Great Westerns.

Great Westerns.

Looking over at The American Film Institutes's great films, or in this case great westerns it is difficult to agree with some of the choices made though numbers two three and four are not up for argument. Many of the best films in any genre are remembered for any number of reasons though the ones with great sound-bytes or parting shots tend to stay in the memory. It would be difficult to draw up any list of the above without including John Ford in it, a number of times, and he could have a list all to himself, but I couldn't say I'd list them as favourites. For films with great sweeping landscapes and beautiful cinema photography, and epic themes they are hard to beat, but maybe they run a bit too true, and the west wins out over the character though it's hard to say that about John Wayne. Many of the real interesting films of the west have been made since the spaghetti westerns of the sixties, or at least the ones starring Clint Eastwood, and to revise some of the above, maybe it's the less politically correct character that has made them interesting. Anyway here's the real list, as far as it goes....

(1) High Noon

(2) Shane

(3) The Unforgiven

(4) True Grit

(5) The Long Riders

(6) The Outlaw Josie Wales

(7) Rio Bravo *

(8) The Last of the Mochicans (It was the frontier then)

(9) Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

(10) EL Dorado

It gets difficult , back to that list at a later date!!!.

Not too sure after seven.

Some great clips of the above on you tube.

Photo: The Porchfields Trim.