Actor/Stuntman Ben Johnson, a close family friend, told me that the fight between him and Alan Ladd in "Shane" was incredibly complicated because Alan Ladd was only 5 foot 6 inches tall and Ben was 6 foot 2 inches tall, close to a foot taller. The director, George Stevens, and the cameramen had to use all kinds of unusual camera angles so that Alan Ladd would look taller.
A lot of leading men in the 40s and 50s were on the short side. Bogart wore wooden blocks on his shoes for his scenes with Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca as she was taller than him.
It would have been fascinating to know Ben Johnson, a real cowboy. I wrangled horses as a summer job through high school and college in the 60’s allowing me to meet some older ex cowboys. They were seriously interesting characters.
Thank you for taking the time to create this. Several clips contain significant spoilers, though, and it would be better for those who haven’t seen these films if they didn’t.
Excellent. Happy that i have been lucky to see many of these vintage classics. I would only add WARLOCK and THE FIVE MAN ARMY , the latter with Englishsubtitles. And then the classic THE MAGNIFICIENT SEVEN
Sam Peckinpah, Sergio Leonie, John Ford, and Clint Eastwood (as a director) have had a great influence on the western. All have produced memorable story lines.
Good list and can remember watching most of them . I watched a movie 3 days ago I remembered watching years ago. From Hell to Texas, starred Don Murray , Chill Wills, R G Armstrong and a young Dennis Hopper. Hopper got his start in Rebel Without a Cause, and then Giant which both starred James Dean, He also played Moon in True Grid in the cabin scene.
Stagecoach is a glaring omission from this list. But Rio Bravo should still stay as well. It was good enough to be remade twice by the same team of John Wayne and Howard Hawks (El Dorado and Rio Lobo). It also had a huge impact on many film directors who put Rio Bravo as their favorite movie (John Carpenter, Quentin Tarantino, etc.)
Great list but I can't help but wonder why you didn't include The Searchers. To me it's the archetype of iconic westerns. I'd be interested in your thoughts on this omission.
What makes The Magnificent Seven is three things 1) A good story 2) Eli Wallach chewing the scenery 3) A great score. On of the greatest scores in film history. For an earlier version watch and listen to The Comoncharos. Great score with elements that sound like they evolved into the score for TM7.
The Great Train Robbery (1903) is a silent film that should be watched if delving into the complete history of the genre, as it's generally agreed as the first Western ever made. Great shoutout to Ford's The Iron Horse, a masterpiece of silent cinema.
The status of The Great Train Robbery as the first Western is a popular misconception. It isn't even the first Western by Edison. The first Western is generally accredited to be Kidnapping By Indians, an 1899 English film that pre-dates the Great Train Robbery by four years. However, I do agree that The Great Train Robbery merits viewing by any serious fan of the genre. There are a number of great silent Westerns that are too often overlooked. Given the previous omissions of meritous silents by this channel, I was surprised so see The Iron Horse being mentioned. This channe has spun westerns in just about every conceivable way but they have yet to create a video devoted soley to silent Westerns.
Narrowing this down to 10 is hard. But I wouldn't include McCabe & Mrs. Miller, that's for sure. I would include Stagecoach, one of the best Westerns ever made, and The Outlaw Josey Wales. Shane definitely deserves a place.
I enjoyed it. Your narration is excellent and choices are all good. Some may prefer other films but I understand why you chose what you did. I like the clips you use. Not too long, enough to give a small sense of the film but not to give away the outcome. Thanks.
Good list, like you said, it’s difficult to pick 10. It’s hard to leave out Stagecoach, though, the film that launched John Wayne and was directed by John Ford. The Man Who shot Liberty Valence is another big contender. One more to add to the contenders is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. There are others, of course, depending on your criteria. Thanks for the thought experiment!
I might have swapped Tombstone for McCabe and Mrs. Miller as it showed that there was still a market for a well made western. Likewise I think Stagecoach should have been on the list because it showed there was a market for serious character portrayals within the genre rather than just a conventional shoot'em up.
I would like you to explain how these westerns were influential. I remember reading that the British film magazine sight and sound didn’t even take notice of Rio bravo. So I cannot see how this movie was influential
This is a good list. I personally prefer The Magnificent Seven, Silverado and Dances With Wolves over some on here, but I try not to argue when it comes to personal preference. I do agree that since the subject is shaping the Western genre it would be good to know why the producer feels each of these films serves that purpose.
I’m glad you put McCabe and Mrs. Miller on the list. Robert Altman was always a controversial director and this dark and moody film was an anathema to many fans of the genre. However, the anti or revisionist western paved the way for films like The Unforgiven or The Revenant.
Seen them all. I took a class "The frontier West in film."Everyone of the movies shown were part of the class and a quick lecture followed by the movie. From "The Great Train Robbery" Thru to McCabe. In the eighties "Silverado" was made mixing traditional things like a cake mix. Crooked sheriff, evil rancher, saloon owners, families going west, racism, and comradeship and self-reliance. Great opening...play it loud enough to hear everything clearly.
I love your channel but the audio is far too low and I have to turn my tv volume to slmost max to watch. Whan I return to watch other TH-cam channles, I get a shock as due to the increase in volume. Please sort this out.
Westerns are a wonder of imagination. There are literally many millions of images from the frontier era and documented stories. Yet the movies reject them for an imagined fantasy with its own rules. Reading the comments revealed more of the origins of the rules. Fascinating. Being reared in Tucson where the western movie industry still flourishes I grew up watching them made or simply treasuring their wide range (pun intended). Still do. Several of the actors have interesting TH-cam channels. Any listing is necessarily simply a ranking of personal favorites inviting injured discussions on other choices. Good to keep the long discussion going. To me the grenre lacking historic accuracy originates in the medieval public morality plays featuring the good guys vs the bad guys with life messages to boot (pun?). It's a grand genre continually reinventing itself with fresh viewpoints. My favorite viewpoint? Ignore that a lot of the actors are real life jerks as we all are and enjoy their entertaining work. More please!
I don't know, man. You didn't even mention Little Big Man which entirely changed the genre. I don't think you were even close on most of these. Warren Beatty?! Are you serious??
Rodger Altman used his mumbling effect in numerous films. While it lends realism in crowd scenes such as restaurants etc it can also make the dialog hard to hear.
McCabe & Mrs. Miller⁉️ Are you frickin' serious...you missed tons of classics, not one Jimmy Stewart/Anthony Mann duster, The Ox-Bow Incident, 3:10 to Yuma, etc.. 🇨🇦
Duh, The Great Train Robbery (1903)? Points off for not mentioning Stagecoach or The Ox-Bow Incident, extra credit for McCabe and Mrs. Miller but overall a D.
A difficult challenge you have set for yourself and as always there are different opinions. My take on this list is that I would have swapped The Iron Horse with The Covered Wagon (1923), simply because it created the template for all the future epic westerns, including The Iron Horse.
'Once upon a time in the west' Bad ass looking guys., Staring and music, music and staring...that's about it. Bad story and little if any writing. Good video.
Okay, What do I think? Well, the first one or two, I had never heard of. Then, there were 6 or 7 that I had both heard of and seen. Finally, one that I had heard of but hadn’t seen... Bottom line? No argument from me; I agreed with all of your choices.
Ten westerns that shaped the genre but no explanation as to why or how. As a fan of westerns I have seen them all but I take issue with McCabe and Mrs. Miller. I was working as a projectionist when it came out and ran it many times, necessarily watching most if not all of it. I can remember virtually nothing about it, something I cannot say about any good movie I ever ran. It was that inconsequential.
a fistfull of dollars was the first of it's kind to come along, a shock to every stale wesern cliche that was still around, the good the bad.......... once upon a time.......were given permission to exist by it's sucess, then sam peckinpah filmed 'the wild buch' and no one ever made westerns the same way again...................
This is an OK list, but far from good. Why do you have TWO Sergio Leone Westerns when one is enough? The Searchers should have been listed instead of My Darling Clementine and Ride the High Country would have been a better choice than The Wild Bunch. The Searchers is a great movie because of how well it shows the vastness of the West and through its protagonists we see how big it is. It is excellent in conveying the isolation of frontier life as John Ford uses Monument Valley to its greatest effect. The Searchers does have a compelling story to tell while My Darling Clementine is hideous with its historical inaccuracy and excessively padded script. A more authentic western town from the 20th Century Fox backlot should have should been used instead of Ford's half-hearted construction of Tombstone in Monument Valley. All The Wild Bunch has is two gorefests at the beginning and end with little of substance in between. Only Robert Ryan brings any semblance of class to this cinematic waste. I think Peckinpaugh's earlier Ride the High Country is much better to illustrate the passage of time in the West.
You picked top films...but the list could have been 20 easily. People named them so I won't bother. Too many to stop at ten...pick any ten about anything...so many great movies...
@@famouspeople63 true. Ever see the original 3 Godfathers with Chester Morris, Walter Brenna? Compare it to the John Wayne version. Maybe do a video of comparison films. Like High Sierra was remade as a Joel McCrea western. Interesting dynamic. There are a couple of films that were changed from one genre to another. See what you can find. Pretty good idea for your channel.
Actor/Stuntman Ben Johnson, a close family friend, told me that the fight between him and Alan Ladd in "Shane" was incredibly complicated because Alan Ladd was only 5 foot 6 inches tall and Ben was 6 foot 2 inches tall, close to a foot taller. The director, George Stevens, and the cameramen had to use all kinds of unusual camera angles so that Alan Ladd would look taller.
A lot of leading men in the 40s and 50s were on the short side. Bogart wore wooden blocks on his shoes for his scenes with Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca as she was taller than him.
"Close to a foot taller"? Um, no - not even close.
@@terryvHey, cut him some slack. Lots of guys would like to believe 6 inches (their real height difference) is close to a foot.... :)
It would have been fascinating to know Ben Johnson, a real cowboy. I wrangled horses as a summer job through high school and college in the 60’s allowing me to meet some older ex cowboys. They were seriously interesting characters.
McCabe and Mrs. miller? No way! The Searchers belongs on this list.
Yes!, and Liberty Valance, and Butch Cassidy.
Thank you for taking the time to create this. Several clips contain significant spoilers, though, and it would be better for those who haven’t seen these films if they didn’t.
Excellent. Happy that i have been lucky to see many of these vintage classics. I would only add WARLOCK and THE FIVE MAN ARMY , the latter with Englishsubtitles. And then the classic THE MAGNIFICIENT SEVEN
Sam Peckinpah, Sergio Leonie, John Ford, and Clint Eastwood (as a director) have had a great influence on the western. All have produced memorable story lines.
Good list and can remember watching most of them . I watched a movie 3 days ago I remembered watching years ago. From Hell to Texas, starred Don Murray , Chill Wills, R G Armstrong and a young Dennis Hopper. Hopper got his start in Rebel Without a Cause, and then Giant which both starred James Dean, He also played Moon in True Grid in the cabin scene.
I think I would have swapped Stagecoach 1939 for Rio Bravo as it was more of a star entertainment piece than groundbreaking western.
Stagecoach is a glaring omission from this list. But Rio Bravo should still stay as well. It was good enough to be remade twice by the same team of John Wayne and Howard Hawks (El Dorado and Rio Lobo). It also had a huge impact on many film directors who put Rio Bravo as their favorite movie (John Carpenter, Quentin Tarantino, etc.)
righto, stageoach was a ground breaking western and should not be left out..........................
ditto ranger@@Rangersly
Exactly the comment I was going to leave :)
Great list but I can't help but wonder why you didn't include The Searchers. To me it's the archetype of iconic westerns. I'd be interested in your thoughts on this omission.
ditto jos.....................
I think The Magnificent Seven should have been in here somewhere.
What makes The Magnificent Seven is three things
1) A good story
2) Eli Wallach chewing the scenery
3) A great score. On of the greatest scores in film history. For an earlier version watch and listen to The Comoncharos. Great score with elements that sound like they evolved into the score for TM7.
No because it's a ripoff of a samurai movie much like Fistful of Dollars.
More like a remake than a ripoff.
@@Thrashmetalhead80
The Fistful of Dollas is a remake of Yojimbo. Which is based off of Dashiel Hammett's Red Harvest.
@@mpetersen6 It wasn't official. They got sued.
The Great Train Robbery (1903) is a silent film that should be watched if delving into the complete history of the genre, as it's generally agreed as the first Western ever made.
Great shoutout to Ford's The Iron Horse, a masterpiece of silent cinema.
ditto....................
The status of The Great Train Robbery as the first Western is a popular misconception. It isn't even the first Western by Edison. The first Western is generally accredited to be Kidnapping By Indians, an 1899 English film that pre-dates the Great Train Robbery by four years.
However, I do agree that The Great Train Robbery merits viewing by any serious fan of the genre. There are a number of great silent Westerns that are too often overlooked. Given the previous omissions of meritous silents by this channel, I was surprised so see The Iron Horse being mentioned. This channe has spun westerns in just about every conceivable way but they have yet to create a video devoted soley to silent Westerns.
Narrowing this down to 10 is hard. But I wouldn't include McCabe & Mrs. Miller, that's for sure. I would include Stagecoach, one of the best Westerns ever made, and The Outlaw Josey Wales. Shane definitely deserves a place.
I enjoyed it. Your narration is excellent and choices are all good. Some may prefer other films but I understand why you chose what you did. I like the clips you use. Not too long, enough to give a small sense of the film but not to give away the outcome. Thanks.
Good list, like you said, it’s difficult to pick 10. It’s hard to leave out Stagecoach, though, the film that launched John Wayne and was directed by John Ford. The Man Who shot Liberty Valence is another big contender. One more to add to the contenders is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. There are others, of course, depending on your criteria. Thanks for the thought experiment!
I might have swapped Tombstone for McCabe and Mrs. Miller as it showed that there was still a market for a well made western. Likewise I think Stagecoach should have been on the list because it showed there was a market for serious character portrayals within the genre rather than just a conventional shoot'em up.
I would like you to explain how these westerns were influential. I remember reading that the British film magazine sight and sound didn’t even take notice of Rio bravo. So I cannot see how this movie was influential
@@brycesuderow3576 Did you accidentally reply to the wrong comment? I didn't mention Rio Bravo.
@@brycesuderow3576 Film magazines are not infallible.
But Tombstone was part of the long list of films influenced by My Darling Clementine. But it is probably the one most accurate and my favorite.
This is a good list. I personally prefer The Magnificent Seven, Silverado and Dances With Wolves over some on here, but I try not to argue when it comes to personal preference. I do agree that since the subject is shaping the Western genre it would be good to know why the producer feels each of these films serves that purpose.
What this video lacks is an explanation as to why these films were significant in film history.
I wondered about that myself.
The AI hasn't been fed properly yet...
NOTHING TOPS SHANE WHEN IT COMES TO A WESTERN 🔵🔵⚪️⚪️🚜🚜
I cannot argue with this list.
Good list but you missed the Searchers and Stagecoach
I’m glad you put McCabe and Mrs. Miller on the list. Robert Altman was always a controversial director and this dark and moody film was an anathema to many fans of the genre. However, the anti or revisionist western paved the way for films like The Unforgiven or The Revenant.
George O’Brien was the star of one of my favorite movies. He was in the movie sunrise, which was directed by F. W. Murnau
John Ford's Stagecoach and the Searchers are not included, therefore your final selection requires a reconsideration.
Seen them all. I took a class "The frontier West in film."Everyone of the movies shown were part of the class and a quick lecture followed by the movie. From "The Great Train Robbery" Thru to McCabe. In the eighties "Silverado" was made mixing traditional things like a cake mix. Crooked sheriff, evil rancher, saloon owners, families going west, racism, and comradeship and self-reliance. Great opening...play it loud enough to hear everything clearly.
The list should have been longer. There were so many great movies, as mentioned in the comments.
Indeed, every top ten list should be longer....
You forgot John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
Not just a movie,but one of his most iconic and important films.
Your choices are good for
The most part.
I would include Winchester 73
And the 1957 3:10 to Yuma
With Glenn Ford and Van Heflin.
Always felt that "Dodge City" had a lot of influence on most of the following westerns. Had about all of the B-western tropes.
You left out the greatest western ever made The Searchers.
John Wayne’s character in "Red River" was called "Dunson" - not "Dunston".
Great list except for one glaring omission The Searchers, merely the greatest Western of all time, maybe the best movie of all time.
What about Vera Cruz called “The first spaghetti Western”?
I love your channel but the audio is far too low and I have to turn my tv volume to slmost max to watch. Whan I return to watch other TH-cam channles, I get a shock as due to the increase in volume. Please sort this out.
Westerns are a wonder of imagination. There are literally many millions of images from the frontier era and documented stories. Yet the movies reject them for an imagined fantasy with its own rules. Reading the comments revealed more of the origins of the rules. Fascinating. Being reared in Tucson where the western movie industry still flourishes I grew up watching them made or simply treasuring their wide range (pun intended). Still do. Several of the actors have interesting TH-cam channels. Any listing is necessarily simply a ranking of personal favorites inviting injured discussions on other choices. Good to keep the long discussion going. To me the grenre lacking historic accuracy originates in the medieval public morality plays featuring the good guys vs the bad guys with life messages to boot (pun?). It's a grand genre continually reinventing itself with fresh viewpoints. My favorite viewpoint? Ignore that a lot of the actors are real life jerks as we all are and enjoy their entertaining work. More please!
You didn't include "Stagecoach" with John Wayne. Your list was only 1/2 good.
Remember folks, it's not the 10 best Westerns, but the ten most influential. Perhaps Wrangler can make a video examining the difference....
I don't know, man. You didn't even mention Little Big Man which entirely changed the genre. I don't think you were even close on most of these. Warren Beatty?! Are you serious??
Rodger Altman used his mumbling effect in numerous films. While it lends realism in crowd scenes such as restaurants etc it can also make the dialog hard to hear.
The Furies starring Barbara Standwyck, Johnny Guitar with Joan Crawford and Westward the Women. Any one for a more feminine view of the western drama.
McCabe & Mrs. Miller⁉️
Are you frickin' serious...you missed tons of classics, not one Jimmy Stewart/Anthony Mann duster, The Ox-Bow Incident, 3:10 to Yuma, etc..
🇨🇦
Tim McCoy was my favorite Western movie star.
Duh, The Great Train Robbery (1903)? Points off for not mentioning Stagecoach or The Ox-Bow Incident, extra credit for McCabe and Mrs. Miller but overall a D.
McCabe and Mrs Miller? You don’t understand Westerns, do you?
Mcabe nmrs millar? I dont think so
A difficult challenge you have set for yourself and as always there are different opinions. My take on this list is that I would have swapped The Iron Horse with The Covered Wagon (1923), simply because it created the template for all the future epic westerns, including The Iron Horse.
'Once upon a time in the west' Bad ass looking guys., Staring and music, music and staring...that's about it. Bad story and little if any writing. Good video.
You missed "The Searchers."
Okay, What do I think? Well, the first one or two, I had never heard of. Then, there were 6 or 7 that I had both heard of and seen. Finally, one that I had heard of but hadn’t seen... Bottom line? No argument from me; I agreed with all of your choices.
Ten westerns that shaped the genre but no explanation as to why or how. As a fan of westerns I have seen them all but I take issue with McCabe and Mrs. Miller. I was working as a projectionist when it came out and ran it many times, necessarily watching most if not all of it. I can remember virtually nothing about it, something I cannot say about any good movie I ever ran. It was that inconsequential.
Yeah, any list of westerns missing The Searchers is one very poor list.
Find something else to screw up!
Why don't you prepare a list , edit it, research it, and then do one yourself?
And sit back and listen to the arseholes commenting on it.
?
There must have been an error when you uploaded this video, because the part that had “Unforgiven” in it was missed. You might want to re-upload.
You missed 'The Searchers', which may be the most influential
Good bad ugly is neigh on perfect 👍🏻🎥📺 and once upon a time in the west
My Darl. Clem. by John Ford is the worst western ever made. Go back to school.
a fistfull of dollars was the first of it's kind to come along, a shock to every stale wesern cliche that was still around, the good the bad.......... once upon a time.......were given permission to exist by it's sucess, then sam peckinpah filmed 'the wild buch' and no one ever made westerns the same way again...................
This is an OK list, but far from good. Why do you have TWO Sergio Leone Westerns when one is enough? The Searchers should have been listed instead of My Darling Clementine and Ride the High Country would have been a better choice than The Wild Bunch.
The Searchers is a great movie because of how well it shows the vastness of the West and through its protagonists we see how big it is. It is excellent in conveying the isolation of frontier life as John Ford uses Monument Valley to its greatest effect. The Searchers does have a compelling story to tell while My Darling Clementine is hideous with its historical inaccuracy and excessively padded script. A more authentic western town from the 20th Century Fox backlot should have should been used instead of Ford's half-hearted construction of Tombstone in Monument Valley.
All The Wild Bunch has is two gorefests at the beginning and end with little of substance in between. Only Robert Ryan brings any semblance of class to this cinematic waste. I think Peckinpaugh's earlier Ride the High Country is much better to illustrate the passage of time in the West.
You picked top films...but the list could have been 20 easily. People named them so I won't bother. Too many to stop at ten...pick any ten about anything...so many great movies...
Yes, unfortunately cant fit all westerns into a video. No one would watch it :)
@@famouspeople63 true. Ever see the original 3 Godfathers with Chester Morris, Walter Brenna? Compare it to the John Wayne version. Maybe do a video of comparison films. Like High Sierra was remade as a Joel McCrea western. Interesting dynamic. There are a couple of films that were changed from one genre to another. See what you can find. Pretty good idea for your channel.