gentler characters, Vera Miles's Laurie, tells Martin when he explains he must protect his adoptive sister, that "Ethan will put a bullet in her brain. I tell you Martha would want him to". This outburst made clear that even the supposedly gentler characters were thoroughly tainted by racism and the fear of miscegenation. In a 1964 interview with Cosmopolitan magazine, Ford said:

"There's some merit to the charge that the Indian hasn't been portrayed accurately or fairly in the Western, but again, this charge has been a broad generalization and often unfair. The Indian didn't welcome the white man... and he wasn't diplomatic... If he has been treated unfairly by whites in films, that, unfortunately, was often the case in real life. There was much racial prejudice in the West."

In 1989, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress, and selected for preservation in its National Film Registry. The Searchers has been cited as one of the greatest films of all time, such as in a Sight and Sound poll of the greatest films ever made. In 1972, The Searchers was ranked 18th; in 1992, fifth; in 2002, 11th. The 2007 American Film Institute 100 Greatest American Films list ranked The Searchers in 12th place. In 2008, the American Film Institute named The Searchers as the greatest Western of all time.

American Film Institute recognition
* AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies #96
* AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) #12
* AFI's 10 Top 10 #1 Western

The Searchers has influenced many films. David Lean watched the film repeatedly while preparing for Lawrence of Arabia to help him get a sense of how to shoot a landscape. The entrance of Ethan Edwards in The Searchers, across a vast prairie, is echoed clearly in the across-the-desert entrance of Sherif Ali in Lawrence of Arabia. Sam Peckinpah referenced the aftermath of the massacre and the funeral scene in Major Dundee.

Martin Scorsese's Who's That Knocking at My Door features an extended sequence in which the two leading characters discuss the film. The film served as the inspiration for the name of the British band The Searchers.

Alex Cox's Searchers 2.0, while not a sequel or a remake as the title may suggest, is named for the John Ford classic. The main characters discuss films, especially westerns, including The Searchers throughout the film.

"That'll Be the Day," a song written by Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison, and recorded by various artists, was inspired by their viewing of this film in June 1956. John Wayne's frequently-used, world-weary catchphrase, "That'll be the day" inspired the young musicians.

Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan pays a shot-specific homage to the famous doorway shot when the Army brings the news of the death of Private Ryan's three brothers to their mother.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

6. Blazing Saddles (1974)

Blazing Saddles is a 1974 satirical Western comedy film directed by Mel Brooks. Starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, the film was written by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Al Uger, and was based on Bergman's story and draft. The movie was nominated for three Academy Awards, and is ranked No. 6 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs list.

Brooks appears in multiple supporting roles, including Governor William J. Le Petomane and a Yiddish-speaking Indian chief. The supporting cast also includes Slim Pickens, Alex Karras, David Huddleston, as well as Brooks regulars Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, and Harvey Korman. Bandleader Count Basie has a cameo as himself.

The film satirizes the racism obscured by myth-making Hollywood accounts of the American West, with the hero being a black sheriff in a mostly white town. The film is full of deliberate anachronisms, from a jazz band in the Wild West to a rustler referring to the Wide World of Sports to Nazis and camels.

In the American Old West of 1874, construction on a new railroad runs into quicksand. The route has to be changed, which will require it to go through Rock Ridge, a frontier town where everyone has the last name of "Johnson" (including a "Howard Johnson", a "Dr. Samuel Johnson", a "Van Johnson" and an "Olson N. Johnson".) The conniving State Attorney General Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) wants to buy the land along the new railroad route cheaply by driving the townspeople out. He sends a gang of thugs, led by his flunky Taggart (Slim Pickens), to scare them away, prompting the townsfolk to demand that Governor William J. LePetomane (Mel Brooks) appoint a new sheriff. The Attorney General convinces the dim-witted LePetomane to select Bart (Cleavon Little), a black railroad worker who was about to be hanged for hitting Taggart in the head with a shovel. Lamarr believes a black lawman will so offend the townspeople that they will either abandon the town or lynch the new sheriff.

With his quick wits and the assistance of drunken gunslinger Jim (Gene Wilder), also known as "The Waco Kid" ("I must have killed more men than Cecil B. DeMille"), Bart works to overcome the townsfolk's hostile reception. He defeats and befriends Mongo (Alex Karras), an immensely strong (but exceptionally dim-witted) henchman sent by Taggart to kill Bart, and beats German seductress-for-hire Lili von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn) at her own game. He inspires the town to lure and defeat Lamarr's newly recruited and diverse army of thugs (which Lamarr characterized as ideally consisting of "rustlers, cutthroats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperadoes, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, half-wits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswagglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass kickers, s*** kickers - and Methodists"). In a scene where Lamarr hires his villains, the candidates include bikers, Arabs, banditos, crusaders, Nazis and Klansmen.

The resulting fight between the townsfolk and Lamarr's army of thugs breaks the fourth wall; the fight spills out from the Warner Bros. film lot into a neighboring musical set (being directed by Dom DeLuise), then into the studio commissary, where a pie fight ensues, and finally pouring out into the surrounding streets.

The film ends with Bart shooting Lamarr in the groin at the 'premiere' of Blazing Saddles outside Grauman's Chinese Theater, saving the town, and joining Jim inside the theater to view the end of the movie, persuading people of all colors and creeds to live in harmony and, finally, riding (in a limousine) off into the sunset.

In the DVD commentary, Brooks explains that the original title of the film, Tex X (as in the name of Black Muslim leader Malcolm X), was rejected, along with Black Bart and Purple Sage. Finally, Brooks concocted the title Blazing Saddles while taking a shower.

Blazing Saddles was Brooks' first film shot in anamorphic format. To date, this film and History of the World, Part I are the only Brooks films in this format.

Brooks had repeated conflicts with studio executives over the cast and content. They objected to both the highly provocative script and to the "irregular" activities of the writers (particularly Richard Pryor, who reportedly led all-night writing jams where loud music and drugs played a prominent role). Brooks wanted Pryor to play the sheriff, but Warner executives expressed concern over Pryor's reliability because of his heavy drug use and the belief that he was mentally unstable. In a similar vein, Gene Wilder was the second choice to play the Waco Kid. He was quickly brought in to replace Gig Young after the first day of filming.

After screening the movie, the head of Warner Bros. complained about the use of the word "n****", a flatulent campfire scene and Mongo punching a horse, and told Brooks to remove these elements. As Brooks' contract gave him control of the final cut, the complaints were disregarded and the elements remained. The only element removed was a scene in which Lili tried to seduce Bart in the dark, prompting him to quip, "That's my arm you're sucking".

Brooks wanted the movie's title song to reflect the western genre, and advertised in the trade papers for a "Frankie Laine-type" sound. Several days later, Laine himself visited Brooks' office to offer his services. Brooks had not told Laine that the movie was a comedy: "'Frankie sang his heart out... and we didn't have the heart to tell him it was a spoof — we just said, 'Oh, great!'. He never heard the whip cracks; we put those in later. We got so lucky with his serious interpretation of the song."

In an interview included in the DVD release of Blazing Saddles, Brooks claimed that Hedy Lamarr threatened to sue, saying the film's running "Hedley Lamarr" joke infringed her right to publicity. This is lampooned when Hedley corrects Governor Le Petomane's pronunciation of his name, and Le Petomane replies with "What the hell are you worried about? This is 1874, you'll be able to sue her!". Brooks says he and the actress settled out of court for a small sum. In the same interview, Brooks related how he managed to convince John Wayne to read the script after meeting him in the Warner Bros. studio commissary. Wayne was impressed with the script, but politely declined a cameo, fearing it was "too dirty" for his family image. He is also said to have told Brooks that he "would be first in line to see the film, though".

The plot (i.e. thwarting a ruthless scheming land-grabber) was a spoof of countless Western movies and cliches, including Destry Rides Again and Once Upon a Time in the West.

The film, town, and many of the scenes, music, and themes in Blazing Saddles were parodies of the classic Gary Cooper film High Noon. The church scene in particular was imitated down to the costumes and 'murmuring' of the townsfolk. Brooks' The Ballad Of Rock Ridge uses motifs and melodies that echo "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin'", performed by Tex Ritter.

Madeline Kahn's role, Lili Von Shtupp, is a parody of Marlene Dietrich's Frenchie in the 1939 western film Destry Rides Again, while "I'm Tired" is a parody of Dietrich's "Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It)", a song written by Frederick Hollander for The Blue Angel (1930). 'Shtup' is a Yiddish verb meaning "to stuff, poke, or fill" but which is commonly used as a vulgarism best translated into English as "to f***" (and which is considered as crude in polite society as its English counterpart). (When broadcast on television, Lili's last name is usually changed to "Shhhhhh..." to avoid use of the vulgarism, but is still written normally on the title card.)

Some references to Mel Brooks' first film The Producers include the playing of "Springtime for Hitler" before the introduction of Lili von Shtupp, Governor Le Petomane's echoes of Max Bialystock's line "Hello Boys!" and the use of the theme from "The French Mistake" when Hedley Lamarr and others escape the movie studio lot after breaking the fourth wall.

The scene under Hedley Lamarr's office window involving Boris, the Quasimodo-like hangman, is used again in a larger fashion in Brooks' 1993 comedy, Robin Hood: Men in Tights with Robert Ridgely reprising his role.

The extensions to the ISO 9660 standard for Unix Filesystem attributes are named as Rock Ridge extensions after the movie's town.

While the film is widely considered a classic comedy today, critical reaction was mixed when the film was first released.[citation needed] Vincent Canby wrote:

“Blazing Saddles has no dominant personality, and it looks as if it includes every gag thought up in every story conference. Whether good, bad, or mild, nothing was thrown out. Mr. [Woody] Allen's comedy, though very much a product of our Age of Analysis, recalls the wonder and discipline of people like Keaton and Laurel and Hardy. Mr. Brooks's sights are lower. His brashness is rare, but his use of anachronism and anarchy recalls not the great film comedies of the past, but the middling ones like the Hope-Crosby "Road" pictures. With his talent he should do much better than that.”

Roger Ebert gave the film four stars and called it a "crazed grabbag of a movie that does everything to keep us laughing except hit us over the head with a rubber chicken. Mostly, it succeeds. It's an audience picture; it doesn't have a lot of classy polish and its structure is a total mess. But of course! What does that matter while Alex Karras is knocking a horse cold with a right cross to the jaw?" The film grossed $119.5 million in the box office becoming only the tenth film in history up to that point to pass the $100 million mark.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a certified "fresh" rating of 89%

In the scene where Lamarr addresses his band of bad guys, he says, "You men are only risking your lives, while I am risking an almost-certain Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor!" Harvey Korman did not, in fact, get an Oscar nod, but the film did receive three other Academy Awards nominations in 1974: Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Madeline Kahn, Best Film Editing, and Best Music, Original Song. The film also nabbed two BAFTA awards nominations, for Best Newcomer (Cleavon Little) and Best Screenplay.

The film won the Writers Guild of America Award for "Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen" for writers Mel Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, and Alan Uger.

In 2006, Blazing Saddles was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. The American film critic Dave Kehr queried if the historical significance of Blazing Saddles lay in the fact that it was the first film from a major studio to have a fart joke.

American Film Institute Lists
* AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies - Nominated
* AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs - #6
* AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
- I'm Tired - Nominated
* AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
- "Excuse me while I whip this out." - Nominated
* AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - Nominated
* AFI's 10 Top 10 - Nominated Western film

A television pilot was produced for CBS based on Andrew Bergman's initial story, titled Black Bart, which was the original title of the film. It featured Louis Gossett, Jr. as Bart and Steve Landesberg as the drunk sidekick. Mel Brooks had little if anything to do with the pilot, as writer Andrew Bergman is listed as the sole creator. The pilot did not sell, but CBS aired it once on April 4, 1975. It was later included as a bonus feature on the Blazing Saddles 30th Anniversary DVD and the Blu-ray disc.

With the production of musical adaptations of The Producers and Young Frankenstein, rumors spread about a possible adaptation of Blazing Saddles. Brooks joked about the concept in the final number in Young Frankenstein, in which the full company sings, "next year, Blazing Saddles!" In 2010, Mel Brooks confirmed this, saying that the musical could be finished within a year. No creative team or plan has been announced.

After nearly 35 years, the first-ever official, studio-licensed release, in any format, of the full music soundtrack to Blazing Saddles came out from La-La Land Records on August 26, 2008. Remastered from original studio vault elements, this Limited Edition CD features the classic songs from the film as well as composer John Morris' score. Bonus tracks on the album include special instrumental versions of all the songs, and the disc features exclusive liner notes featuring comments from Mel Brooks and John Morris. It has been released as a "limited edition" of 3,000 units.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

Here is the list so far.

50. The Gunfighter (1950)
49. Quigley Down Under (1990)
48. The Valley of Gwangi (1969)
47. Bandolero! (1968)
46. How The West Was Won (1962)
45. Rooster Cogburn (1975)
44. Open Range (2003)
43. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949)
42. The Great Silence (1968)
41. Fort Apache (1948)
40. Chisum (1970)
39. High Noon (1952)
38. They Call Me Trinity (aka My Name Is Trinity) (1970)
37. The Magnificent Seven (1960)
36. Blood On The Moon (1948)
35. Duck, You Sucker (1971)
34. Once Upon A Time In Mexico (2003)
33. Last Man Standing (1996)
32. Man from Snowy River (1982)
31. The Mountain Men (1980)
30. Back To The Future Part III (1990)
29. True Grit (2010)
28. Pale Rider (1985)
27. City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold (1994)
26. Ulzana's Raid (1972)
25. True Grit (1969)
24. The Frisco Kid (1979)
23. Billy The Kid (1989)
22. A Thunder of Drums (1961)
21. They Died with Their Boots On (1941)
20. Three Amigos (1986)
19. The Paleface (1948)
18. My Name Is Nobody (1973)
17. The Shootist (1976)
16. Django (1966)
15. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
14. The Wild Bunch (1969)
13. For A Few Dollars More (1965)
12. Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)
11. Red River (1948)
10. The Proposition (2005)
9. City Slickers (1991)
8. Tombstone (1993)
7. The Searchers (1956)
6. Blazing Saddles (1974)

Here are 4 taglines (and 1 clue) to the final five films.

* ...an army of one.
* Clint Eastwood's Last Western
* They formed an alliance of hate to steal a fortune in dead man's gold
* This short cigar belongs to a man with no name. This long gun belongs to a man with no name. This poncho belongs to a man with no name. He's going to trigger a whole new style in adventure.
* Thrills! Thrills! Thrills! See - The Apache Attack! Charge of the Cavalry! Fight to the Death On the Last Frontier of Wickedness!