If it is, I think There Will Be Blood ought to be in there too.

I'd actually like to work on a draft myself, see if we can get anything less whack than what's up here now...

EDIT: okay, I ranked all the films I've seen that count as westerns (no Treasure or TWBB, and I wasn't sure whether The Horse Soldiers counts as a western or as a war movie...). There are quite a few films that are lacking, but that means that I haven't yet seen 'em... I tried to remain objective, but I didn't really think of all the criteria all the time. So there's probably some favouritism in the placements. Anyway, here it is:

1. Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939)
2. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
3. High Noon (Fred Zinneman, 1952)
4. Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)
5. The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter, 1903)
6. Shane (George Stevens, 1953)
7. The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)
8. The Iron Horse (John Ford, 1924)
9. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992)
10. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)
11. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1958)
12. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill, 1969)
13. Dances With Wolves (Kevin Costner, 1990)
14. My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)
15. Winchester ’73 (Anthony Mann, 1950)
16. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)
17. Once Upon A Time In The West (Sergio Leone, 1968)
18. Ride Lonesome (Budd Boetticher, 1959)
19. High Plains Drifter (Clint Eastwood, 1973)
20. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)
21. Little Big Mann (Arthur Penn, 1970)
22. The Magnificent Seven (John Sturges, 1960)
23. A Fistful Of Dollars (Sergio Leone, 1963)
24. Bad Day At Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955)
25. The Ox-bow Incident (William Wellman, 1943)
26. Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 1939)
27. Lonely Are The Brave (David Miller, 1962)
28. The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, 1976)
29. Fort Apache (John Ford, 1948)
30. True Grit (Henry Hathaway, 1969)
31. 3 Bad Men (John Ford, 1926)
32. Death Rides A Horse (Giulio Petroni, 1967)
33. The Man From Laramie (Anthony Mann, 1955)
34. Seven Men From Now (Budd Boetticher, 1956)
35. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)
36. Hud (Martin Ritt, 1963)
37. Pale Rider (Clint Eastwood, 1985)
38. For A Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone, 1964)
39. Bend Of The River (Anthony Mann, 1952)
40. Open Range (Kevin Costner, 2003)
41. The Misfits (John Huston, 1960)
42. River Of No Return (Otto Preminger, 1954)
43. Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, 1974)
44. The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007)
45. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (John Ford, 1949)
46. Man Of The West (Anthony Mann, 1958)
47. The Proposition (John Hillcoat, 2005)
48. The Tall T (Budd Boetticher, 1957)
49. I Shot Jesse James (Samuel Fuller, 1949)
50. Commanche Station (Budd Boetticher, 1960)
51. The Far Country (Anthony Mann, 1954)
52. Gunfight At The O.K. Corral (John Sturges, 1957)
53. Wagon Master (John Ford, 1950)
54. Pursued (Raoul Walsh, 1947)
55. How The West Was Won (John Ford, Henry Hathaway, George Marshall & Richard Thorpe, 1962)
56. The Professionals (Richard Brooks, 1966)
57. Buchanan Rides Alone (Budd Boetticher, 1958)
58. El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowski, 1970)
59. The Outlaw (Howard Hughes, 1943)
60. Forty Guns (Samuel Fuller, 1957)
61. Decision At Sundown (Budd Boetticher, 1957)
62. The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann, 1953)
63. The Big Gundown (Sergio Sollima, 1966)
64. Rancho Notorious (Fritz Lang, 1952)
65. 3:10 To Yuma (James Mangold, 2007)
66. Westbound (Budd Boetticher, 1959)
67. Rango (Gore Verbisnki, 2011)
68. The Man From The Alamo (Budd Boetticher, 1953)
69. True Grit (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2010)
70. Appaloosa (Ed Harris, 2008)

If any of the directors/years are listed wrongly or if I listed a film twice, please let me know...

Does "No Country for Old Men" count?

If it were up to me, I'd say no. I never thought it really had western qualities, except for the landscape photography and Llewelyn Moss's outfit. Even as a modern western I don't think it should count. If NCFOM's eligible, then Blood Simple, Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia, Fargo and many other films that place their story in wide open spaces.

Also, movies that are not crime/gunplay related films but have elements of a western in them, like Treasure Of The Sierra Madre and There Will Be Blood and such should then also be on there. I don't think that should be the case, personally (although I myself consider TWBB a western).

As far as modern westerns or post westerns go, I should think it should remain with Hud, Lonely Are The Brave, Bad Day At Black Rock and The Misfits. Outside of BDABR these are all true laments to the western; films that stylistically and thematically show the "out with the old, in with the new"; the substitution of dying traditional values of the west for a newer generation that lacks the integrity of and love for the old ways.

No Country for Old Men is a pastiche, rather than any one given genre. There are western elements, but also film noir elements, thriller elements, etc.

Can someone PM me the link to the old forums so I can get back all the work I've already done on this list?

EDIT: Thank you, fearoftrains!

"We're after men, and I wish to God I was with them." Robert Ryan as Deke Thornton

"So you're Jack Wilson."
"What's that mean to you, Shane?"
"I've heard about you."
"What have you heard, Shane?"
"I've heard that you're a low-down Yankee liar."
"Prove it."

could you forward that to me pls?

Should Stagecoach really be above High Noon? I mean as good as it is, I feel like High Noon is practically the archetypal Western.

Yeah, but Stagecoach was waaay more influential, not only in westerns, but in cinema in general. It is also one of the first instances where a western doesn't merely tell us a tale of the old west, but actually offers a timeless critique on social class systems everywhere. I personally think it should be #1, but we'll see what ClashWho has to say about it. Either way, the list on page 1 is horseshit... Stagecoach at #8? For real?

http://digitaldreamdoor.com/forum1/view ... hp?t=15024

Can you log in?

hey thanks!

I would think The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly would be a shoo-in for #1, that's just me. And for it's purely unique and completely original approach Dead Man should get a little more recognition, in fact it's my personal favorite American western. If you're gonna go with the classic American western, I'd say the coolest is The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

I'd say High Noon. It's essentially THE stereotypical Western. As in whenever someone wants to reference that specific style, the standoff scene is pretty much always referenced.

Meek's Cutoff should probably be in there or something.