CRAIG'S TOP 10 GENRE SERIES - WESTERN

“Westerns are the major defining genre of the American film industry, a nostalgic eulogy to the early days of the expansive, untamed American frontier. They are one of the oldest, most enduring and flexible genres and one of the most characteristically American genres in their mythic origins.”

#1. HIGH NOON - 1952

Director: Fred Zinnermann

Starring: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Lloyd Bridges

#2. THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY - 1966

 Director: Sergio Leone

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach

#3. STAGECOACH - 1939

 Director: John Ford

Starring: John Wayne, Andy Devine, Thomas Mitchell

#4. ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST - 1968

 Director: Sergio Leone

Starring: Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale

#5. UNFORGIVEN - 1992

 Director: Clint Eastwood

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman

#6. SHANE - 1953

Director: George Stevens

Starring: Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin

#7. THE SEARCHERS - 1956

 Director: John Ford

Starring: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Natalie Wood

#8. TRUE GRIT - 1969

Director: Henry Hathaway

Starring: John Wayne, Glen Campbell, Kim Darby, Robert Duvall

#9. BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID - 1969

 Director: George Roy Hill

Starring: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katherine Ross

#10. THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN - 1960

 Director: John Sturges

Starring: Steve McQueen, Yul Brynner, Charles Bronson

Howdy partners, my final list of this genre series ends with the Western category which itself was hard to churn out a solid group of films but I got there in the end. High Noon just clinched this ahead of Good, Bad....which was a hard choice to make but it had to be done. In fact 3rd place was even harder to predict but I just felt Stagecoach was the better film, but this is still an impeccable list though plenty of these films will get several re-views anyway.


It's been a pleasure presenting my Top 10 Genre series and now I hope to finally piece together my Top 100 Heroes AND Villains lists which I expect will get a lot of opinions. Speak to you all soon!