Greetings, reader!
Yesterday was the 45th anniversary of the Clint Eastwood classic The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) being released. To celebrate, I'll take a look at a classic, often-overlooked-in-my-blog genre, much to the delight of my dad and uncle: westerns. I'm not going for the obvious route of "Top 10 westerns of all time", because the more traditional side of the genre is difficult to compare to the many twists and turns that modern filmmakers have put on the genre. Therefore, I'm counting down two simultaneous top fives: the top 5 traditional westerns of all time, and the top 5 unconventional ones.
As was the case with my ranking of traditional/unconventional Shakespeare movies, these lines are drawn somewhat arbitrarily; many "revisionist westerns" are in the 'traditional' category, provided that they still fit into most of the genre's conventions. I've reserved the 'unconventional' category for films that the average viewer might not think about as a western first and foremost, while still having that as one of its genres (this may happen through various genre combinations or the film may belong to a new wave of more 'extreme' revisionism). Jeez, you can just see my university studies leaving a mark on how I write this blog - that was a real load of academic gibberish right there. Anyhow, here's my list!
#5 in Unconventional: Three Amigos! (1986)
"You dirt-eating piece of slime! You scum-sucking pig! You son of a motherless goat!"
Three Amigos! is a hilarious take on various tropes of the western genre. Between Lorne Michaels' writing and the main trio of Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short, the film is clearly a by-product of the early Saturday Night Live (1975-) era, and such films often make for a great laugh. The three comedians take on the roles of Lucky Day, Dusty Bottoms and Ned Nederlander - three western movie stars who are confused for actual gun-slinging heroes by the inhabitants of a Mexican village. This leads to all sorts of hijinks, with the clichés and conventions of the western genre making for a nice backdrop to the SNL-tier laughs.
#5 in Traditional: The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
"You a bounty hunter?"
"A man's got to do something for a living these days"
"Dyin' ain't much of a living, boy"
The film of the hour, that just turned 45 years old yesterday, makes it into my top five. While there certainly are revisionist elements to this film, as it takes a much darker and grittier tone compared to the Spaghetti westerns that Clint Eastwood did in the 60's, I'm still counting it in the "Traditional" category. Why? Well, the directorial style, soundtrack, setting and overall plot all hit the core of what the western genre is all about. While the film was game-changing and a "different kind of western" for its time, the lens of cinematic history still sees it as a classic old-school western more than an unconventional take on the genre.
Eastwood does a brilliant job directing the various action sequences, but his acting performance in the lead role is even more impressive. He plays the cold, vengeful shell of a man who has lost his family and is out for payback. It is a gripping role, and he carries it with the proper gravitas.
#4 in Unconventional: Django Unchained (2012)
"You had my curiosity, now you have my attention"
If The Outlaw Josey Wales is a revisionist western that is 20% revisionist and 80% western, then Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained is 80% revisionist and 20% western. Tarantino strikes a remarkable balance with this film, as it manages to convey his love for old-school westerns with all of its nostalgic, tribute-like touches - but at the same time, there are no limits to how much the filmmaker allows himself to play with the conventions of the genre and do something completely unique and different. Cool moments of cowboy heroism, but with a twist, ensue.
Like any Tarantino movie, Django is unapologetically violent, marvelously entertaining, and weirdly funny in a tongue-in-cheek way while dealing with extremely serious issues. While definitely not being a true story, Django was praised for how accurately it portrayed something that Hollywood and the western genre had downplayed for decades: the sheer barbarity of the slavery-era South. This makes parts of the film very hard to watch, but all the more important. Tarantino makes his own values clear by employing the similar sort of historical revisionism that he used in Inglorious Basterds (2009) and Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood (2019) - a take on what perhaps should have gone down, in regards to karma and the true villains in our history.
#4 in Traditional: Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
"You're the same dumb pilgrim that I been hearin' for twenty days, and smellin' for three!"
This Robert Redford classic definitely fits more into the "Traditional" category, although it represents a less mainstream wing of the western spectrum: as my dad defensively stated after my mom asked what cowboy movie we were watching, "It's a mountain man movie, not a cowboy movie!".
Jeremiah Johnson is indeed a film about a mountain man, living his life in the midst of the majestic wilderness of the Rocky Mountains. The film's biggest strength is its slow pace, coupled with beautiful landscape shots: while Redford does a great job in the lead role, the film isn't about the man as much as it is about the outdoor world surrounding him. The film is an ode to nature and wilderness, and proof that the western genre can be a lot more than the gunslinger duels and bar room brawls we most often associate it with.
#3 in Unconventional: Back to the Future Part III (1990)
"It means your future hasn't been written yet. No one's has. Your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one, both of you"
Science fiction and westerns are an odd match made in heaven. On paper, there is no way such a genre combination would work, but time and time again, movies and TV have proved us wrong: Firefly (2002-2003), Westworld (2016-), individual episodes of Star Trek (1966-1969) and Doctor Who (1963-Present), and of course, this movie. The third instalment of the beloved Back to the Future trilogy sees Marty (Michael J. Fox) and Doc (Christopher Lloyd) taking the Delorean all the way back to the Wild West in 1885.
The film has a blast playing with every western cliché imaginable, in the context of this time-traveling franchise, and the results are pure gold. There are bar fights, duel challenges, steam locomotives and all the other tricks in the book, all while the main heroes try to find a way to restore the timeline and return to their original time. All in all, it's a fun and heartfelt homage to classic westerns, as well as a fitting end to one of cinema's most entertaining and consistent trilogies.
#3 in Traditional: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966)
"If you work for a living, why do you kill yourself working?"
Spaghetti westerns don't get much more spaghetti than this. Often considered to be the gold standard of the western genre, this 3-hour classic has it all: Sergio Leone's stylized directing, an exciting hidden-treasure-narrative, a historically intriguing civil war setting, the most iconic 'Mexican standoff' scene of them all, and of course, Clint Eastwood. Where would this genre be without the man whose name is literally an anagram of 'Old West Action'?
For me, the very best part of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly has to be the score, composed by the late great Ernio Morricone. The sheer dramatic gravitas of the track "Ecstasy of Gold" is something out of this world, and it creates an atmosphere that countless movie music composers have tried to channel ever since.
#2 in Unconventional: The Revenant (2015)
"I ain't afraid to die anymore. I'd done it already"
The Revenant, also known as "Leonardo DiCaprio's greatest performance" and "The movie that finally won Leo his long-overdue Oscar", is similar in many ways to films like Jeremiah Johnson, but I'm still putting in the 'unconventional' category. This is due to a mixture of many elements: the snowy mountain setting as opposed to the traditional Wild West, the focus on harsh survivalist narratives as opposed to traditional hero/antihero storytelling, and the fact that the movie came out in 2015 (some fans of the genre claim that "True westerns" aren't made anymore, as the genre is so tied to a certain era of Hollywood).
Genre arguments aside, one thing we can all agree on is that The Revenant is one hell of a film. Alejandro Gonzales Iñárritu's meticulous directing works as well with the intense action sequences as it does with the slowly drifting shots of scenery, and the true story behind the film is riveting enough to keep the viewer invested. But, yes, the best part of the film is undoubtedly Leo DiCaprio's Oscar-winning performance, as the madman took the concept of method acting to the level of actually eating a raw slab of bison's liver and sleeping in an animal carcass, so he could experience what the real Hugh Glass experienced as authentically as possible.
#2 in Traditional: Unforgiven (1992)
"It's a hell of a thing, killin' a man. Take away all he's got, and all he's ever gonna have"
For a film that barely checks all the boxes of fitting more into the 'Traditional' category, Unforgiven sure broke a lot of new ground and is far from your run-of-the-mill western. The setting (the small town of Big Whiskey, Wyoming in the 1880's) is classic enough, and at first glance, so are the character archetypes - you've got your sheriff (Gene Hackman), your young hot-shot gunslinger (Jaimz Woolvett), your old and retired legendary gunslinger grudgingly returning for one last job (literally Clint Eastwood), and his old partner-in-crime (Morgan Freeman).
But when the film dives deeper into the characters, you start to see how writer David Webb Peoples and director Clint Eastwood (I mean, seriously, 83% of this entire genre consists of this one guy) wanted to break the norms and do a darker, more complex western. Eastwood's character William Munny is far from the typical cowboy hero, with his dark and tragic backstory and his anti-hero morals. Meanwhile, Gene Hackman's character is a bold take on the typically heroic sheriff role, as he violently abuses his power and ends up being the film's main villain - back in the day of Unforgiven's release, many saw this as a parallel to the then-recent police killing of Rodney King, and the message certainly resonates in today's climate.
All in all, Unforgiven walks the line of deconstructing the clichés of the western genre while still managing to be a true western in its heart. The four Oscars it won, including Best Picture, were quite well-deserved. While I don't quite subscribe to the idea that many movie buffs have of the western genre being tied to a certain period of time in Hollywood, I do admit that if this is the "Last real western" that many deem it to be, then it certainly makes for a fitting end.
#1 in Unconventional: The Hateful Eight (2015)
"Gentlemen, I know Americans aren't apt to let a little thing like unconditional surrender get in the way of a good war"
Yep - I'm one of those select few who prefer The Hateful Eight to Django Unchained in the category of Tarantino westerns. Like Django, this underrated film showcases Tarantino's love for old-school westerns with its overture+intermission structure and Ennio Morricone soundtrack, while also adding all sorts of modern and creative elements to make it feel like a true Tarantino flick. As a revisionist western, it's on par with Django, but as an overall cinema, I enjoy it even more than its counterpart.
The Hateful Eight is a wonderful whodunit -mystery, ripe with the sort of outrageous and immensely entertaining dialogue that colors all of Quentin's filmography. When you have Hollywood's dialogue mastermind behind the script and in the director's chair, a cast including the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell and Michael Madsen, and the basic premise of eight people being stuck in a snowed-in cabin for three hours, the end result can't be anything else than pure gold. And that's exactly what this movie is. Speaking of gold, let's look at my #1 pick for the best traditional western...
#1 in Traditional: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
"Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"
Apparently, actor Walter Huston once said to his son John: "Son, if you ever become a writer, try to write a good part for your old man sometime". Well, John Huston would go on to win two Oscars (Best Writing and Best Directing) for this film, while the part he wrote for his old man earned Walter Huston an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Not a bad father-and-son activity.
While it is significantly older than the 'golden age' of Hollywood westerns, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre embodies everything great about the genre. There's a sense of adventure, a cool period-piece atmosphere, and a band of unlikely companions going on a mission and encountering all sorts of trouble. Humphrey Bogart himself plays the lead role and delivers as always, while Tim Hold and the aforementioned Walter Huston provide fantastic performances as his gold-searching companions. There are entertaining action sequences, iconic moments of dialogue and deep looks at greed and human morality throughout this timeless, adventurous classic. Whatever happened to the real treasure of the Sierra Madre, this film definitely remains a treasure of American cinema.
Thank you for reading! Tune in next week as I share my thoughts on the new release Godzilla Vs. Kong (2021), as well as other related monster movies, with a list of the Top 10 Movies that Feature Godzilla and/or King Kong.
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