But, for my taste, Shane doesn’t belong to the list, and between Stagecoach and Pursued the list could even be more selective (in case 31 is still the maximum of films allowed).
Moreover, I am missing a movie like Flaming Star or some Delmer Daves film (say The Last Wagon or White Feather, written by him) that reflects the topic of racial/social conflict seriously, in addition to The Searchers and Hombre. Rio Conchos and The Professionals are two more essential movies in my eyes.
Last but not least, is it legitimate to ignore Cheyenne Autumn?
Well, darn, as a German I have to throw in Harald Reinl’s Der Schatz im Silbersee, because it started the huge success of the Winnetou movies and ignited the European Western craze that culminated in the Spaghetti Western.
Yes, definitely.
A lesser film for both, the director and the Indian-Westerns sub-genre.
I think that the Last Wagon and even more White Feather are also not that important, I would chose a lot of other westerns which deal with similar themes before these 2.
The Professionals is surely one I would include if I had to expand this basic list with a few more films. And is better than some of the films included, especially so much better than Mag 7.
Well, actually it could replace Mag 7.
Rio Conchos is another one I like very much, but there’s nothing in it which is not represented by some other more famous films.
And Shane, well, it is, despite some sentimentality, a special film, and an influential one, even for the depiction of screen violence, but for a list reduced to 31 westerns I would skip Shane and keep High Noon.
I was thinking about including it because it shifts the point of view the story is told from to the “Indians“, or at least, widens the usual perspective more than any other Western movie before. Thus I consider it in a line with the Aldrich’s Apache (1954), the movies of Delmer Daves, Siegel’s Flaming Star and the later I Will Fight No More Forever (TV, Heffron, 1975) and Dances with Wolves (Costner, 1990).
I agree that it’s one of Ford’s weakest films, quite lengthy and far from entertaining.
Rio Conchos is one of my favorites. In my eyes it foreshadows the Spaghetti Western: the rollercoaster story, mean and dirty characters throughout, the wildness …
Of course, but for that it is only part of a series of several other westerns, which led on one hand to the SWs, and on the other hand to the dirty anti-heroic US westerns of the 70s.
But you named already a few (Apache, Flaming Star) which did that, and got in that respect further than Cheyenne Autumn. Or even earlier Devil’s Doorway (1950), a quite pessimistic film about the vanishing Americans.
Cheyenne Autumn was from the beginning on criticised for doing not enough and doing this “not enough” too late. Too many interesting Indian westerns were shot since Broken Arrow (1950) and I think Ford had dealed more convincing with these themes in Fort Apache and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. But of course then not from the Indian’s point of view.
Thanks for the input everyone, it was definitely helpful. I when ahead and started making the videos. Here’s the playlist in case anyone is interested in keeping up with it.
Wow that looks nice. I would add “The Man From Laramie” that would represent detective western and maybe “High Plain Drifter” for mystery western. Hard to pick but there def. should be 80s western “Silverado” on the list and maybe even “Pale Rider” which is somewhat a missing link to the Unforgiven.