The western genre, in a way, has always been an arena for exploring identity, image, tradition and morality. Throughout a hundred years of westerns, the genre has been tested, questioned and distorted. The blacks and whites of morality and justice were blended into shades of grey. Identities came into question. The films became more challenging.

Two very different and extraordinary new westerns are currently in theaters: 3:10 TO YUMA (trailer) and THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (trailer). Both films have outlaws who utilize their image, though they feel undeserving of it. Both films deal with tiring traditions and a twisted morality. Both films call into question the meanings of bravery and cowardice.

3:10 TO YUMA & ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES

For those who loved these films, I’d like to offer a list of ten (or thirteen) extraordinary and very unconventional westerns as a jumping point for anyone looking to expand their knowledge of the genre.

I’m not proclaiming these to be the “Top Ten” or “Ten Best” unconventional westerns. I haven’t seen Brando’s ONE-EYED JACKS, which I’m told would be on my list and I haven’t seen Fonda’s HIRED HAND which I really believe would make the list too. No, this is a list of ten great westerns that I loved and I think you will too.

JOHNNY GUITAR (1954)

    Dancin' Kid: I didn't get your name stranger.
    Johnny: Guitar. Johnny Guitar.
    Dancin' Kid: You call that a name?
    Johnny: Care to try and change it?

Nicholas Ray’s JOHNNY GUITAR is a lesbian western where the good guys wear black and the bad guys where white. It’s one of a kind. Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge have an awkward feud throughout the film said (for Hayes Code purposes) to be over their love of the same man. There’s been debate over whether they are lesbians but for my money McCambridge is clearly in love with Crawford and will do anything to destroy her.

Sterling “Purity-Of-Essence” Hayden is in top form as the drifter who carries a guitar instead of a gun because ‘he doesn’t want to find out he isn’t the fastest draw.’ Johnny does pick up a gun eventually and when he does, he shows he can play a completely different tune. I can’t even imagine what response this film received in 1954. It’s basically every other Western put through the looking glass.

RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND (1965)
THE SHOOTING (1967)

In 1965, Roger Corman sent director Monte Hellman to Utah for a month with Jack Nicholson and Millie Perkins to make a western. Hellman agreed and Corman said “well… while you’re there, you might as well make two.” Within one month, Monte Hellman made two brilliant westerns. I recommend watching them together.

RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND, written by Nicholson, is about three ranchers who are mistaken for outlaws. A posse chases them relentlessly, leading them to taking a family hostage for their own safety. Though we know they’ve done nothing wrong, we now see them both as the good guys falsely accused and as the bad guys holding people at gunpoint. The duality of their position is thoroughly and thoughtfully explored throughout the film. It’s Perkins’ performance that really involves us in the family’s innocence. The DVD includes a two page essay on the film written by Quentin Tarantino.

THE SHOOTING, written by Carol Eastman, was shot at the same time as WHIRLWIND but released two years later. This film is probably my favorite on this whole list. That being said, it certainly isn’t for everyone. It’s haunting, mysterious and existential. This is not what a western is supposed to be but what I wish more were like. Warren Oates stars as Willett Gashade, a man who seems to know a damn lot about trouble as he does his best to avoid it. Will Hutchins co-stars as a man who could stand to know a lot more and often walks right into it. Perkins does a 180-degree turn from the previous film and is now calculating yet petulant. Her blue eyes, so innocent in WHIRLWIND are dangerous and downright sexy in THE SHOOTING. She uses her sexuality to manipulate Hutchins into helping her. She’s got something on her mind. Oates thinks she’s out to kill someone. A hired gun, Nicholson at his meanest, shows up to join them on the hunt. The atmosphere of THE SHOOTING is hypnotic. It lures you in, gets you hooked and you find yourself having trouble even blinking for the last twenty minutes. The ending is one you’ll never forget.

(If you enjoy THE SHOOTING, you should watch Arthur Penn’s NIGHT MOVES with Gene Hackman, not a western, but a similar existential twist ending that you think about for days).

THE GREAT SILENCE (1968)
Il Grande Silenzio

    Pauline: Once, my husband told me of this man. He avenges our wrongs. And the bounty killers sure do tremble when he appears. They call him "Silence." Because wherever he goes, the silence of death follows.

What a unique and bizarre film this is. Italian master Sergio Corbucci directs this bleak tale of a mute gunslinger played by the brilliant Franco Nero out for revenge against a gang of corrupt bounty hunters headed by Klaus Kinski. This is a western in the snow with its share of bloodshed. I don’t want to say anything else about this film. There are tons of message board posts and user comments on IMDB (which you absolutely need to avoid for the sake of spoilers… don’t watch the Alex Cox interview on the DVD before watching either) labeling this film a ‘must-see’ or ‘the best non-Leone Spaghetti Western’. While I agree with the first claim, I simply can’t with the second. I couldn’t bear to watch it often as this film will drain the life out of you.

LITTLE BIG MAN (1970)
BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE (1970)

If you’ve seen these films, you know that they have almost no business being paired together.

Arthur Penn’s LITTLE BIG MAN stars Dustin Hoffman as a 121 year old “half-breed” Indian telling his life story. He details how he was able to drift back and forth between the Indians and the Whites and live amongst either culture without problem. He’s given so much credibility on each side that the outcome of the battle of Little Big Horn could be decided entirely by him.

Sam Peckinpah’s THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE stars Jason Robards as a man left to die in the desert who discovers a small water hole. He builds a house around the well and starts up a profitable stage coach stop. It’s like a movie about someone starting a Love’s Highway Truck Stop 120 years ago.

Both films are light and funny. Both are incredibly entertaining. Both are unlike any other westerns I’ve seen. I think the reason I’ve paired them is that they both give me the same feeling when I watch them. It’s like someone telling you a long story and you listen, knowing that he’s completely full of shit. Two historical tales that you almost wish were true.

(Anyone who’s watched the featurettes on the Magnolia DVD might like to know that the story Robards tells about acting with a scorpion in a Peckinpah film is a story about THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE)

FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE a.k.a. DUCK, YOU SUCKER! (1971)
Giù la Testa

    John slowly opens his coat to reveal he’s covered in sticks of dynamite.
    John: If you shoot me down, they’ll have to change all the maps.

FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE (trailer) is Sergio Leone’s worst western. Peter Bogdanovich, the film’s first director, walked off the set fearing failure. Bogdanovich was a big fan of classical westerns and he likely didn’t feel right making one so unique. He was right. This film would have ruined him. Leone took the helm despite it being the absolute worst way to follow-up his best feature.

What’s so unusual about this film? Rod Steiger plays a Mexican bandit ignoring his country’s revolution. James Coburn plays an Irishman who throws sticks of dynamite from his motorcycle like a newspaper boy. That’s right… dynamite. Oh… that’s right… a MOTORCYCLE! I don’t recall if there’s an explanation for a 1913 IRA bomber being involved with the revolution in Mexico… but if it is explained, it isn’t sufficient. Then there are the Mexican extras… occasionally played by BLONDE ITALIANS. This is just one of those films that you have to sit back, laugh and enjoy because once you get past its logistical loopholes… this film is downright badass!

    John: I used to believe in many things, all of it! Now, I believe only in dynamite.

HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (1973)

    Sheriff Dan Shaw: Well, I been needin' to talk with you; now's as good a time as any.
    The Stranger: What about?
    Sheriff Dan Shaw: Billy Borders.
    The Stranger: Don't know the man.
    Sheriff Dan Shaw: Well, you missed your chance; you shot him yesterday.

Clint Eastwood’s HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (trailer) kept showing up on different drafts of my list and I kept taking it off (because of an uncomfortable rape scene). This film does belong on this list, however. It’s something of a western ghost story. Three outlaws in jail for murdering the town’s sheriff said they’d burn the town to the ground upon their release. The town hires a creepy stranger to protect them (a move I recommend to anyone when you’re getting death threats). Eastwood has his own reasons for joining the cause but they’re never made completely clear. It’s weird and pretty violent as Eastwood turns a small western town into hell.

BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA (1974)

I’ve never suggested this film to anyone who wound up liking it. I guess that means that in this case I am wrong… but what a film to be wrong about.

Sam Peckinpah directs the rough-faced Warren Oates (here nine years older than in THE SHOOING) on a present-day journey to find Alfredo Garcia and bring back his head for a handsome reward. Oates finds Alfredo not far into the film… he’s already dead and buried. Oates digs up the body and severs the head and wraps it up to preserve it. As Oates drives, he talks to the head to keep him company (you may recall this idea from DEADWOOD). Roger Ebert noted that “[the head] gathers flies and symbolic meaning at about the same pace.” The journey to return the head is a rough one as Oates isn’t the only person who knows of the bounty.

Click here for trailer.

KEOMA (1976)

Enzo Castellari’s KEOMA (trailer) stars Franco Nero as the “half-breed” Keoma. Nero hated being dubbed in DJANGO. From that point forward, Nero insisted on speaking his own English so he always had excuses for his accent. In this film, he’s half Indian. In COMPAÑEROS, he’s a Swedish arms dealer. In THE GREAT SILENCE, he’s had his throat slit as a boy… so he doesn’t speak.

Keoma tries to encompass too much but that doesn’t stop it from being awesome. It’s a 100-minute homage to Peckinpah. There is so much slow-motion in this film, that it feels like it’s really only 80 minutes of footage. The music is bizarre and overbearing with lyrics that intrude on the story. The wind is a character of its own. I’m not asking you to look past any of this. When you see the film, you won’t want to.

This is the film on the list that you’d soonest watch twice.

RAVENOUS (1999)

    Ives: Morality. The last bastion of a coward.

In one quote, the film has already addressed two of its own themes… and it explores both with such complexity. When IS it okay to eat people?

Antonia Bird’s RAVENOUS (trailer) is a western in the snow, a dark comedy and a horror film in one. It revolves around a local cannibalistic legend that eating a man’s flesh gives you his power. This film is cold and wet yet mysterious, inviting and still a western at its core.

Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle give tremendous performances as a coward and the villain he must learn to defeat. The score, inspired by Morricone’s Cheyenne theme in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, can be initially off-putting but if you let it flow, it will charm you. The final battle, improvised by Pearce and Carlyle, is incredible.

THE PROPOSITION (2005)

THE PROPOSITION (trailer), directed by John Hillcoat and written by rocker Nick Cave, is a western set in 19th Century Australia. Guy Pearce plays an outlaw captured with his younger brother played by Richard Wilson. Pearce is turned loose and given nine days to find and kill his older brother or else they will execute his younger brother. Danny Huston (son of John Huston) gives the best performance of his career as the older brother. It’s eerie, tense, ugly and slow… in that good way.

* ”DEADWOOD”

    Al Swearengen: Pain or damage don't end the world. Or despair or fucking beatings. The world ends when you're dead. Until then, you got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man... and give some back.

This is my asterisk entry. David Milch’s “DEADWOOD” is probably the most important entry for any western fan. It is remarkable and detailed with relationships between characters treated as being so delicate that it’s easy for a conflict to wind itself tighter and tighter until something has to snap.

Each season, the show gives you a definition of evil and depravity and then each season shows you that you had no idea of the meaning of either concept. Sadly the show was canceled after the third season… but the tension at that point was so strong from week to week that I don’t think I could bear watching another season, it would destroy me.


AND SO…
I am sure that plenty will complain that I have not included this or that. Specifically in the case of Jodorowsky’s EL TOPO, but the trailer does declare that “El Topo is not a western”. So it will wait for another list because I will NEVER defy the trailer man.

If we’re lucky, ASSASSINATION, YUMA and the Christmas release THERE WILL BE BLOOD will lead to a string of new greats. There’s still a lot to be done in the western arena and I can’t wait to see it happen.