The greatest oaters according to critics, filmmakers, and…
As dedicated readers will know, Jeff Arnold didn’t particularly go for ‘best-of’ or ‘favourites’ lists until the very end. If you haven’t already, please check out his nephew’s lovely tribute to Jeff, which includes the list Jeff shared with him at his request: a top 10 hastily followed by a further 7. For convenience, we have listed this ‘top 17’ at the bottom of this post.
Jeff’s reason for mostly avoiding lists might well have been because the internet is awash with ‘top tens’, ‘best-ofs’, ‘must-sees’, ‘must-haves’ and ‘must-dos’ – of movies, books, cocktails, holiday destinations, you name it. Unlike Jeff’s final list, they are often of dubious reliability nowadays, many of them no doubt generated by AI. However, a thought-through list by a human expert is a different matter. It can jog memories, provoke thought and debate, make you want to watch a film again, or seek out one that you’ve missed.
Which brings us to the reason for this post: our having recently acquired a cheap, used, and faded copy of an obscure but rather excellent little book from 1994, which is chock full of just this sort of stuff. The Variety Book of Movie Lists, contains hundreds of lists, for different genres, themes and crafts, from multiple contributors sourced by editor Fred Lombardi: numerous critics and academics, and more than a few filmmakers and actors. And it includes a short section on Westerns containing nine intriguing lists from five discerning critics of our noble genre and, joy of joys, four of its legendary exponents: none other than directors Budd Boetticher, Monte Hellman, and Fred Zinnemann and actor Kirk Douglas.
We thought it would be fun to compile these lists into a post, and use the post as a prompt for readers’ debate, and maybe, hopefully their own lists, in the replies below.
Ready? Then saddle up:
First up, editor Fred Lombardi contributes his own chronologically listed selection:
Johnny Guitar
The Searchers
Run of the Arrow
Forty Guns
Man of the West
Warlock
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Ride the High Country
Once Upon a Time in the West
McCabe and Mrs Miller
Ulzana’s Raid
Many solid titles that will have heads nodding, and a few that will spark debate. It’s perhaps curious that this list starts as late as 1954.
The remaining lists are organised alphabetically by contributor, which means Budd Boetticher comes next. He goes with the following, starting with his favourite and listing the rest ‘in no particular order’:
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Red River
The Wild Bunch
Seven Men from Now
High Noon
Shane
Rio Bravo
Kirk Douglas rides in with a list of just two films:
Gunfight at the OK Corral
Shane
William K Everson, a distinguished film historian, supplies a very individual selection reflecting his expertise in silent and early sound cinema:
The Big Trail
Three Bad Men
Hell’s Hinges
The Indian Massacre
Law and Order
Ride the High Country
The Gunfighter
Wagon Master
Broken Arrow
And as a bonus Everson adds two 1930s B-movies:
Mystery Ranch
Thunder Trail
Monte Hellman
is our next director-contributor, and his list makes clear he’s a knowledgeable afficionado of our noble genre:
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Virginian
Ride the High Country
My Darling Clementine
The Gunfighter
Stagecoach
The Lone Ranger [serial]
The Shootist
Lonely are the Brave
Unforgiven
The Westerner
The Ox-Bow Incident
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Bad Day at Black Rock
Rio Bravo
Jesse James
Critic Phil Hardy, whose Westerns encyclopaedia has been praised by Jeff, shares these choices, including two double-bills:
The Searchers
Ride Lonesome; and, Comanche Station
Rancho Notorious
Bend of the River
Ride in the Whirlwind; and, The Shooting
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Fury at Showdown
Ride the High Country
Johnny Guitar
Stagecoach
Unforgiven
Our next list-maker, the then-editor of Film Comment, Richard T Jameson, divides his scholarly selection into two chronological lists:
1929 – 61
Law and Order
Stagecoach
My Darling Clementine
Red River
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Winchester ‘73
The Gunfighter
Wagon Master
Little Big Horn
Shane
The Naked Spur
Seven Men from Now
The Searchers
The Tall T
1962 – present (keeping in mind ‘the present’ was 1994)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Ride the High Country
Once Upon a Time in the West
The Wild Bunch
True Grit
McCabe and Mrs Miller
Ulzana’s Raid
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Unforgiven
Andrew Sarris, a critic known for championing in America the originally French idea (of which Jeff was *very* skeptical) of directors as ‘auteurs’ gives us this list of films, all by directors with distinct styles and points of view:
The Searchers
Red River
Once Upon a Time in the West
Bend of the River
Man of the West
Ride the High Country
Comanche Station
Seven Men from Now
Unforgiven
Forty Guns
And finally, a selection by Fred Zinnemann, director of Jeff’s beloved High Noon but also of Jeff’s reviled Oklahoma! (which he could have used to vindicate his ‘auteur-skeptic’ position):
My Darling Clementine
Stagecoach
The Ox-Bow Incident
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The Gunfighter
Bad Day at Black Rock
The Wild Bunch
Gunfight at the OK Corral
Unforgiven
The Magnificent Seven
Some of these contributors provide brief comments on their selections in the book. It is well worth seeking out, especially if your movie tastes extend beyond our noble genre. Hours of fun await.
Last but very much not least, here is the list from our own Jeff Arnold, reprinted for your convenience:
High Noon
The Searchers
The Gunfighter
Shane
The Wild Bunch
Ride The High Country
The Tall T
Unforgiven
The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre
The Magnificent Seven
Red River
Fort Apache
Go West
Silverado
Canyon Passage
Dawn At Socorro
Hondo
Lots to get one’s teeth into, e-pards! We (your hosts, RR and Bud) will share our own lists of favourites below and look forward to yours and/or to your thoughts on any and all of the lists above. Let the (robust but respectful) debates begin!