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THE
TOP 5
PROJECT

WEEK NO. 40
Main Page (including links to all past Top 5 weeks)

THE TOP 5 WESTERNS:

view full results       see how points are awarded
Rank Film Points L #1
#1 The Searchers (John Ford, 1956) 61 19 4
#2 Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968) 50 14 4
#3 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966) 47 13 4
#4 Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959) 39 13 4
#5 The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969) 35 11 2
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971) 35 8 6
L=How many lists each film appears on             #1=How many number one votes each film recieves

In not so surprising fashion, John Ford's epic The Searchers took home top honours this week with a final score of 61. The real battle was for second place and it was between Sergio Leone and, um... Sergio Leone. In the end Once Upon a Time in the West beat out The Good, the Bad and the Ugly by just three little points. Fourth place went to Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo with 39 points and in a tie for fifth was Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch and Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller, each with 35 points.

Just missing out were John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven and Nick Ray's Johnny Guitar. Other prominant vote-getters were High Noon, Red River, My Darling Clementine and Treasure of the Sierra Madre. There were also a smattering of votes for Akira Kurosawa's "Western" films and although it was Leone who garned two top 5 finishes, it was of course John Ford who led all directors with total mentions.

Individual lists:

Albert H. Muth
Auteurophile

  1. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969) - Peckinpah's grandest eulogy to the end of the frontier.

  2. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968) - epic grand opera.

  3. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971) - "traveling lady stay awhile until the night is over."

  4. Heaven's Gate (Michael Cimino, 1980) - a scale as magnificent as the Big Sky country.

  5. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956) - almost any John Ford will do, he perfected the genre.



Jonathan Rosenbaum
Film Critic
Author, Essential Cinema, Movie Mutations and many many others

(in chronological order)

  • The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann, 1953)

  • Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)

  • Wichita (Jacques Tourneur, 1955)

  • Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)

  • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)



David Sterritt
Chairman, National Society of Film Critics

  1. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)

  2. Ride in the Whirlwind (Monte Hellman, 1965)

  3. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)

  4. Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1995)

  5. The Baron of Arizona (Samuel Fuller, 1950)



Carrie Rickey
Film Critic, Philadelphia Inquirer

  1. Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)

  2. Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939)

  3. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992)

  4. Broken Arrow (Delmer Daves, 1950)

  5. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)



David Ehrenstein
Film Critic & Entertainment Writer
Author, Open Secret: Gay Hollywood 1928-1998

  1. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

  2. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)

  3. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)

  4. The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966)

  5. Horse (Andy Warhol, 1965)



Jeffrey M. Anderson
Film Critic, Cinematical.com, Las Vegas Weekly,
San Jose Metro, Combustible Celluloid.com

  1. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959) - Question: A game-legged old man and a drunk. That's all you got? Answer: That's WHAT I got.

  2. The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1967) - Existentialist? Maybe. Amazing? Definitely.

  3. Seven Men from Now (Budd Boetticher, 1956) - The first of seven masterworks, making something out of hardly anything.

  4. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992) - Well deserving of all its hype, it just gets better and better.

  5. Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann, 1950) - The first of five Mann-Stewart Western masterworks, bringing new levels of physicality, psychology and dangerous emotional energy to the genre and to the cinema in general.

Runners up: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007), Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1996), Forty Guns (Samuel Fuller, 1957), The Great Silence (Sergio Corbucci, 1968), Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971), The Naked Dawn (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1955), Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968), One-Eyed Jacks (Marlon Brando, 1961), Rancho Notorious (Fritz Lang, 1952), Ride the High Country (Sam Peckinpah, 1962).


Christopher Null
Film Critic &
Founder, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Filmcritic.com

  1. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992)

  2. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill, 1969)

  3. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)

  4. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)

  5. The Ox-Bow Incident (William Wellman, 1943)



Craig Phillips
Film Critic &
GreenCine Editor

  1. My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)

  2. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)
    The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)

  3. Bend of the River (Anthony Mann, 1952)
    The Man from Laramie (Anthony Mann, 1953)

  4. Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)

  5. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)

see also: Craig's GreenCine Primer on Westerns


J.E. Snavely
Home Theatre Cinephile

  1. Once Upon A Time In The West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

  2. Shane (George Stevens, 1953)

  3. The Proposition (John Hillcoat, 2005)

  4. My Name Is Nobody (Tonino Valerii, 1973)

  5. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)



Peter Sobczynski
Film Critic, eFilmCritic.com

Although it would be easy to load up this category with multiple films by the likes of Ford, Peckinpah or Leone, I have chosen to limit myself to only one film from each.

  1. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)

  2. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (Sam Peckinpah, 1973)

  3. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

  4. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1969)

  5. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)

And since five hardly begins to scratch the surface, allow me to mention my five runners-up, including a couple of slightly less conventional choices.

  • Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992)

  • Man of the West (Anthony Mann, 1958)

  • Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, 1974)

  • Heaven’s Gate (Michael Cimino, 1980)

  • The Long Riders (Walter Hill, 1980)



Carter Liotta
Filmmaker

  1. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)

  2. Pale Rider (Clint Eastwood, 1985)

  3. Tombstone (Kurt Russell/George P. Cosmatos, 1993)

  4. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992)

  5. The Shootist (Don Siegel, 1976)

However - I give extra credit to David Milch and the creators of the HBO series "Deadwood," - a show that surpasses many of the best classic westerns, in script and in filmmaking - in its three-season run.


Michael Parent
Film Student

  1. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)

  2. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)

  3. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

  4. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)

  5. High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952)

Honorable mentions: 3:10 to Yuma (Mangold, 2007), Brokeback Mountain (Lee, 2005), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Hill, 1969), My Darling Clementine (Ford, 1946), No Country for Old Men (Coen, 2007), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Peckinpah, 1973), The Quick and the Dead (Raimi, 1995), Stagecoach (Ford, 1939), Unforgiven (Eastwood, 1992) and all of Leone's Western's...

Western related stories: Bonnie and Clyde (Penn, 1967), Easy Rider (Hopper, 1969), Seven Samurai (Kurosawa, 1954) - Worth mentionning for its whole influence from the genre and on the genre.

And why not a Top 5 of Western Directors:

  1. John Ford
  2. Sergio Leone
  3. Sam Peckinpah
  4. Howard Hawks
  5. Clint Eastwood


Film Prophet
Film Critic, FilmProphet.com

  1. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

  2. High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952)

  3. Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939)

  4. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)

  5. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948)



Adam Trovillion
Film Enthusiast

  1. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948)

  2. Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)

  3. I Shot Jesse James (Sam Fuller, 1949)

  4. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)

  5. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)



Jeff Cardarelli
Film Enthusiast

  1. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

  2. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)

  3. The Man who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)

  4. High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952)

  5. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)



Matt Severson
Film Enthusiast

  1. Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939)

  2. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

  3. Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann, 1950)

  4. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)

  5. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)

    and the rest of my top 10:

  6. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)

  7. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992)

  8. My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)

  9. High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952)

  10. The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann, 1953)

With special mention: Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone, 1968), Dead Man (Jarmusch, 1995), The Assassionation of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Dominik, 2007), Days of Heaven (Malick, 1978), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Ford, 1962).

Films that I haven't seen yet, but think they might have a place in the above list:

  • The Tall T (Boetticher, 1957)
  • Seven Men From Now (Boetticher, 1956)

Kevin Cassidy
Film Enthusiast

  1. Heaven's Gate (Michael Cimino, 1980)

  2. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)

  3. Fort Apache (John Ford, 1948)

  4. My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)

  5. Once Upon A Time In The West (Sergio Leone, 1968)



Mathew Viola
Film Fanatic

  1. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968) - Leone and Morricone created a new kind of western and Once Upon a Time in the West is the cinematic and musical apotheosis of their legendary collaboration. In an unusual but inspired move Leone had Morricone write the score before filming began, and then had the music played on the set, which not only allowed the actors to shape their performances around the rhythms of the score, but also allowed Leone to synchronize camera movements and modulate editing rhythms with the tempo of the music. The result is an unrivalled marriage of music and image. Consider the 90-second track and crane shot that accompanies Jill’s arrival at Flagstone. As the first few notes of Jill’s Theme begin, the camera tracks with Jill as she walks to the Flagstone train station, and then, as the music continues to build, the camera slowly cranes skyward, higher and higher until it passes over the station’s rooftop, finally revealing Jill on the other side walking in the bustling, half-built Western town just as Morricone’s soaring music reaches its rhapsodic crescendo. To call the shot awe-inspiring would be an understatement, but it is just one of countless such breathtaking moments in this masterpiece. But nothing can quite compare to the operatic power of the final moment of reckoning between Harmonica and Frank, when their mysterious connection to each other is finally revealed through a haunting, hypnotic flashback, which is cued by Harmonica’s “death rattle” and which climaxes with another of Morricone’s overpowering crescendos.

  2. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)

  3. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)

  4. My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)

  5. Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)

Runners up: Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 1939), Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939), Pursued (Raoul Walsh, 1947), Ramrod (Andre de Toth, 1947), The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann, 1953), Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954), Forty Guns (Samuel Fuller, 1957), The Tall T (Budd Boetticher, 1957), 3:10 to Yuma (Delmer Daves, 1957), Terror in a Texas Town (Joseph H. Lewis, 1958), Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962), For a Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone, 1965), The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1967), The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969), The Ballad of Cable Hogue (Sam Peckinpah, 1970) Duck, You Sucker (Sergio Leone, 1971), The Long Riders (Walter Hill, 1980), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007).


Joel Webb
Film Enthusiast

  1. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)

  2. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948)

  3. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

  4. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)

  5. Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1995)

Runners-Up: The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969), Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954), Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939), High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952), Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 1939).


Jesse Richards
Filmmaker

  1. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)

  2. Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia (Sam Peckinpah, 1974)

  3. Bad Day At Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955)

  4. Once Upon A Time In the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

  5. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007) - This is the best Hollywood western in at least 25 years....

Honorable mentions: Pursued (Raoul Walsh), Duck, You Sucker (Leone), Warlock (Edward Dmytryk), Shane (George Stevens) , The Great Silence (Sergio Corbucci), Terror in a Texas Town (Joseph H. Lewis), The Wild Bunch (Peckinpah), Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray), The Lusty Men (Nicholas Ray), The Misfits (John Huston).... so many more - I love Westerns.


Jay Antani
Film Critic

  1. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)

  2. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

  3. Sholay (Ramesh Sippy, 1975)

  4. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992)

  5. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)



Bill Georgaris
They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?

(in chronological order)

  • The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann, 1953)

  • Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)

  • The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

  • Forty Guns (Samuel Fuller, 1957)

  • Ride Lonesome (Budd Boetticher, 1959)

    5 more I couldn’t go without mentioning…

  • Seven Men from Now (Budd Boetticher, 1956)

  • Son of Paleface (Frank Tashlin, 1952)

  • Warlock (Edward Dmytryk, 1959)

  • The Tall T (Budd Boetticher, 1957)

  • Man of the West (Anthony Mann, 1958)

    And 5 more that deserve more recognition…

  • 3 Bad Men (John Ford, 1926)

  • Blood on the Moon (Robert Wise, 1948)

  • Man Without a Star (King Vidor, 1955)

  • A Lawless Street (Joseph H. Lewis, 1955)

  • Jubal (Delmer Daves, 1956)



Doug Pratt
DVD Critic, DVDLaser.com

  1. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)

  2. Once upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

  3. The Misfits (John Huston, 1961)

  4. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)

  5. Forty Guns (Samuel Fuller, 1957)



Vasili Mamulashvili
Geographer & Film Enthusiast from Tbilsi, Geaorgia

  1. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

  2. The Wind (Victor Sjostrom, 1928)

  3. Dead Man (Jim Jarmush, 1995)

  4. For a Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone, 1965)

  5. The Magnificant Seven (John Sturges, 1960)



Brian Leonard
Film Enthusiast

  1. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)

  2. Shane (George Stevens, 1953)

  3. Little Big Man (Arthur Penn, 1970)

  4. Cat Ballou (Elliot Silverstein, 1965)

  5. Bad Company (Robert Benton, 1972)

Honorable mentions: Blazing Saddles, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid & Tombstone


Jason Mlinarsik
Film Enthusiast

  1. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992)

  2. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

  3. My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)

  4. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)

  5. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)



Hans Lucas
Film Student

  1. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)

  2. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

  3. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)

  4. The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1967)

  5. The Ox-Bow Incident (William Wellman, 1943)

Runners-up: My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946), The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann, 1953), Track of the Cat (William Wellman, 1954), Forty Guns (Samuel Fuller, 1957), Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962), Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968), The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969), Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1995).


Dave Arcane
Film Enthusiast

  1. Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, 1961)

  2. Drunken Angel (Akira Kurosawa, 1948)

  3. The Hidden Fortress (Akira Kurosawa, 1958)

  4. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)

  5. Sanjuro (Akira Kurosawa, 1962)

(Yes, they are also Kurosawa's best films - in my opinion - and most of them are not usually considered Westerns, but I see them that way)


Alan Smithee
Cinema Ex-Patriot

  1. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)

  2. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)

  3. Forty Guns (Samuel Fuller, 1957)

  4. The Iron Horse (John Ford, 1924)

  5. Broken Arrow (Delmer Daves, 1950)



Domingo Peeters
Film Enthusiast

  1. Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo (Sergio Leone, 1966)

  2. C'era una Volta Il West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

  3. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)

  4. Per Qualche Dollaro in Più (Sergio Leone, 1965)

  5. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)



William Keisling
Novelist

  1. Shane (George Stevens, 1953)

  2. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

  3. Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969)

  4. Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)

  5. Horse (Andy Warhol, 1965)



Kevin LaForest
Film Critic, Montreal Film Journal

  1. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1958)

  2. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)

  3. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992)

  4. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)

  5. One Eyed Jacks (Marlon Brando, 1961)



Jerry Johnson
Film Enthusiast

  1. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (Peckinpah, 1974)

  2. My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)

  3. Vera Cruz (Robert Aldrich, 1954)

  4. Commanche Station (Budd Boetticher, 1960)

  5. Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann, 1950)



Ben Dalton
Lover of Film

  1. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)

  2. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)

  3. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

  4. Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)

  5. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)



Jesse Walker
Film Enthusiast and Managing Editor, Reason Magazine

  1. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)

  2. My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)

  3. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)

  4. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)

  5. The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, 1976)

Ten honorable mentions (listed alphabetically): Deadwood (various directors, 2004-2006), Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 1939), Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954), The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdonavich, 1971), Living in Harmony (David Tomblin, 1968) - episode of The Prisoner, McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1970), The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann, 1953), Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948), Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992), Warlock (Edward Dmytryk, 1959).

Lifetime achievement award: Mel Blanc, for his performances as America's greatest cowboy hero, Yosemite Sam.


Rich Cline
Film Critic and Creator of Shadows on the Wall.

  1. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948)

  2. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

  3. High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952)

  4. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)

  5. Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, 1974)



Dennis Schwartz
Film Critic Ozu's World Movie Reviews

  1. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

  2. Wichita (Jacques Tourneur, 1955)

  3. Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)

  4. McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)

  5. Ride the High Country (Sam Peckinpah, 1962)



Eric Enders
Film Critic, Out There in the Dark

  1. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

  2. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)

  3. Lone Star (John Sayles, 1996)

  4. Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)

  5. Dances With Wolves (Kevin Costner, 1990)



Kostas Papadimitriou
Film Enthusiast

  1. The Unforgiven (John Huston, 1960)

  2. High Plains Drifter (Clint Eastwood, 1973)

  3. Giu la testa! (Sergio Leone, 1971)

  4. Cheyenne Autumn (John Ford, 1964)

  5. Vera Cruz (Robert Aldrich, 1954)

Runners up: Tears of the Black Tiger (Wisit Sasanatieng, 2000), Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969), Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959), Buffalo Bill & the Indians (Robert Altman, 1976), Hombre (Martin Ritt, 1967).


T.J. Krell
Film Enthusiast


  1. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007)

  2. No Country for Old Men (Coen Bros, 2007)

  3. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)



Matthew Griffiths
Film Enthusiast

  1. I am Sartana your Angel of Death (G. Carnimeo, 1969)

  2. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

  3. Death Rides a Horse (Giulio Petroni, 1968)

  4. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

  5. Four of the Apocalypse (Lucio Fulci, 1975)



Le Hinton
Jazz Aficionado & Film Enthusiast

  1. The Magnificant Seven (John Sturges, 1960)

  2. High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952)

  3. Silverado (Lawrence Kasdan, 1985)

  4. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)

  5. Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939)



Ricardo Luis Alvarez
Film Enthusiast

  1. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)

  2. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992)

  3. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)

  4. High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952)

  5. Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1995)



Kevyn Knox
Film Critic, Essayist + Historian

Allowing just one film per director (sorry John Ford):

  1. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

  2. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)

  3. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)

  4. High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952)

  5. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)

Top 6: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)

Runners-Up (chronologically):
The Great Train Robbery (Porter, 1903), Iron Horse (Ford, 1924), Stagecoach (Ford, 1939), Destry Rides Again (Marshall, 1939), Forty Guns (Fuller, 1957), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Ford, 1962), Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone, 1968), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Altman, 1971), Buffalo Bill & the Indians (Altman, 1976), Heaven's Gate (Cimino, 1980), Pale Rider (Clint Eastwood, 1985), Dead Man (Jarmusch, 1995).

Films that may or may not be Westerns, but still deserve mention:
High Sierra (Walsh, 1941), Easy Rider (Hopper, 1969), Days of Heaven (Malick, 1978), Brokeback Mountain (Lee, 2005), No Country for Old Men (Coens, 2007).

...and very special mention to: Seven Samurai (Kurosawa, 1954)

*points are given as follows: for numbered lists, first place recieves 5 points, second place recieves 4, third place 3, fourth place 2 and fifth place gets 1 point; for unumbered lists, each film will recieve 3 points; total points are then tallied up and a comprehensive Top 5 list is created


The Next Topic is:
Name The Top 5
Films of the 1980's

e-mail me at kevynknox@thecinematheque.com with your picks for week #41,
no later than 6pm on Sunday, June 29, 2008.

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