Top Ten Western

The AFI list for the top ten Westerns:



1. The Searchers
2. High Noon
3. Shane
4. Unforgiven
5. Red River
6. The Wild Bunch
7. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid
8. McCabe and Mrs. Miller
9. Stagecoach
10. Cat Ballou

This is the category I feel I know the most about. There was a time when I only watched Westerns to the point that I couldn't remember a movie in any other genre. So I will put my own "top ten" down for a little comparison.

1. The Searchers
2. Shane
3. Red River
4. High Noon
5. Stagecoach
6. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (okay, it's Italian)
7. Tombstone
8. Destry Rides Again
9. Hombre
10. Rio Bravo

I suppose Unforgiven would just miss that list but there are many others I like which are deserving of mention- Little Big Man, Winchester '73, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, My Darling Clementine, Along Came Jones, 3:10 to Yuma (both versions), Fort Apache, Open Range, and Will Penny to name a few.

I do appreciate Butch and Sundance as a great film and Altman's artsy western McCabe and Mrs. Miller but I never really got the hype of The Wild Bunch. It was violent for it's day is all I get from it, not that it's a bad movie, I just wouldn't consider it top ten. I also can't figure out how a western comedy like Cat Ballou is better than some of John Ford's films I listed above...and I didn't include Rio Grande, or She Wore A Yellow Ribbon or 3 Godfathers. But I guess since The Searchers and Stagecoach made the list that was enough John Ford....Nonsense!
These are Westerns!