I recently got my hands on the Masters of Cinema blu-rays of Shane and High Noon. Both are films that saw a number of years ago but am excited to revisit. I watched High Noon first and found it to be as thrilling as I did first time round. I enjoy the simplicity of its plot and the building of tension as noon approaches and the action draws near. Nice and short, well paced, beautiful to look at and some great performances. Also a memorable score by Dimitri Tiomkin. The 'Do Not Forsake Me o My Darling' has been firmly stuck in my mind since watching the film several days ago.
I hope to also get round to rewatching Shane soon. I do have a massive list of films to watch so it's always a struggle to prioritise. Shane was a film that didn't make much impact on me first time around. I recognised that it was a classic, but it also didn't particularly get me excited. I hope that a rewatch with fresh eyes will hit the spot.
@Joshua, like you I never used to be into the western genre, but once I really started watching them I got totally hooked and I would now say its possibly my favourite genre.
If you haven't seen it yet, Joshua, I highly reccomend "Once upon a time in the West" by Sergio Leone. His Dollars trillogy is also very good, perhaps especially "The good, the bad and the ugly".
Thank you all for the recommendations. I have written them all down and will definitely add them to my list. I have already got the 'Spaghetti Western' collection. I bought it from a charity shop for £5 but have not had time to watch any of the films yet. I was told they were good and that recommendation plus the price meant I could not leave them on the shelf of the shop! Without checking, I'm not sure if 'Once Upon A Time In The West' is one of the films.
One of the best scenes from a film which is full of them is that where Tory goes into town. Here it is:
I reiterate the other members' recommendations for the Leone films. It sounds to me like the Spaghetti Western collection you have would just include the Dollars trilogy, and possibly the later Duck You Sucker (aka Fistful of Dynamite). Once Upon a Time in the West (my favourite western by the way) is usually not packaged with those films as it is owned by a different studio to the others.
awesome Gymkata! that makes your list of essential Marvel Cinematic universe films look concise in comparison
but you don't include Who Shot Liberty Vallance, which advances the rather heady argument that democracy is dependent on literacy.
That transition between the lawless settler period and the rise of a more formal civilization (usually heralded by the arrival of the railway) is the backdrop to more than a few. Beyond the trappings of the hats and the horses and the sixguns, there's a sort of Origin mythology going on.
______________________
btw, what was the name of the actor who played the Gary Cooper character in Outland? names right on the tip of my tongue but cant quite seem to remember...
I admire your the way you use your braincells @Gymkata , reminds me of how whenever anybody asks me something work related I have to look it up, but if its the correct wording of a Monty Python quote I got it safely stored away in a priority braincell.
for the record, that list of essential Marvel Cinematic Universe films I recall ended up including 22 out of 24 films released up til that point, and makes a good standard reference for where the various characters and ongoing plot threads first appeared, also encyclopedic.
@Gymkata I am sure I have seen a few of the films you have listed for sale in the charity shops. This was recently so they are possibly still there. They only cost £1 each on DVD. What I do is buy a few films watch them and - if I don't care for them, I gift back to the charity shop. TV here show western films every day. There was one on this afternoon (which I missed) called 'The Guns of Fort Petticoat'. I don't know if I should make a note of watching that one the next time it is on?
I have looked and yes the Spaghetti western set is 'A Fistful of Dollars' 'A Few Dollars More' and 'The Good The Bad And The Ugly'.
Gymkata has provided an excellent list of Westerns that any film fan should check out. I'm not sure I'm giving anything new here, but this is my persnoal list of top 20 favourite films of the genre.
I would agree with your comment regarding For a Few Dollars More Gymkata, but I would also add that to me it is the quintessential example of a spaghetti western. Leone undoubtedly improved with his next two films, however, they venture more into epic territory, which basically all other spaghetti westerns don't do. Therefore, I regard For a Few Dollars More as the 'typical' spaghetti western at its very best. In my opinion, another couple of top contenders for best spaghetti western are Sergio Corbucci's The Great Silence and The Mercenary.
It was the spaghetti westerns that first pulled me into the western genre, although as time has gone by I've developed a greater affection for the American originals...ie the films of Ford, Hawks, Mann etc.
Two great lists guys. I could debate endlessly with you the merits / demerits of some of those movies.
Among many other films you don't list, I'd only like to mention DJANGO (1966) which is fabulous, John Wayne's glorious swansong THE SHOOTIST (1976) and Michael Winner's bleak CHATO'S LAND (1972).
Loving these lists. I always like to refer my lists as favourites rather than best because I know that technically some movies are better made than others but sometimes less enjoyable.
My top 20 (in no particular order) would be: (omitting modern day westerns)
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid
Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid
The Shootist
Big Deal At Dodge City aka A Big Hand For A Little Lady
A Fistful Of Dynamite aka Duck, You Sucker
True Grit (1969)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance
3.10 To Yuma (1957)
The Wild Bunch
Shane
Once Upon A Time In The West
EL Dorado
A Fistful Of Dollars
The Man From Laramie
The Searchers
My Darling Clementine
Rio Bravo
High Noon
The Good The Bad And The Ugly
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Speaking of spaghetti westerns, A Fistful of Dynamite (a/k/a Duck You Sucker!) is an often overlooked Leone entry which basically closed out his western phase. It follows the exploits of an Irish revolutionary hiding out in Mexico (James Coburn) and a Mexican bandit (Rod Steiger) and his family, who get mixed up in the Mexican revolution. Given the time period it's probably a bit of a stretch to call it a western but it still retains many of the classic Leone tropes. The score by Ennio Morricone is positively haunting and Leone once again makes use of extended flashbacks to flesh out the characters and their backstory as he did in Once Upon A Time In The West. The pacing is uneven in spots and there are some jarring editing cuts towards the end but like most Leone efforts there are also plenty of memorable sequences.
I have made a list of the films recommended here. I will be visiting the usual places I look for DVDs and will report back if I am successful at finding any of them.
I should not really say this but when I am doing overtime (which is often!) and away from my normal duties, I can have many twelve hour long shifts where I have very little to do except the occasional patrol. I bought a portable DVD player with a screen attached some time ago and sometimes take it to work. I think this will now prove useful to allow me to watch these films!
Just for my information, with the spaghetti westerns, I should then watch TGTBTU first, then AFFoD and FaFDM
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,929Chief of Staff
I agree with Gymkata. It does not really matter in which order they are watched.
However, I do think that Fistful of Dollars is a good starting point. It is a brisk, 90 minute action filled film that does a good job of reworking the samurai plot of Kurosawa's Yojimbo for a western setting. As Leone's films went on, they became bigger, more epic, and longer. So The Good The Bad and The Ugly with its nearly 3 hour running time can be a bit intimidating for a first time viewer - well, it was for me. I tend to be put off by films with long running times, even though many of my favourite films are a bit on the long side. (After all, my favourite film of all time is the nearly 4 hour whopper, Lawrence of Arabia).
So watching them in order of release does give you that gradual build-up from one film to the next, with each expanding on what came before in terms of ambition, scope and running time.
Tonight I watched YOLT to James Bond, & Friends' watchalong. It doesn't beat being a part of a watchalong, but their comments are funny, insightful and I even learn some new things.
An American remake of the cult Japanese shocker Ju-On which benefits from retaining the original director, Takashi Shimizu. Back in the day, I watched the grimy, confusing, original – rented from Blockbusters – and, like most critics and film fans, compared it unfavourably with Ring. When this came out in the cinemas, I went to see it with a girlfriend who sat through it while I eulogised about how gorgeous Sarah Michelle Gellar was. Renata was very generous in allowing me to indulge my Buffy the Vampire Slayer fascination…
I digress.
Karen Davis [Gellar] is an exchange student working part time as a care assistant in Tokyo. She visits an eerily infirm lady at a grey, non-descript house, unaware of the building’s murderous past. Strange apparitions materialise almost immediately and these sudden, bizarre, shocking encounters send her into a coma. When she wakes, Karen investigates the past and pieces together the mystery, but remains unable to free the raging souls trapped inside the house.
The Grudge isn’t so much a horror as a creeping ghost story. There’s a few impressive visuals. The story’s non-linear timeframe is well presented. There was a great scene at the climax where Karen watches a ghost watching a ghost which was brilliantly presented. The photography alternates from being bright and breezy to gloomy and grimy, like the original. The sound editing effects are particularly good. I remember in the cinema auditorium the little boy’s footsteps come at you from all angles. It’s less effective on T.V.
The movie was a spectacular success in the U.S., although it loses something in its Americanisation. It might have been better if they’d shifted the whole story to the States rather than just import a few actors; even better, just make it with an English speaking Japanese cast. Many of the main protagonists don’t have dialogue anyway and are played by the original cast members. Gellar is rather good, but then she’s had lots of practice from Buffy.
Pierce Brosnan plays against type as a horrible man who claims to have kidnapped the daughter of two equally horrible parents played with no skill by Gerard Butler and Maria Bello. Hitchcock did this sort of thing much better and with a dash of humour. It’s such a crass exercise it was retitled for the US market, and again for continental Europe. It’s no surprise the film’s a mess if the producers can’t even figure out a title.
I felt most sympathy for the child, poor mite, whose saddled with such awful self-obsessed parents.
I had never heard of this movie before. It stars Gabriel Byrne and Sylvester Stallone with good support from Jamie Foxx, Thandie Newton, Melanie Griffith and Stuart Townsend. It’s a tale of grifters who bluff and double bluff each other.
I enjoyed it but always laugh at the poker scenes in this and all other movies which have scenes of poker, in that to add tension, the players say “ I call that.......and raise.......”. This is known as a string bet, if you’re raising the pot you have to state “raise” and then make your play, if you said “call” and then tried to raise you would simply not be allowed to do so.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
A great western that I missed out is The Big Gundown starring Lee Van Cleef. You need to see the uncut version though as the cut version reverses the whole point of the movie! It also has a superb Ennio Morricone soundtrack.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
I'll be watching The Big Gundown soon as its currently streaming on the Criterion Channel as a limited engagement. Curiously though, I've noticed that it is presented in Italian with English subtitles. Normally I'm 100% in favour of a film being shown in the language of its origin, however with spaghetti westerns it's a bit of a unique case because they were usually filmed with actors speaking a variety of different languages with the intention of later dubbing into different languages for international distribution. As a result, the often bad dubbing of spaghetti westerns is part of their charm, and as the American west was a largely English-speaking society it doesn't feel quite right to have all the characters speaking Italian. Plus we presumably don't get to hear Lee Van Cleef's distinctive voice. Have you guys ever watched spaghetti westerns in Italian, and what are your thoughts? Does it affect the viewing experience much?
Comments
I recently got my hands on the Masters of Cinema blu-rays of Shane and High Noon. Both are films that saw a number of years ago but am excited to revisit. I watched High Noon first and found it to be as thrilling as I did first time round. I enjoy the simplicity of its plot and the building of tension as noon approaches and the action draws near. Nice and short, well paced, beautiful to look at and some great performances. Also a memorable score by Dimitri Tiomkin. The 'Do Not Forsake Me o My Darling' has been firmly stuck in my mind since watching the film several days ago.
I hope to also get round to rewatching Shane soon. I do have a massive list of films to watch so it's always a struggle to prioritise. Shane was a film that didn't make much impact on me first time around. I recognised that it was a classic, but it also didn't particularly get me excited. I hope that a rewatch with fresh eyes will hit the spot.
@Joshua, like you I never used to be into the western genre, but once I really started watching them I got totally hooked and I would now say its possibly my favourite genre.
If you haven't seen it yet, Joshua, I highly reccomend "Once upon a time in the West" by Sergio Leone. His Dollars trillogy is also very good, perhaps especially "The good, the bad and the ugly".
Shane features another great supporting performance from character actor Elisha Cook, what I figured were the best scenes in the film.
Alan Ladd always seems to get upstaged by character actors in his films, William Bendix stole the film in both the Glass Key and the Blue Daliah
Thank you all for the recommendations. I have written them all down and will definitely add them to my list. I have already got the 'Spaghetti Western' collection. I bought it from a charity shop for £5 but have not had time to watch any of the films yet. I was told they were good and that recommendation plus the price meant I could not leave them on the shelf of the shop! Without checking, I'm not sure if 'Once Upon A Time In The West' is one of the films.
One of the best scenes from a film which is full of them is that where Tory goes into town. Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWnDVW07_1c
I reiterate the other members' recommendations for the Leone films. It sounds to me like the Spaghetti Western collection you have would just include the Dollars trilogy, and possibly the later Duck You Sucker (aka Fistful of Dynamite). Once Upon a Time in the West (my favourite western by the way) is usually not packaged with those films as it is owned by a different studio to the others.
Of the more recent westerns you should watch "Dances with wolves" (1990), "Unforgiven" (1992) and "True grit" (2010). 🤠
awesome Gymkata! that makes your list of essential Marvel Cinematic universe films look concise in comparison
but you don't include Who Shot Liberty Vallance, which advances the rather heady argument that democracy is dependent on literacy.
That transition between the lawless settler period and the rise of a more formal civilization (usually heralded by the arrival of the railway) is the backdrop to more than a few. Beyond the trappings of the hats and the horses and the sixguns, there's a sort of Origin mythology going on.
______________________
btw, what was the name of the actor who played the Gary Cooper character in Outland? names right on the tip of my tongue but cant quite seem to remember...
your lists are positively encyclopedic, and that's a good thing.
I counted 63 films in your recommended Western list, enough to keep a filmbuff busy for a year!
bonus points if you make such lists off the top of your head without having to look anything up.
That is a comprehensive list G. ! No BTTF3 though..?😉
I admire your the way you use your braincells @Gymkata , reminds me of how whenever anybody asks me something work related I have to look it up, but if its the correct wording of a Monty Python quote I got it safely stored away in a priority braincell.
for the record, that list of essential Marvel Cinematic Universe films I recall ended up including 22 out of 24 films released up til that point, and makes a good standard reference for where the various characters and ongoing plot threads first appeared, also encyclopedic.
EDIT: just went looking for it, here it is
@Gymkata I am sure I have seen a few of the films you have listed for sale in the charity shops. This was recently so they are possibly still there. They only cost £1 each on DVD. What I do is buy a few films watch them and - if I don't care for them, I gift back to the charity shop. TV here show western films every day. There was one on this afternoon (which I missed) called 'The Guns of Fort Petticoat'. I don't know if I should make a note of watching that one the next time it is on?
I have looked and yes the Spaghetti western set is 'A Fistful of Dollars' 'A Few Dollars More' and 'The Good The Bad And The Ugly'.
Bond Films are shown almost all the Time on TV also in the UK. Although they show some a lot more than others.
Gymkata has provided an excellent list of Westerns that any film fan should check out. I'm not sure I'm giving anything new here, but this is my persnoal list of top 20 favourite films of the genre.
I would agree with your comment regarding For a Few Dollars More Gymkata, but I would also add that to me it is the quintessential example of a spaghetti western. Leone undoubtedly improved with his next two films, however, they venture more into epic territory, which basically all other spaghetti westerns don't do. Therefore, I regard For a Few Dollars More as the 'typical' spaghetti western at its very best. In my opinion, another couple of top contenders for best spaghetti western are Sergio Corbucci's The Great Silence and The Mercenary.
It was the spaghetti westerns that first pulled me into the western genre, although as time has gone by I've developed a greater affection for the American originals...ie the films of Ford, Hawks, Mann etc.
@Gymkata
@Golrush007
Two great lists guys. I could debate endlessly with you the merits / demerits of some of those movies.
Among many other films you don't list, I'd only like to mention DJANGO (1966) which is fabulous, John Wayne's glorious swansong THE SHOOTIST (1976) and Michael Winner's bleak CHATO'S LAND (1972).
CARRY ON COWBOY (1965) anybody ?
Loving these lists. I always like to refer my lists as favourites rather than best because I know that technically some movies are better made than others but sometimes less enjoyable.
My top 20 (in no particular order) would be: (omitting modern day westerns)
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid
Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid
The Shootist
Big Deal At Dodge City aka A Big Hand For A Little Lady
A Fistful Of Dynamite aka Duck, You Sucker
True Grit (1969)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance
3.10 To Yuma (1957)
The Wild Bunch
Shane
Once Upon A Time In The West
EL Dorado
A Fistful Of Dollars
The Man From Laramie
The Searchers
My Darling Clementine
Rio Bravo
High Noon
The Good The Bad And The Ugly
@Barbel. I pressed the 'New Discussion' button again by mistake again! Could you please put my message here? Thank you.
EDIT. I tried to post my comment but even thoogh I pressed 'post comment' the message said I had to wait for it to be approved?!
I will try once more. You will know why the same message keeps appearing for approval if it doesn't work!
Joshua- there is nothing to be seen, no messages, nothing to be approved. Please just carry on as normal.
Speaking of spaghetti westerns, A Fistful of Dynamite (a/k/a Duck You Sucker!) is an often overlooked Leone entry which basically closed out his western phase. It follows the exploits of an Irish revolutionary hiding out in Mexico (James Coburn) and a Mexican bandit (Rod Steiger) and his family, who get mixed up in the Mexican revolution. Given the time period it's probably a bit of a stretch to call it a western but it still retains many of the classic Leone tropes. The score by Ennio Morricone is positively haunting and Leone once again makes use of extended flashbacks to flesh out the characters and their backstory as he did in Once Upon A Time In The West. The pacing is uneven in spots and there are some jarring editing cuts towards the end but like most Leone efforts there are also plenty of memorable sequences.
I have made a list of the films recommended here. I will be visiting the usual places I look for DVDs and will report back if I am successful at finding any of them.
I should not really say this but when I am doing overtime (which is often!) and away from my normal duties, I can have many twelve hour long shifts where I have very little to do except the occasional patrol. I bought a portable DVD player with a screen attached some time ago and sometimes take it to work. I think this will now prove useful to allow me to watch these films!
Just for my information, with the spaghetti westerns, I should then watch TGTBTU first, then AFFoD and FaFDM
The posts were in the spam filter - about 5 of them…I’ve deleted 4 and reinstated the one above 🍸
Thanks, Sir Miles- that was the one place I didn't look!
I agree with Gymkata. It does not really matter in which order they are watched.
However, I do think that Fistful of Dollars is a good starting point. It is a brisk, 90 minute action filled film that does a good job of reworking the samurai plot of Kurosawa's Yojimbo for a western setting. As Leone's films went on, they became bigger, more epic, and longer. So The Good The Bad and The Ugly with its nearly 3 hour running time can be a bit intimidating for a first time viewer - well, it was for me. I tend to be put off by films with long running times, even though many of my favourite films are a bit on the long side. (After all, my favourite film of all time is the nearly 4 hour whopper, Lawrence of Arabia).
So watching them in order of release does give you that gradual build-up from one film to the next, with each expanding on what came before in terms of ambition, scope and running time.
Tonight I watched YOLT to James Bond, & Friends' watchalong. It doesn't beat being a part of a watchalong, but their comments are funny, insightful and I even learn some new things.
THE GRUDGE (2004)
An American remake of the cult Japanese shocker Ju-On which benefits from retaining the original director, Takashi Shimizu. Back in the day, I watched the grimy, confusing, original – rented from Blockbusters – and, like most critics and film fans, compared it unfavourably with Ring. When this came out in the cinemas, I went to see it with a girlfriend who sat through it while I eulogised about how gorgeous Sarah Michelle Gellar was. Renata was very generous in allowing me to indulge my Buffy the Vampire Slayer fascination…
I digress.
Karen Davis [Gellar] is an exchange student working part time as a care assistant in Tokyo. She visits an eerily infirm lady at a grey, non-descript house, unaware of the building’s murderous past. Strange apparitions materialise almost immediately and these sudden, bizarre, shocking encounters send her into a coma. When she wakes, Karen investigates the past and pieces together the mystery, but remains unable to free the raging souls trapped inside the house.
The Grudge isn’t so much a horror as a creeping ghost story. There’s a few impressive visuals. The story’s non-linear timeframe is well presented. There was a great scene at the climax where Karen watches a ghost watching a ghost which was brilliantly presented. The photography alternates from being bright and breezy to gloomy and grimy, like the original. The sound editing effects are particularly good. I remember in the cinema auditorium the little boy’s footsteps come at you from all angles. It’s less effective on T.V.
The movie was a spectacular success in the U.S., although it loses something in its Americanisation. It might have been better if they’d shifted the whole story to the States rather than just import a few actors; even better, just make it with an English speaking Japanese cast. Many of the main protagonists don’t have dialogue anyway and are played by the original cast members. Gellar is rather good, but then she’s had lots of practice from Buffy.
BUTTERFLY ON A WHEEL (2007)
What on earth did I just watch?
Pierce Brosnan plays against type as a horrible man who claims to have kidnapped the daughter of two equally horrible parents played with no skill by Gerard Butler and Maria Bello. Hitchcock did this sort of thing much better and with a dash of humour. It’s such a crass exercise it was retitled for the US market, and again for continental Europe. It’s no surprise the film’s a mess if the producers can’t even figure out a title.
I felt most sympathy for the child, poor mite, whose saddled with such awful self-obsessed parents.
Shade (2003)
I had never heard of this movie before. It stars Gabriel Byrne and Sylvester Stallone with good support from Jamie Foxx, Thandie Newton, Melanie Griffith and Stuart Townsend. It’s a tale of grifters who bluff and double bluff each other.
I enjoyed it but always laugh at the poker scenes in this and all other movies which have scenes of poker, in that to add tension, the players say “ I call that.......and raise.......”. This is known as a string bet, if you’re raising the pot you have to state “raise” and then make your play, if you said “call” and then tried to raise you would simply not be allowed to do so.
A great western that I missed out is The Big Gundown starring Lee Van Cleef. You need to see the uncut version though as the cut version reverses the whole point of the movie! It also has a superb Ennio Morricone soundtrack.
I'll be watching The Big Gundown soon as its currently streaming on the Criterion Channel as a limited engagement. Curiously though, I've noticed that it is presented in Italian with English subtitles. Normally I'm 100% in favour of a film being shown in the language of its origin, however with spaghetti westerns it's a bit of a unique case because they were usually filmed with actors speaking a variety of different languages with the intention of later dubbing into different languages for international distribution. As a result, the often bad dubbing of spaghetti westerns is part of their charm, and as the American west was a largely English-speaking society it doesn't feel quite right to have all the characters speaking Italian. Plus we presumably don't get to hear Lee Van Cleef's distinctive voice. Have you guys ever watched spaghetti westerns in Italian, and what are your thoughts? Does it affect the viewing experience much?
What's going on with imdb ? It just isn't the same anymore.
Roger Moore 1927-2017