| The 10 Essential Westerns
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 | By
Al Weisel
CDNOW Senior Editor, Movies
If jazz is the most uniquely American music genre, in
movies, it's the Western. That's not to say there haven't been
great Westerns made in other countries. The "spaghetti
Westerns" of Italian director Sergio Leone revived the genre
in the '60s, and even China has made eastern Westerns. Usually
set during the 19th century when the United States was
settling the frontier, Westerns have explored a number of
themes particularly important to the American consciousness --
violence, racism, the role of the individual versus society,
and the nature of justice, among others.
While early Westerns were often morality plays where the
good guys wore white and the bad guys wore black, by the 1950s
as McCarthyism and the Civil Rights movement made Americans
question their values, Westerns, too, began exploring shades
of gray. Without a doubt the greatest director of Westerns was
John Ford, and one can trace the evolution of the genre from
such early films as Stagecoach, which originated a
formula Westerns were to follow for years to come, to The
Searchers, which began to question some of the values the
genre had taken for granted, such as the treatment of Indians,
to his mea culpa, 1964's Cheyenne
Autumn, which took the Indians' side. Indeed, a number
of his other films could have made this list, including My
Darling Clementine, She
Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and The
Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. But other great
directors have also done some of their best work in the genre,
including Howard Hawks, George Stevens, and Sam Peckinpah
(The
Wild Bunch).
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| 1. Shane (1953) |
 As
Shane, Alan Ladd is the iconic Western hero with a twist in
this George Stevens film set in Jackson Hole, Wyo., with the
majestic Grand Tetons looming in the distance. A mysterious
stranger with a shady past who reluctantly takes up arms to
defend homesteaders against cattle ranchers trying to drive
them off their land, Shane is a tragic figure who embodies
both the heroic and antiheroic aspects of the West. And the
finale is one of the most moving codas in the history of
cinema.
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| 2. Once Upon a Time in the West
(1968) |
 In
the 1960s Italian director Sergio Leone gave a European spin
to the most American of genres in his famed series of
so-called spaghetti Westerns. But this Vietnam-era film is Leone's masterpiece. From its shocking introduction of Henry Fonda as an amoral, blue-eyed villain to its evocative Ennio Morricone score to the stunning revelation at the conclusion it's also one of the best Westerns ever made.
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| 3. High Noon (1952) |
 Written by blacklisted screenwriter Carl Forman,
High Noon is a call to good men to stand up against
evil in difficult times. Ironically, the film stars Gary
Cooper, who testified as a friendly witness to the House
Un-American Activities Committee, as a sheriff who finds
himself confronting the bad guys alone while the rest of the
town cowers in fear. The suspense builds as movie unfolds in
real time, ending with perhaps the greatest shoot-out ever
filmed.
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| 4. The Searchers (1956) |
 This John Ford Western influenced a whole generation
of filmmakers. John Wayne stars as Ethan Edwards, a man who
spends years searching for his niece who was kidnapped by
Comanche Indians. But unlike the typical Wayne hero of so many
Ford Westerns, Edwards is a complex, enigmatic figure. As he
grows more and more obsessive in his search, his motives
become less and less clear. Is he merely out for revenge? Is
he a racist? If he finds his niece, will he embrace her and
welcome her home or kill her for being tainted by living with
another race?
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| 5. Ox-Bow Incident (1943) |
 Directed by William Wellman and starring Henry Fonda,
The Ox-Bow Incident is a penetrating look at a lynch
mob. When a farmer is killed, townspeople set upon some
innocent drifters and are determined to hang them for a crime
they didn't commit. This harrowing film is a cautionary tale
about what happens when the mob rules and justice falls by the
wayside.
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| 6. Red River (1948) |
 Montgomery Clift (in his first film) faces off with an
uncharacteristically unsympathetic John Wayne in this exciting
Howard Hawks Western. Clift plays the adopted son of Wayne,
and the two become rival cattle ranchers engaged in an Oedipal
battle. The film, which is about the struggle between two
generations both on and off the screen, also features a
rousing Dmitri Tiomkin score and sumptuous black-and-white
photography by Russell Harlan.
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| 7. Stagecoach (1939) |
 This John Ford film was not the first Western, but it
was perhaps the first great Western. Starring John Wayne as
the outlaw The Ringo Kid fleeing the law on a stagecoach after
breaking out of jail, the film created the blueprint followed
by Westerns for years afterward. The passengers are all
archetypes -- the fallen woman who wants to be good, the
philosophizing drunk, the wily card sharp -- and the film is
full of what would become Western plot staples -- chases,
shoot-outs, and Indian battles.
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| 8. Winchester '73 (1950) |
 James Stewart plays against type in this iconoclastic
Anthony Mann Western about a sharpshooter searching for a
stolen rifle he won in a contest. The aw-shucks manner we
usually associate with Stewart is nowhere to be seen in his
brittle performance of a man seething with anger. Mann's film
modernized and reinvigorated the genre, and he and Stewart
teamed up for several more classic Westerns, including The
Naked Spur and The
Far Country.
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| 9. Lonesome Dove (1989) |
 This sprawling six-hour miniseries stars Robert Duvall
in his greatest role as Gus McRae, a Texas ranger getting on
in years. He and his best friend Woodrow Call (Tommy Lee
Jones) set out on one last cattle drive from the Texas plains
to the Badlands of Montana. Written by Larry McMurtry, the
film is an epic tribute to all the Westerns that came before
it, especially the work of John Ford.
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| 10. The Unforgiven (1992) |
 Clint Eastwood returned to the genre that made him a
star to take a cold, hard look at its underlying morality.
The Unforgiven, which won an Oscar for best picture,
stars Eastwood (who also directed) as a reformed killer who
comes out of retirement to kill one more time to make some
money for his family. Along the way Eastwood dissects the
violence, racism, and machismo that has unfortunately informed
so many Westerns.
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