Now I have tried (but the exact order after the 8 first is not scientifically proved) to pinpoint the exact order of my current Top 20 SW.
Edit : revised once more June 10 Ramon The Mexican got even better in the 3rd view. Apologizes to statisticans…
1 For A Few Dollars More
2 Once Upon A Time In The West
3 A Fistful Of Dollars
4 The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
5 The Big Gundown
6 Django Kill If You Live Shoot
7 Cemetery Without Crosses
8 My Name Is Nobody
9 Death Rides A Horse
10 Day Of Anger
11 The Grand Duel
12 Sabata
13 Requiem For Gringo
14 The Forgotten Pistolero
15 Ramon The Mexican
16 Django
17 The Return Of Ringo
18 Anda Muchacho Spara
19 Johnny Hamlet
20 Requiescant
Bandidos is one of the handfull of SW that I after reviews and forum reading decided to first watch on Youtube some time ago in the search for another 7 or more out of 10. Typical for these is that there are some enthusiasts but also some more negative. I think generally it is rather difficult for a given SW to become a Top 20 for an aficionado who already has watched and chosen many personal favorite SWs rather carefully by first watching the more well known SWs including the nearly(?) “obligatory” first 4 Leone SWs which often are well known for a relative beginner, and then studying reviews, forum threads etc.
I found, but just after one Youtube watching, that Bandidos was not that particularly interesting regarding my taste of how a SW should appear in all respects. It seemed good or OK, but more like a typical 6 out of 10 than a 7. But I may give it another try later, as with some others.
The different tastes between aficionados makes it hard to pick out another single Top 20 qualifying SW which replaces one of the existing on that list, just by reading about promising candidates even if you perform this process thoroughly as I do.
Thus there is a rather high probability that the most well known and mentioned SWs to a higher degree first become selected for the majority of aficionados Top 20, and that is probably rather well motivated.
In my (short) experience and belief there probably are a lot of SWs not watched by me that I would categorize as 6 out of 10, but that many others consider some of them higher (or lower).
My own Top20 (only with 7 out of 10 or higher) after one year of picking definitely have some SW which probably many other aficionados don’t like as much especially regarding the 7 out of 10 rated.
My personal special taste dictates that the rather extreme and by me 8 out of 10 rated Django Kill and Cemetery Without Crosses are very highly ranked (no 6 and 7) among the nearly “predestinated” Leone and Lee Van Cleef classics or at least rather well known SWs. My Name Is Nobody too even if it is a comedy SW.
All my 7 out 10 (no 13 to 20 on my Top 20) rated are probably typical SWs that many other would rate as 6 (or even lower) out of 10. And in this category the “competition” is so high probably for most aficionados Top lists since I presume there are dozens of SWs that by many are rated as a 6 and by others more seldom 7 out of 10.
Therefore many of these do not reach the average Top20, even if some or even many (in absolute numbers) aficionados have them there.
This was just some reasoning about some maybe relevant obvious circumstances
I see what you mean, and of course - every movie is not everyones plate of pasta… But what I don’t see is why Bandidos is not more appreciated, and included on more peoples list. I think that it has to do with lack of a proper release. If Arrow or Koch gave it the treatment it deserves I think more people would start to appreciate it. Just look how Sartana grew to new heights in the lists after the Arrow box. I just think that this movie is one of few to come close to the great director job of Leone, with also a fantastic plot and acting.
“. I just think that this movie is one of few to come close to the great director job of Leone, with also a fantastic plot and acting.”
I didn’t see that the first time I watched it (and having read such comments here) but I am no film expert and the Youtube copy of Bandidos could have reduced my impression in an unfair way. Since there are SO many SWs and a Top 20 list only can represent some 3-4 % of all or so many could be “underrated” and forgotten, not found etc.
For me Bandidos is a nice little Spag, but doesn’t come even close to Leone. I gave it a 6/10, and currently there are at least 50 other Spags which are better, which are more fun too watch.
The Sartanas btw did not get really a boost by the Arrow release, mainly because they were always well known amongst the SW fans. In 2008 for example If you Meet was also on #21. Light the fuse was on #28 (currently on # 30), Angel of Death on #37 (now on 69) and Have a Good Funeral on # 39 (now on #68). Interestingly in Jan 2017 they ranked by coincidence exactly the same as now.
But Runner, I assume you will find also amongst those which are ranked not that high in the forum’s list a few which will be much better for you than expected. El puro is a good example for a rather unknown Spag (outside the SW community), which is held in high regard by many here on this board, and as you like Django Kill and Cemetery without Crosses, there is a good chance that El puro could make a future top 20 of you.
I thought I started to watch El Puro on Youtube last year but gave up, but I understand now it was another (much more bizarre?) El Topo . But I think I have read something about El Puro also before, and should give it a chance.
Correction, I remember now that there was no complete video on Youtube of El Topo, so I didn’t actually give up but was unable to watch more than some short parts of it. It seemed a bit loco - and very strange compared to Django Kill which could be defined as RELATIVELY mainstream …
For A Few Dollars More
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Once Upon A Time in The West
A Fistful of Dollars
My Name is Nobody
A Fistful of Dynamite
A Bullet For The General
Face To Face
Death Rides A Horse
The Great Silence
The Big Gundown
Tepepa
Compañeros
The Mercenary
Matalo!
Cut Throats Nine
The Grand Duel
The Return of Ringo
Four of the Apocalypse
Keoma
I just downloaded the youtube video of Bandidos that VanEyck posted. I’ll correct the aspect ratio and finally get to watch it. I suspect it may knock something out of my top 20.
What baffles me is the high standing of both Django and Django Kill. They both suffer the familiar curse of wooden, uninteresting performances, clichéd and/or incoherent scripts and inept direction. Django Kill isn’t even redeemed by a decent score, in my opinion. Day of Anger is also a bit overrated I think. Good in parts but also, as someone mentioned here recently, slightly cringe-worthy.
Okay. Haven’t done one of these in almost three years and I doubt I’ll be doing much more than stirring a couple of names around slightly, but still.
My old list from August 2016:
And my new list:
Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (The Good, the Bad & the Ugly) (Sergio Leone, 1966)
Per qualche dollaro in più (For a Few Dollars More) (Sergio Leone, 1965)
La resa dei conti (The Big Gundown) (Sergio Sollima, 1966)
Requiescant (Kill and Pray) (Carlo Lizzani, 1967)
Se sei vivo spara (Django Kill… If You Live, Shoot!) (Giulio Questi, 1967)
Il grande silenzio (The Great Silence) (Sergio Corbucci, 1968)
I giorni dell’ira (Day of Anger) (Tonino Valerii, 1967)
Une corde, un colt (Cemetery Without Crosses) (Robert Hossein, 1969)
Réquiem para el gringo (Duel in the Eclipse) (José Luis Merino, 1968)
Da uomo a uomo (Death Rides a Horse) (Giulio Petroni, 1967)
Keoma (Enzo G. Castellari, 1976)
Mannaja (A Man Called Blade) (Sergio Martino, 1977)
La taglia è tua… l’uomo l’ammazzo io (El Puro) (Edoardo Mulargia, 1969)
Se incontri Sartana prega per la tua morte (If You Meet Sartana, Pray For Your Death) (Gianfranco Parolini, 1968)
Oggi a me… domani a te! (Today it’s Me… Tomorrow it’s You!) (Tonino Cervi, 1968)
Il Mercenario (The Mercenary) (Sergio Corbucci, 1968)
10.000 dollari per un massacro (10,000 Dollars For a Massacre) (Romolo Guerrieri, 1967)
Per un pugno di dollari (A Fistful of Dollars) (Sergio Leone, 1964)
Faccia a faccia (Face to Face) (Sergio Sollima, 1967)
Vamos a matar, compañeros (Companeros) (Sergio Corbucci, 1970)
So there we go. Django and The Forgotten Pistolero slide out, Today it’s Me… Tomorrow it’s You and Companeros slide in, the big winner is The Great Silence straight in at no.6 and the big loser is Death Sentence, crashing out of my twenty altogether from the lofty previous position of no.5.
So, I’m assuming that your “alternative” top 20 is in fact simply your favourites nos.21-40? That’s cool too, provided you’re aware that that’s not how our own Alternative Top 20 works, if you were planning on submitting yours to that list (and don’t worry; many of us - myself included - have made the mistake of thinking our alternative top 20 is just our favourites nos.21-40).
For the purposes of our official Alternative Top 20, your alternative Top 20 is basically your twenty favourite movies which do not appear in our Essential Top 20. So, based on what you’ve written there, your no.1 movie in your alternative list would be Bandidos, since it’s the highest-ranked movie on your list which doesn’t appear in our Essential Top 20 (it presently sits at no.35 on that list). See? In fact, assuming again that that’s basically your Top 40 there, your alternative Top 20 for the purposes of our own Alternative Top 20 list would look like this:
Ramon The Mexican got even better in the 3rd view. Apologizes to statisticans…
Sorry, JPL