![]() It also tends to emphasize the grimier, more unpleasant aspects of life in the American West. Put simply, the revisionist Western steers away from, or plays against, formula, refusing to romanticize the Old West or depict it as a place with clear good guys and bad guys. )Īt the other end of the spectrum lies what back in the ’60s used to be called “the revisionist Western,” though its influence has so permeated the genre that it’s hard to tell where traditionalism ends and revisionism begins. Anyone new to the Western or just wanting to see a Hollywood Western in its most basic form executed at the highest possible level should start here. Flynn and de Havilland transport the chemistry of their swashbuckling adventures to the Old West, while Curtiz makes brilliant use of Technicolor and a big budget. The rest, as the saying goes, writes itself, but the film’s so entertaining that the familiarity of it all doesn’t matter. De Havilland plays the woman who loves him (eventually), and Bruce Cabot plays a lawless tough guy. Flynn plays a man compelled to clean up the lawless cattle town of Dodge City. Directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland - a team that had recently enjoyed great success with films like Captain Blood and The Adventures of Robin Hood - the film wants nothing more than to be a traditional Western on the grandest scale imaginable. Dodge City has no interest in subverting any of that. ![]() ![]() Some of the greatest Westerns ever made tweak the genre’s traditions and expectations - traditions and expectations created by countless films that like their good guys to wear white hats, their bad guys to be instantly identifiable villains, their saloons to play host to barroom brawls, and their climactic shoot-outs to be rousing. So with all that said, let’s kick it off with a trip to an especially rowdy Old Western town. This list is designed to double as a guide to the genre’s many different forms in the hopes it will send readers to corners they might not know and reconsider some classics they might not have seen before. Any of them could have been included, but not all of them have been. Anthony Mann and James Stewart made eight Westerns together. As such, not every John Ford film made the list. More, of course, than could possibly fit on a top-50 list interested in capturing the full scope of the genre. That, of course, still leaves a lot of great Westerns. (We did, however, make an exception for a certain comedy that concludes with its stars attending its own premiere.) That means no modern Westerns, no stealth Westerns starring aged X-Men, and no space Westerns with blasters instead of pistols. It’s been assembled, however, working from a fairly traditional definition of the Western: films set along the America frontier of the 19th and the first years of the 20th century. This list of the 50 greatest Westerns reflects that wide legacy from the very first entry, a film directed by a Hungarian and starring a Tasmanian. ![]() In Paul Greengrass’s recent film News of the World, for instance, Tom Hanks plays a traveling newsreader whose attempt to return a girl to her family doubles as a tour of a country whose divisions look like clear roots to some of our current national troubles. And while there are certain themes and elements that define the genre, it’s also proven to be flexible, capable of playing host to many different stories and an infinite variety of characters. A strand of violent, psychologically complex Westerns that appeared in the 1950s, for example, captures both changing attitudes toward the settlement of the West and the treatment of Native Americans while channeling the spirit of a country still recovering from a devastating World War. The Western is a vital genre with the habit of reinventing itself every few years that doubles as a way to talk about America’s history while reflecting on its present. Westerns thrived in the silent era, and though the genre’s popularity has ebbed and flowed ever since - largely fading from view in the ’80s but enjoy several resurgences in succeeding decades - it’s never threatened to fade away. The history of movie Westerns more or less begins with the end of the Old West itself. It’s probably safe to add the Western to that list, too, even if - like jazz and comics - the Western has roots around the globe and has since been adopted in many lands. ![]() Īmerica can only claim a few art forms as its own. This article was originally published in 2021 and has been updated to include The Power of the Dog. Photo-Illustration: Maya Robinson/Vulture and Photos Courtesy of Studios, Getty Images and Shutterstock ![]()
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