Westerns for Film Nerds

In my last post, I wrote about John Wayne’s leading role in The Shootist. At the end, I thought of recommending a few. And some of you asked me to do it. So that’s this post.

Bronson’s face is as rugged as the New Mexico landscape. He’s perfect in this role. Image from Once Upon a Time in the West

Now, these aren’t the best of all time, but they’re some of my favorites that people haven’t heard of or seen, and they’re fantastic.

In no order:

Invitation to a Gunfighter

A civil war soldier comes back to his hometown to find out that everyone heard he was killed in the war, and someone else is living in his house and his wife has remarried. He freaks out and starts kicking ass. The town has no tough guys, so they hire a guy played by Yul Brynner. I won’t tell you what the next twist is, which is the big fun of this film. This is pretty much Yul-porn, and it’s deserved—he looks amazing all throughout, and is at least part of the inspiration for including him in Westworld. Also included: racism and hypocrisy of the Old West.

Once Upon a Time in the West

Sure, you’ve seen Sergio Leone Westerns, but did you see the one that Dario Argento—the master of Italian horror films—wrote for him, starring Charles Bronson? And this is 1968, early Bronson, at the beginning of his leading roles that he should be remembered for—Death Wish in 1974 was when he became a cartoony lead, and slid down that for the rest of his career—and his character is just named “Harmonica.” Also included: just how sweaty and unwashed everyone was in the Old West.

The Great Silence/A Bullet for the General

I really couldn’t pick one over the other. Klaus Kinski is in both of these Italian Westerns. They’re cool on their own, but seeing him as a bad guy really shows what he could have been in the US (these are not US movies but you can immediately see his potential for Die Hard type villains) had he not had such an impossible working reputation.

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid

Trigger warning for Bob Dylan soundtrack. This film got lost in Peckinpah’s catalog of crazy films. From 1973–1974, Kris Kristofferson was in this film, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. What a run! There was a post-hippie fascination with anti-authoritarian outlaws, and this plays right into that feeling. And as much as I hate to admit it, I love the scene that’s built around Dylan’s “Knocking on Heaven’s Door.” It’s gorgeous filmmaking. Best line: “Keep the change, Bob.”

3:10 to Yuma (1957)

I’m not hating on the 2007 remake, but this is definitely a case of the original being better. It is one of the most philosophical crisis-Westerns I’ve ever seen, with the character’s internal conflict being the whole of the film. Ever see one of those Samurai flicks where the Samurai is sitting around trying to figure out what he should do? This Western is where that genre got the trope. A gorgeous, bleak, black-and-white Western worthy of the noir genre.

McCabe and Mrs. Miller

This was a Western for the post-Easy Rider audience. It’s a Robert Altman film with Warren Beatty and Julie Christie both peaking in their physical perfection—they look amazing. Turns out, the Old West was full of whorin’, drinkin’, gamblin’, and other forms of debauchery. This film leans on that end of the Old West—the heroes are not gunslingers or sheriffs who occasionally go into the saloon to find the bad guy, but rather focuses on the gamblers and sex workers as the entrepreneurial heroes of the day.

Bone Tomahawk

This is a more recent film by the weirdo S. Craig Zahler. I love all his films, but they are definitely not for everyone. He uses gore effects inside his regular action films—the only thing I can compare it to is seeing Reservoir Dogs when it first came out: no one was ready for that much blood in a heist film. Some have argued that this film is a horror movie, not a Western. I say it’s both. Also included: a horrifying scene that makes Michael Madsen cutting off an ear look innocent.

Winchester 73

You can’t go wrong with Anthony Mann’s films. They’re all great. But this one got lost in the public mind somehow. Mind you, it has an unfortunate casting of Rock Hudson as a native chief which is very unsettling as a whole. But coming from the world of noir and crime pictures, Mann switched to the Western genre at the behest of the studios and cranked out this dark one. Your leads: Jimmy Stewart and Shelly Winters, in 1950.

Forty Guns

Sam Fuller made three Westerns, and this is my pick of the three. It’s not as crazy as Shock Corridor or as good as Pickup on South Street, but it’s a must if you’ve seen those. If you don’t know who Sam Fuller is, find out. I don’t know why he became lost in pop culture when he was a go-to reference for film nerds 30 years ago. There’s a scene in this one which is one of my favorite all-time Western scenes.